How to Use Home Heating Oil in Tractor ?

Charlesaf3 · Oct 27, 2006

I talked to my heating oil distributor today, and they confirmed that what I'm burning for heat is standard diesel. Per my dealer this is fine to put in my tractor.

This would be moderately cheaper, and much easier than going downtown to fill up 5 gallon jugs of diesel.

So my question is, how do I get the fuel from my tank in my basement to the tractor? Heating oil guy offered me a used tank for free, but I don't really want a fuel tank rusting in front of my house. And I figure that using the stuff that's delivered for the furnace will keep the diesel fresh. I'll probably put some power service in there as well - can't imagine it'll bother the furnace.

Does anyone have any recomendations on a cheap, useful pump? Or a source for fuel pumps?

I figure the pump will have to be in the basement, with a hose going through the concrete wall... Maybe some sort of fitting there...

Anyone have any ideas? And who would I get to install such a thing? Oil distributor isn't interested in doing it... If its a simple procedure, I can do it myself - making the hole and screwing things onto the tank wouldn't be that hard.

SPYDERLK · Oct 27, 2006

Harbor Freight sells a pump that operates from compressed air. It works well for me. I dont have to pump the fuel very high since my tank is above ground, but I think it would be adequate for a lift of at least 10'. I can do an experiment to check if you are interested.
Larry

QRTRHRS · Oct 28, 2006

Depending on the age of your home oil tank, there may be sludge in there so you may want to consider that. You want to filter it for sure.

I have a 100 gallion tank on my pickup for red fuel. I always treat my fuel especially since my one tractor is an 83' and the low sulfer fuels don't have enough lubricity for it. I regularly dump treated fuel into my home tank to empty it prior to filling that truck tank. That way, I can easily figure the treatment for 100 gal. Use an engine rated fuel treatment, not one for the furnace.

As a matter of fact, my fuel supplier is less than a mile away from me. Last winter with the higher costs, I saved 5 cents a gallion over home delivery by picking it up myself. Money was tight for us so it was easier to purchase just 100 gallons as opposed to filling my two home tanks by delivery.

I also keep a couple of five gallion jugs of fuel on hand in case I need some and don't want to fill the big tank at the moment. I find those to rather unweildy to handle though.

You can also purchase smaller tanks or tank toolbox combo's if you have a pickup. If you went with an electric pump, they are not cheap but they do give good service. Check out Northern Hydraulics or Tractor Supply.

scott_vt · Oct 28, 2006

Mornin Charles,
Have you given ant thought to a 55 gal drum in your garage or barn with a hand crank pump ? We have two 55 gal drums in my neighbors barn where I keep my deisel tractor and it is very convient. We dump some stabilizer in when we get them filled.

dirtworksequip · Oct 28, 2006

Depends on how much fuel you burn. Good fuel pumps are not cheap. Plus the other expense of wiring and plumbing it.

If your heating oil tank has a threaded plug on top you can get black iron pipe fittings to adapt from that threaded hole to a pump. I would think you would want the pump & filter system inside and mounted at the tank. Then you would need an electric switch outside to turn on the pump, plus a line or hose running outside for the fuel nozzle. The most important thing would be to select a pump with enough lift to pump the fuel out of the basement.

You could have a neat little fill up station, just depends what you want to spend.

JJT · Oct 28, 2006

Unless you are burning 100's of gallons of fuel a year, it's probably a waste of time and $. If the tank is in the basement, you are going to pump the fuel into a 5 gallon can, walk it thru the house and fill the tractor from the can? That wouldn't fly in my house, 1 drip in the house and I'd be a dead man.

If you are using a large volume, go with a dedicated tank in the garage.

For me the $.50/gallon savings isn't worth it. I have 2 diesel tractors and burn about 120 gallons/year.

Charlesaf3 · Oct 28, 2006

scott_vt said:
Mornin Charles,
Have you given ant thought to a 55 gal drum in your garage or barn with a hand crank pump ? We have two 55 gal drums in my neighbors barn where I keep my deisel tractor and it is very convient. We dump some stabilizer in when we get them filled.

Good idea on the filters - a must do.

I love the drum idea. But no barn

and no garage

Its on the project list. Maybe I should focus on that... Though I love the "neatness" of having a filling station at the side of my house.

How are things in VT now - leaves off the trees? We're getting a nice storm down in Mass right now, the 55 mph gusts will probably strip a lot of the remaining leaves. I love VT - thought of moving there, but mud season would kill me. And y'all have a couple of more months of winter than we do down here by the sea.

Charlesaf3 · Oct 28, 2006

dirtworksequip said:
Depends on how much fuel you burn. Good fuel pumps are not cheap. Plus the other expense of wiring and plumbing it.

If your heating oil tank has a threaded plug on top you can get black iron pipe fittings to adapt from that threaded hole to a pump. I would think you would want the pump & filter system inside and mounted at the tank. Then you would need an electric switch outside to turn on the pump, plus a line or hose running outside for the fuel nozzle. The most important thing would be to select a pump with enough lift to pump the fuel out of the basement.

You could have a neat little fill up station, just depends what you want to spend.

Yeah, that's more or less how I thought of doing it. Only difference is I wouldn't put the switch outside (probably). I don't mind walking into the basement to turn on the pump.

I do have a couple of unused threaded plugs on top.

Any ideas on how to get the hose through the wall? I'd thought of running a hose to iron pipe going through the wall, and then a hose on the outside of the wall. The issue is leaving the fuel in the outside hose... Is there a quick coupling for fuel I wonder? Though would it even matter if I had the proper antigel in there?

Charlesaf3 · Oct 28, 2006

JJT said:
Unless you are burning 100's of gallons of fuel a year, it's probably a waste of time and $. If the tank is in the basement, you are going to pump the fuel into a 5 gallon can, walk it thru the house and fill the tractor from the can? That wouldn't fly in my house, 1 drip in the house and I'd be a dead man.

If you are using a large volume, go with a dedicated tank in the garage.

For me the $.50/gallon savings isn't worth it. I have 2 diesel tractors and burn about 120 gallons/year.

No, no filling diesel cans in the basement!

I'd run the hose outside if I were going to do it. Its probably not cost effective, but avoiding the pain of running into town to get diesel in jugs is worth it. I probably will be burning a couple of hundred gallons a year for the next few years while I do a lot of heavy landscaping. After that usage will go down considerably.

Charlesaf3 · Oct 28, 2006

SPYDERLK said:
Harbor Freight sells a pump that operates from compressed air. It works well for me. I dont have to pump the fuel very high since my tank is above ground, but I think it would be adequate for a lift of at least 10'. I can do an experiment to check if you are interested.
Larry

Yeah, I'd love to know the lift. I was actually thinking of setting up an air tank in the basement next to the fuel, with an outside connect. I need the fuel to go up around 8 feet, and then out 20. Doesn't matter if the gpm are low - my tank isn't that big, and the 18 gpm pumps I've seen would have me "greasing" the tractor in diesel half the time.

scott_vt · Oct 28, 2006

Charlesaf3 said:
Good idea on the filters - a must do.

I love the drum idea. But no barn and no garage Its on the project list. Maybe I should focus on that... Though I love the "neatness" of having a filling station at the side of my house.

How are things in VT now - leaves off the trees? We're getting a nice storm down in Mass right now, the 55 mph gusts will probably strip a lot of the remaining leaves. I love VT - thought of moving there, but mud season would kill me. And y'all have a couple of more months of winter than we do down here by the sea.

Hi Charles,
Yep the leaves are pretty much gone till next year, although we have some oaks that dont let go till thanksgiving and even next spring

The good news is that the wind blows so hard where we are, 1200 ft, that I never pick up a rake. The leaves just blow over the mountain into Middletown Springs

Works for me

Later !

SPYDERLK · Oct 28, 2006

Charlesaf3, the HF pump sells for about $60 and is variable speed depending on how much air you feed it. I will check lift this weekend and let you know. If adequate the setup would be easy given the presence of at least a small compressor. You could essentially run 2 small (?1/4" OD?) pressure and return air tubes along with your fill hose. You would control stop/start and flow by metering air back to the HF pump in the basement. When thru just stop and cap the fill hose.
Be back with you soon.
Larry

Charlesaf3 · Oct 28, 2006

SPYDERLK said:
Charlesaf3, the HF pump sells for about $60 and is variable speed depending on how much air you feed it. I will check lift this weekend and let you know. If adequate the setup would be easy given the presence of at least a small compressor. You could essentially run 2 small (?1/4" OD?) pressure and return air tubes along with your fill hose. You would control stop/start and flow by metering air back to the HF pump in the basement. When thru just stop and cap the fill hose.
Be back with you soon.
Larry

Thanks Larry! SO the pump is controlled by air flow, not the nozzle? Or could you do both?

Another thought, any reason why one couldn't use pioneer style quick couplers on a diesel line?

LBrown59 · Oct 28, 2006

QRTRHRS said:
I have a 100 gallion tank on my pickup for red fuel. I always treat my fuel especially since my one tractor is an 83' and the low sulfer fuels don't have enough lubricity for it. I regularly dump treated fuel into my home tank to empty it prior to filling that truck tank. That way, I can easily figure the treatment for 100 gal. Use an engine rated fuel treatment, not one for the furnace.

I also keep a couple of five gallion jugs of fuel on hand in case I need some and don't want to fill the big tank at the moment. I find those to rather unweildy to handle though.

.

Put 3 gallon in them instead of 5

SteveInMD · Oct 29, 2006

I would think you could mount the pump on the side of the house and just run the pickup inside and into the tank. You should have a spare threaded fitting on your tank. You don't have to worry about the pump bring outside. The Fillright pumps are totally weather proof.

MikeD74T · Oct 29, 2006

Our snowmobile club had a 275 gallon tank outside for groomer fuel & another inside for furnace fuel. Two years ago we moved the outside tank inside & plumbed both tanks togeather. Plumbed from pump out thru the wall with iron pipe & installed hose hanger outside. Pump switch is outside, with another inside to prevent theft. Since we use both the furnace & groomer only in the winter we buy our fuel late in the fall & refill in winter as necessary. We run both tanks down at the end of the season so as to get a better price for a bigger delivery. We had condensation problems with the outside tank & have had none since moving it inside. It was very difficult to remove the condensation from the tank at -30F. We use conditioner in the groomer when expecting extreme cold. MikeD74T

SPYDERLK · Oct 29, 2006

Charlesaf3 said:
Thanks Larry! SO the pump is controlled by air flow, not the nozzle? Or could you do both?

Another thought, any reason why one couldn't use pioneer style quick couplers on a diesel line?

I checked my system performance. It delivers fuel 14' above the pump with no indication of an approaching limit. By interpretation of pumpspec -- 90Psi operating pressure, 3 to 1 delivery of fuel per air use I would interpret the pump will output 30PSI. That is a 60' lift above the pump. This may not be an optimum type system for you, but since I am familiar with pneumatics and have various connectors, fittings and valves laying around it is a perfect, versatile, quick and adaptable setup for me. Starting from scratch, as I think you are, it may be better to go a little different than I have. I just meter air to the pump to run it at the speed I want and then turn air off to stop pumping. There is no nozzle on the delivery hose so fuel just runs out its end unimpeded - - flow of 2 to 4GPM is gracefully achieved. In your case, in order to simplify the system so you dont have to find a suitable air valve, I would buy the the oil dispensing tap for the pump from HF. It is made to fit the pump body, but you could adapt it to fit the end of your fill hose. I assume this tap is a nozzle that can control fuel flow. You would need to verify this with HF tech dept. If so, you could directly feed the pump at a reasonable pressure, say 40psi, thru a regulator. The pump would output about 13psi [40/3] to the closed fuel hose and stall. When you opened the nozzle fuel would come out and the pump would start and maintain flow. This is merely educated conjecture. My concern is that throttling the nozzle may cause the fuel to squirt rather than flow gently. Undesireable but not a killer. The nozzle may be even designed to prevent this.
Larry

Charlesaf3 · Oct 29, 2006

MikeD74T said:
Our snowmobile club had a 275 gallon tank outside for groomer fuel & another inside for furnace fuel. Two years ago we moved the outside tank inside & plumbed both tanks togeather. Plumbed from pump out thru the wall with iron pipe & installed hose hanger outside. Pump switch is outside, with another inside to prevent theft. Since we use both the furnace & groomer only in the winter we buy our fuel late in the fall & refill in winter as necessary. We run both tanks down at the end of the season so as to get a better price for a bigger delivery. We had condensation problems with the outside tank & have had none since moving it inside. It was very difficult to remove the condensation from the tank at -30F. We use conditioner in the groomer when expecting extreme cold. MikeD74T

Mike, that's more or less exactly what I'd like to do. What kind of pump do you have? And what sort of fitting did you use between the pump and the hose?

Charlesaf3 · Oct 29, 2006

Thanks larry. That might be more complexity than I want to put in. But the price sounds nice, and I do want to run air out the same hole... I'll have to ponder.

MikeD74T · Oct 30, 2006

Charlesaf3, I don't know the brand of the pump. It's a 120 vac pump that mounts on the tank top in a 2" bung. We've had it for several years. Out of the pump was a gas station hose/nozzle. We just put in a piece of pipe & coupling to get thru the wall. This was done primarily because the hose fitting would have required a large hole in the wall & the pipe is a tight fit. As I said we put 2 switches in series for operator convenience, to minimize the amount of running in & out during the grooming season & to be able to stop flow from either end should the hose/nozzle fail. In the off season the inside switch is off. Not knowing how much fuel you use for heat/ tractor, you are allowed 660 gallons in your basement. Buying in larger deliveries can save you a little more by getting bids & taking 4-500 gallons at a time. MikeD74T