I have a fleet of dump trucks and a few off road equipment and we have three 10,000 gallon above ground tanks. Our current fleet is made for ULSD. Before a fill up we add a bulk fuel additive to the tank.

The 2 mechanics I have had for years have always told me to buy a cheap brand name fuel and any non alcohol additive. We never had any fuel related issues. We never used “winter blend fuel” but use an ant gelling bulk additive during the winter witch is much cheaper for us.

This year one of our mechanics retired and we hired a fresh one right out of mechanics school. He’s all about trying to get us to switch to top brand fuel and what ever the additive of the month is. He’s also trying to get us to switch over to winter blend on our next fill up.

Were in the southwest VA and we don’t travel out of our area.

Is it worth changing what is not broken and has worked for years?
What are your thoughts?

 

whats cheaper?

 

i wouldnt change if it aint broke dont fix it

 

It’s cheaper to get bulk regular fuel and add an anti gelling agent then to get “winter diesel fuel”.

 

There you go then , Glad i could help

 

They fill there minds full of junk in school.

 

If it aint broke then don't F with it!
Oh ya this is for the new mechanic.

 

Scott I’ll pass that on to my new mechanic. We get a reimbursement form the college for hiring there students for there first 6 months of real world work (we have him for 2 more months). With the stuff that this guy has pulled out of his butt he’s all most not worth it. Every week he’s trying to get us to change something.

My other mechanic has 30+ years on him and 8 of them have been working for me.

 

don't mess with a system that works well.

They do the same at the farm i work at occasionaly. It works well for them too because the company has a tank with the shaffers additive in the truck along with bio diesel and they mix it to what they want.

No winter blend crap. man that gets bad millage.

 

We can get ours splash mixed but we have to use there additive. There additive is some off brand stuff and you never know if they added the right amount. A lot of farmers stopped getting there additives mixed in and buy there own. I would rather buy my additives in 55 gallon drums. We pump in how much we want and then run a mix / filter cycle on the tank. When you’re buying a few dozen 55 gallon drums form an oil supplier a few drums of additives don’t cost much.

I look at the additives as an insurance policy. We use about half of the additive that it calls for and a few times a year get it closer to full strength. Having that extra detergent in the fuel goes a long way long term if you chart out your MPG.

We use anti gel as needed by the weather. Most of the time we only treat 2 tanks with anti gel and switch back and forth on what tank were using depending on the temps.