Hydraulic oil (Kubota UDT) flamability?

dmccarty · Sep 18, 2008

I ball up lots of newspaper because its what I have. Cardboard is a good idea. I put the paper balls in the pile and the toss the oil on top. The paper should be placed on the upwind side to help it burn through the pile. Then get a piece of a paper, light it and then it to light the pile.

The last pile I burned was wet, Wet, WET. It took forever to start and I ended up spending the night watching the fire.

I started to run out of oil to start the fire and but I did have a gallon of gas.....

This was not good. I knew it was not good.

But I did it anyway.

Balled up my dwindling supply of paper and put in the pile. Since I knew what I was about to do was well past dangerous. And I can't argue if someone applied the word STUPID, I made sure I was UPHILL from the pile. Tossed on a gallon of gas/oil mix for the Stihl on the paper. Went back UPHILL, took another ball of paper, let it and THREW it on the pile.

Then I ran...

UPHILL.

Then there was a BOOM!

Sticks flew. There was some flames. The grass caught on fire.

The pile of wood I was trying to burn had a flicker of flame.

The fire ball I saw was impressive. The BOOM was really loud. The small grass fire was interesting. Starting the wood pile on fire, not so much.

A cup of evaporated gas in a confined space is equivilent to a 1/4 stick of dynamite. I knew this and acted accordingly since I threw in a gallon of gas.

You could see the fumes moving DOWNHILL.

I did eventually get the pile let with the last of my oil.

Later,
Dan

yzbdsbp · Sep 19, 2008

Please no one play with the gas.....I had a friend die not to long ago from throwing some gas on a brush pile! It just isnt worth it folks! Dont play with the gas IT WILL HURT YOU SOONER OR LATER

Stargazer · Sep 19, 2008

And here I thought you were always supposed to toss a few old tires on the pile!!! Yoke

john_bud · Sep 20, 2008

You only burn tires at night, rumor has it that the billowing clouds of black smoke are not so visible at night.

Foothill Rancher · Sep 20, 2008

In my youth I used gas to burn blackberry bushes, that ended when one day I was burning in a pasture that had not been fed down much and had tall,wet matted grass that had laid over, I threw a coffee can of gas on the pile and then threw a burning piece of newspaper on, standing there I heard this big whomp behind me, turned around and didn't see anything, as the flames died down I threw somemore on and a big whomp behind me again. This time I knew what was going on, the fumes were moving under the grass and would ignite a second or two later. Didn't need to see that again,I have never used gas since and to this day consider myself lucky that I learned without being hurt. I've known other people that were not as lucky.