Winter Diesel

Not saying they don't have it, I'm just going by the big signs on top of the pumps. A good friend of mine drives a tanker for them. I'll get some info from him.

 

I've probably bought fuel there 50 times over the years and I got premium year around. I'm going to Elkhart tomorrow, I'll stop and get a picture.

 

Its the best stuff made for any engine,2 or 4 stroke it will make them run 40% better than new!!Its OPE approved so it gots to be good stuff !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Somebody gonna enlighten us on what we missed about Red Armor?

 

Yeah, almost like somebody owns some interest in it or something...

 

I think we missed the sarcasm warning...

 

I've been running diesels for 15 years. Diesel cars and truck. I've only ever had one time my truck froze up. It started right after I fueled up in Bangor Maine. I suspect I got a bit of water in the fuel at fill up. It was in February so I'm thinking it should have been treated fuel. Temps were in the teens or less IIRC.
The truck ran rough for the next 170 miles then shut off as I pulled in to our cabin parking space in Caribou. Put in some kerosene and Diesel 911 and no problems since.
I will occasionally put a dose of Power Service cleaner/octane/treatment in the tank, but it's only about two bottles in ten years...
I had one other time the truck would not start cold in zero temps...forgot to plug it in...

 

I hope that was a cetane treatment.

 

Yes...cetane

Diesel Kleen and Diesel Suppliment (+ Diesel 911)

Doesn't seem to be much difference in the labels

 

I have a bottle of Power Service if I don't go through all the fuel I have on hand now by the time it gets real cold. If we get a real good cold snap in the winter I add some to the tank for good measure even with winter diesel. Probably not needed but it makes me feel better.

 

Every time we would go to northern maine snowmobiling, old roommate would always somehow get bad diesel. Like 4 trips in a row before he gave up and just started filling the transfer tank in his service truck and bring his own fuel with him.

I found that the winter blend fuel can be hit or miss. If it mild weather they didn't mix as much at the rack, but then a cold snap would hit and our whole fleet would be mess. (We had.our own 3000 gal tank) well everyone but me. I carried a jug of super concentrated fuel additive that we used to treat the big tank. I always way over trated my fuel when it got real cold and my truck never gelled.

 

All the pumps had either premium or diesel signs on the top. As I said the premium is available year around and that's all I ever purchased. Premium gave me a little power boost and increased the fuel mileage .

 

premium diesel, does it have more octane to keep the pinging noise in my injectors down?

 

I had an '01 dodge/cummins, and it definitely dropped 2+ mpgs. I've never owned a diesel powered vehicle since, but I drive a lot of them.

I drove one truck for a couple years hauling heavy here in Michigan. My legal gvw was 164,000, and the 600ish horsepower Cat would do 3.8-3.9 mpg on a good day. It only carried 145 gallons of fuel, so I knew when I started getting close to 500 miles in a day I had to think about getting a little fuel. Well, one day in October I was coming up out of the pit with a load of sand and ran out. I was at 460 miles, and of course the boss blamed it on me for not topping it up all the way. Turns out we were on our first load of winter fuel for the season

At my current job, with newer trucks ('13-'16) and 80,000 lb gvw, we run at 6 mpg or so in the winter, and 7-8 in the warmer months. Part of it is fuel, part of it is idle time, and part of it is they just plain suck more fuel in cold weather.

 

More drag in the winter with driveline oil/grease being colder and thicker too...going to thinner synthetic oil in the trans and diffs can help with that

 

They're making more power in the winter too with cold dense air. Going to consume more fuel that way too

 

Gear oil in the hubs on eight trailer axles makes it feel like somebody hits the brakes when trying to shift on a zero degree day, until that oil gets warmed up.

I don't know if that's true with forced induction and computer controls. Diesels run on the lean side anyway, and adding more available oxygen isn't going to affect the combustion.

That cold, dense air certainly makes it harder to push a truck and trailer through. This is also true on foggy, humid nights in the summer.