[AT] Fuel cans and dispensing - ideas requested

Mike Sloane mikesloane at verizon.net
Wed Nov 5 02:41:20 PST 2008


I am sure that there are many solutions, Carl. I don't use all that much 
fuel either, so I put diesel in those 5-gallon plastic cans and then use 
a small (3 foot?) aluminum step ladder to get me up to the height of the 
filler on the Farmall 560. For the gas tractors, I use the red plastic 
cans and use the same step ladder. The little ladder is light enough to 
be handled easily and puts me at the right height for filling. A couple 
of years ago, the various colored cans were on sale at Agway, so bought 
a couple of the blue ones (they were out of yellow, and since I don't 
use kerosene, I just wrote "diesel" on the sides with a Sharpie pen). 
The only limitation of the step ladder is that it needs to be on firm 
even ground.

This reminds me that it is time to put diesel fuel "conditioner" in the 
560's tank for the winter and top it off after using it to power the 
generator at the house during the last power outage caused by the freak 
snow storm on Tuesday.

Mike

carl gogol wrote:
> Now that fuel prices are less unaffordable, am just wondering what others 
> are doing for fueling their tractors?  I have been using 5 gallon military 
> surplus cans, but the flexible nozzles are slow and generally leak a little 
> to a lot.  Using a big funnel is ok for the smaller tractors, but still puts 
> the full can out at 2/3 of an arm's length.  Hefting the can while balancing 
> on the drawbar and lift arms of the big tractor is even more of a 
> problematic task at my tender age, and probably an impossibility 5 or 10 
> years down the road.  I don't use enough fuel to justify even a 55 gallon 
> drum of diesel and I doubt a truck would stop to fill that for me - would 
> they?  I use maybe 60 - 80 gallons a year of diesel, and don't want it to 
> set for nearly a year.   Any good ideas for say a 5 - 15 gallon container 
> and possibly a pump that is not hundreds of dollars?  Something that can be 
> hefted in and out of an SUV by one person.
> Lets approach this as an exercise in cheapness.
> Carl Gogol - Manlius, NY



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