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Diesel additive

A

AC Diesel

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 2, 2013
Messages
270
Location
Ne. Sandhills
Do any of you guy's get along in the winter using diesel additive alone, or do you use 50/50 number 1 blend ?
Every time I try just additive I jell up. I just had 300 gallons of no.2 delivered and put twice the amount of additive recommended in and jelled up tonight :mad:
Just curious what everyone else does.
 
I get it blended. I gel up every time I've ever just tried the additive. Lots of diesel trucks off the side of the roads this morning. All the school buses too.
 
in the tractors, I run blended fuel 50/50. In the pick up. I run additive. Power service or Howes. I always put additive in, then fuel. -20 we are good.

If you have only bio diesel, you may need 4X the amount. that crap gels at 20 above.
 
A blend costs me a gear in the Autocar on pass. Smokes more, worse mpg, less power, costs more.

Putting the same $$ into power service, I had one gelled filter in several thousand gallons of straight #2. Swapped it out with spare and drove on.

Cummins and powerstroke and J.D. same same, #2, powerservice.

But you gotta have it in fuel before it gets cold.
 
All fuel supply companys mix in oct good till-25 and after -40 and I always put a additive called polar plus and run 0-40 oil in my feeding tractor wish I had a heated shop.
 
I mix it 25% no. 1 75% no. 2 and add some power servive also if I'm buying at the pump but normally I buy a winter blend from my fuel supplier.Seams like the skid loader is the pickiest so it gets a bit more number one.
 
Thank's for the input guy's, I'll put some no.1 in like I always end up doing. I burn through more fuel when blended but it's sure better then gelling up.

My brother talked me into trying just additive again. Not sure why I let him influence my decision , his feed tractor is a gas burner :lol:
 
Guess I'm not the only dummy around, town is sold out of Power Serve 911 additive, got the last fuel filter's available for my IH, and there's no number 1 fuel anymore.
 
we had additive in the fuel on the TV 145... but it was STILL partially gelled this morning.... ran for 4 hours before it finally shook the crap out of it's system
 
I say this knowing we in northwest kansas don't get as cold as most of you. But I think there is more to it than #1 or #2 or additive. My wife is from Lincoln ks. I have come to know a lot of guys my age that farm and ranch there. They always run 25-50% #1 and still have way more trouble than we do using just additive. Never used any #1 on the farm. We usually are 5-10 degrees f colder than the folks around Lincoln are in winter. About 1200 feet higher elevation for only being 150 miles west and flat kansas. Lol. They have way more humidity in the summer and nighttime temps in the summer are usually 15 degrees warmer than us. So I think this has something to do with it. Idk just my thoughts.
 
I have always used blended. But this year i hadnt gotten another load of fuel in and so i just added the 2x rate of power service about a month ago. I have not had any pickups or tractors gelled yet but my pump and filter on my barrell keep gelling. So i had them bring some number #1 today to top of my barrel and added a bunch of 911.
 
Years ago there was a product called Winter Power Plus. That stuff flat WORKED. As long as we had some of that, we could use #2 all winter long with no problems.

Now I just use Regular Power Service at 2x the recommended rate. No problems. Add it before you fill up, though.
 
Now let's be clear about what you guys are calling the "2x the recommended rate".

Are you going by the "recommended" 2x the recommended rate on the Power Service bottle which is basically 2x the standard rate?

Guy who is using my tractor this winter put in about 4x the standard rate in it with straight #2. :shock:

He got about 5 gal used out of the 42 gal tank before it really turned cold and topped off iwth #1 fuel and tractor has passed the test so far. Tractor has new filters on it too which IMO helps a lot.

I think I have about a 50/50 mix of fuel in my Kubota. Put a recommended 2x dose of PS into the 50 gal tank but didn't run over 5 min after. Think I will wait for the weather to get in the teens above before I start the tractor.
 
No matter what fuel you use in cold weather keep the drive train as warm as possible - - - before I got creative and made engine enclosures ( I remove them in warm weather ) I used to feed with a 4230 JD and I would flatten some large cardboard boxes and use baling twine to tie to both sides of the hood causing the radiator heat to keep the engine warm - - - makes a tremendous difference when moving in road gear. It also seemed to make the cab heater work sooner which I appreciated every day.

I have made enclosures for every engine I expect to work in cold weather and it is sure better than trying to get something thawed out after the fact.

In cold weather I start the item I'm going to use and leave t sitting at a fast idle for about 10 minutes before expecting it to work - - - this give the transmission and hydraulics time to properly lubricate before they are ask to work.
 
Not untill this last week. Our shop is heated so the tractors 7730 and 4440 doesn't really get that cold. We did have a 4840 gel up a couple of days ago but wasn't in the heated shop. We do use an additive but don't know what it is. I'll ask..
 
Change your filters going into the fall. I learned the hard way!

I am a proponent of a warm drive train. WE have block heaters on all our diesels. A lot of the additives I use year round have some gelling inhibitors . But I start adding Antigel in November
 
The last 2 days I have started the skid steer and let it run but the pins that hold attachments on would not move so I had to put it in the shop with heat for about 30 minutes each day to thaw them. I lubricated them with transmission fluid today so I hope to keep the moisture out - - - only going to about 10F above tonight but I should know in the morning.

Sure is nice to have a nice heated cab when it is 5F below with a 10 MPH wind!
 

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