My new tractor died the other night.

[WTA]

It wasn't the tractors fault but I'm sure not happy about what happened.

I have a TD95D that I got last fall. I was out mowing hay the other night and came back to the house to fill up with fuel. I had a fresh barrel of diesel that I got that morning. I always keep the barrel full and in my air conditioned shop so I never have had a problem with it.
Before I even got back to my last row I cut the motor started smoking heavily white and cutting out. So I turned around and came back to the shop and it died right as I got to the doors.
What I found was the fuel was gelled so bad in the filters that nothing was getting through. It was 105 degrees that day and was still over 100 at 9PM when this happened. How could this have happened?
I always keep a bottle of power service fuel conditioner in the barrel and I'm very careful about keeping clean fuel. It took replacing the filters twice and the help of the dealership mechanic the next morning to get me going again. We had to take off every fuel line on it and blow the junk out of them.

I'm doing nearly 100 acres of hay with this tractor now. Some of it mine and some belonging to other people. I can't afford the down time or the wasted duel like this.

Does anyone have any ideas how to prevent it happening again.

What I use to store and transfer my fuel is a NEW steel barrel which , as I said, I store in my air conditioned shop. I build high end custom rifles in here. That's the reason for the AC. Anyway, The barrel never sweats or anythign thanks to the AC. I have a cheap harbor freight hand crank barrel pump in it that works great with a diesel nozzle on the end of the hose. There is no filter on it now but I am now looking for a filter/separator that I can adapt to the barrel.
Any ideas?

 

[MrJimi]

Is your shop the same temperature all the time or do you turn on your AC when your there? I'm thinking temp changes got ya

 

[WTA]

I keep it on all the time and set at 72 degrees. The only time the big door comes open is when I have to pull my hay baler in or out. The temp never fluctuates much. Plus that AC keeps it dry in here. I don't like my machinery or the guns I'm working on rusting.

 

[Soundguy]

Are you sure it was gell.. or was it an algea or bio-ooze slime?

soundguy

 

[AndyG]

Is this the first time the barrel was used? Did you get your fuel from the same place as usual? It kinda sounds like the new fuel didn't mix well with the fuel that was already in the tank. I difference in chemical formulation maybe. I doubt that the difference in temp had any thing to do with the trouble.

 

[jinman]

Boy-oh-boy! What a pain! I agree with both Soundguy and AndyG. That barrel of fuel has to be suspect for biological activity or contamination. You could get a biological control agent (like Biobor) from a local airport, but it would be timely and also expensive. Amazon has it for $19 for a 16 oz bottle. To be sure you don't get more goop in your fuel, you probably should install a large filter on your barrel.

I am so lucky that I have never had any bad fuel on my diesel pickup in 365k miles and never a bad can of diesel for my tractor...knock on wood.

 

[WTA]

I've been using this barrel since I got the tractor last August. I bought the barrel brand new just like the tractor. There is no rust, sediment or water of any kind in it either.
I bought the fuel at the local gas station which is busy enough to get a new shipment of diesel every day. Normally I have off road diesel from a distributer in another town in it but it's the same distributer that fills up that gas station. They were closed on the day I needed fuel so I went to the gas station and bought a barrel full of road diesel instead. I've never had bio in it. That stuff costs too much around here. It was 10 bucks a gallon last time I checked and that place is shut down till further notice now because of feed stock prices.
I could get political on that so I'll shut up now on the bio. I bought my tractor specifically because it was rated for B100 bio diesel and at the time everyone was saying how cheap it would be. Yeah right!

 

[jinman]

I've been using this barrel since I got the tractor last August. I bought the barrel brand new just like the tractor. There is no rust, sediment or water of any kind in it either.
I bought the fuel at the local gas station which is busy enough to get a new shipment of diesel every day. Normally I have off road diesel from a distributer in another town in it but it's the same distributer that fills up that gas station.

I know what you are saying, but it seems undeniable that you had problems with your storage container or the fuel you put into it. If you Google Biobor, you can read numerous articles about it. I don't know anyone who uses more fuel than the airlines, but they use barrels and barrels of Biobor to break up any existing goop and to prevent further regrowth. An airplane cannot afford to have the same problem you had.

The Biobor on Amazon has a dispenser bottle that mixes the proper amount for a given amount of fuel. Anecdotal stories about it claim that cloudy fuel clears up quickly when it is added. I suspect you have lost much more time and expense than a bottle would cost to treat the fuel tank from time-to-time. I'm not saying that it is a "good" solution, but only that it might prevent further delays and hassle until this fuel problem clears up.

Good luck with your problem. I sure would be in a "tizzy" if I had the same problem.

 

[WTA]

I'm going to look for some of that stuff when my wife gets home. I just got done plowing a field and my tractor is running fine now but it still has me mad.
I used to run an oil lab on a carrier and I never saw crap like this in any fuel sample. We got heavily salt water contaminated fuel pretty often but nothing we couldn't fix. Our boilers and aircraft almost always ran off the same tanks on the ship full of JP5. We just held the aircraft fuel to a much higher standard before allowing it to be transfered to the tanks up there. I don't think I ever saw algae unless someone was messing with me. Or in the school I had to go to for that job.

 

[Soundguy]

I've never had bio in it. That stuff costs too much around here. It was 10 bucks a!

We are not talking about bio-diesel.. but rather fuel microbes and algea that live in diesel fuel. They can form sludges and gells when they grow.. thus many people use a bio-cide product to inhibit their growth...

soundguy