home heating oil in your tractor

[quicksandfarmer]

I'm in Rhode Island. When I call the oil company to fill my furnace tank the invoice says "diesel." The oil company has confirmed for me that the fuel oil and diesel they sell are the same product. You can use the red-dyed stuff in your tractor as long as you never drive it on a public road.

 

[atgreene]

In Maine, agricultural use of tractors exempts you from having to pày road tax on fuel, you can run red fuel. Im not sure, but I dont think they require taxed fuel in anything registered as tractor or equipment. Never seen it referenced in the law.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I'm in Rhode Island. When I call the oil company to fill my furnace tank the invoice says "diesel." The oil company has confirmed for me that the fuel oil and diesel they sell are the same product. You can use the red-dyed stuff in your tractor as long as you never drive it on a public road.

Farmers are allowed to run their tractors on the public roads when traversing between properties without paying road taxes. I don't know where you got the info that says you cant put your tractor on the road.

You may have an issue with your insurance on the road assuming you have insurance on your tractor. Most policies don't cover anything off your property unless you add a rider to your policy for off property use.

This discussion pops up at least once a month on use of #2 diesel, AKA home heating oil. It is the same product. Winter diesel is blended at the refinery with additional #1 diesel to help prevent gelling by thinning it somewhat. I have seen service station pumps with the option of adding fuel additives blended when you are fueling (for extra money of course) at the pump. Best bet if you are operating in below freezing temps is to add some anti-gel additive to each tank of fuel.
Fuel distributors aren't going to put expensive additives in your home delivery to prevent gelling, algae etc. That is up to the end user to supply what he deems the needed concoction.
Personally where I live I don't use any additives and never have any issues with gelling or algae growth. I filter my fuel when I pump it from my storage tank: Buy clean fuel and keep it clean and you wont have any issues. NOTE: It doesn't get cold enough here for gelling to occur so that isn't an issue.

 

[mikehaugen]

Personally where I live I don't use any additives and never have any issues with gelling or algae growth. I filter my fuel when I pump it from my storage tank: Buy clean fuel and keep it clean and you wont have any issues. NOTE: It doesn't get cold enough here for gelling to occur so that isn't an issue.

Don't you do anything for lubricity, or do you have newer equipment? I use power service, but only for the lubrication, as I have an older tractor (pre ulsd).

 

[CrosbyFamilyFarm]

Yeah, I get the impression that no matter what get's sent to you for fuel, a can of additives in the winter now and again isn't going to cost much and isn't going to do any harm so it's sort of a moot point. Perhaps I'm wrong, that's just my impression. I originally just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing something super foolish.

Also, I can only imagine the ridiculous cop who's going to pull over a tractor and check his fuel. That's going to be one **** of a you tube posting when it happens. Are there farm tractor inspectors that I've dodged all of these years? Has anyone here EVER had their fuel tank inspected?

 

[msknot]

My husband always took care of the tractor before he died. The first time I put fuel in it, I thought I had done the wrong thing, because it was clear. It always used to be red! My tractor is a 2003 NH TC30. I use the red fuel in it now, too. A plumber friend put a spigot on my oil tank so I don't have to use the skid tank if I don't want to.

 

[Larro Darro]

When I was growing up we heated with HHO, and always used it in the tractor. Even after our oil furnace bit the dust and we went to heating with wood, we bought HHO to use in the tractor. The only problem we had was water collecting in the bottom of the tank. But draining it off every couple of months took care of that. I don't remember putting any additives in. But my dad was a Longshoreman and he might have been bringing something home that he put in his cranes at work.

Larro

 

[Dan Hunter]

Ok, I will say it again. No fuel companies put any anti-gel or algicide in any fuel. I use several companies for my bulk fuel as well as have dealt with the local dpw fuel system. Due to the new fuel requirements of different manufacturers, no fuel dealers will add anything to the fuel. Its up to the consumer to add whatever is recommended for their specific engine by the manufacturer.

Diesel and heating oil is the same, I have never seen an injector or injector pump ruined by the type of oil, only by whether it was clean or not.

I enjoyed your insight on the first paragraph and the second one got me thinking. I own a 6.5 turbo diesel that was manufactured before the change to low sulfur. The community of operators view their pump as suspect but I can't find a single thread where someone had a pump fail due to low lubricity. Generally, it's the fuel solenoid driver that controls it that fails. Now, I have added one quart mixed evenly of PS and TW-3 per tank and I the engine runs quieter/smoother (though it can be hard to discern unless the hood is open as I'm running a 4" straight pipe now), and I view that as beneficial to the longevity of the engine in general. Perhaps I'm wasting my money.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Don't you do anything for lubricity, or do you have newer equipment? I use power service, but only for the lubrication, as I have an older tractor (pre ulsd).

All of my equipment now is designed for ULSD, however, when I had my 1984 Yanmar, I didn't use any additive there either. Brother in law now has it and after 5 years of use, still no problem with fuel.
I think (and this is just my opinion, nothing scientific to back it up) that the lubricity issue is just snakeoil salesmen selling an additive like the STP crowd was for years claiming lowered friction. After much testing, STP was actually gumming up the engines. I don't think additives will hurt your engine, but I don't think they significantly affect the wear on fuel pumps. I know of farmers putting thousands of hours per year on equipment without using additives and without any fuel system failures. I doubt any CUT owner would put that kind of hours on their tractors in a lifetime. The best thing you can invest in is a good filter system to keep contaminants from reaching the injector pump.
Even when we had high sulfur fuels, fuel pump failures were not uncommon occurrences for tractors with several thousand hours on the engines.

 

[cqaigy2]

Also, I can only imagine the ridiculous cop who's going to pull over a tractor and check his fuel. That's going to be one **** of a you tube posting when it happens. Are there farm tractor inspectors that I've dodged all of these years? Has anyone here EVER had their fuel tank inspected?

He would be checking to see if your using non-road tax fuel in your tractor?