The Forestry Forum

General Forestry => General Board => Topic started by: DR_Buck on May 12, 2018, 12:39:52 PM

Title: Heating Oil in place of Diesel
Post by: DR_Buck on May 12, 2018, 12:39:52 PM

Has anyone used home heating oil in place of diesel fuel in their equipment?   I'm not talking on-road vehicles subject to highway taxes, I'm talking about skid steer, tractors, etc.

We just removed our oil furnace that will be replaced by a geothermal heat pump and I have about 100 gallons of heating oil left in a buried tank.  I can drop the hose from my electric fuel pump into the tank to get it out as I need it, then eventually dig up and remove the tank.
Title: Re: Heating Oil in place of Diesel
Post by: tawilson on May 12, 2018, 01:01:44 PM
Used to be in the hvac trade and had to demo fuel tanks over the years and got to salvage fuel oil in the process. Seemed to work fine in my equipment. Pretty sure it's the same thing around here.
Title: Re: Heating Oil in place of Diesel
Post by: DelawhereJoe on May 12, 2018, 01:29:24 PM
#2 fuel oil is just dyed diesel fuel it just has that dye in it so truckers don't skip out on the tax from the diesel, just watch out for all the rust/crap/junk and water in the bottom of the tank.
Title: Re: Heating Oil in place of Diesel
Post by: submarinesailor on May 12, 2018, 01:41:04 PM
Dave,

Run it thru a good filter and make sure your water separators on the skid steer and tractors are working and you should be fine.

A really good example of this; a very large military base in Maryland directly fueled their 6 5MW generators to the main heating plant 200,000 gl oil tank.  The only problem was the oil had been setting for over 10 years without any testing or treatment.  When they first fired the gen sets, they were charging fuel filters at a very short duration.  That's when they decided to have the oil checked....very dirty with lots of things growing in it.

Bruce
Title: Re: Heating Oil in place of Diesel
Post by: Chuck White on May 12, 2018, 05:43:03 PM
Locally if we order fuel oil (not kerosene) or off-road diesel, they are the same exact thing!
Title: Re: Heating Oil in place of Diesel
Post by: Southside on May 12, 2018, 11:15:26 PM
Have done it plenty of times, the only difference between the two is some places charge a sales tax, or different sales tax on one class or the other - not accounting for seasonal blends of course.  
Title: Re: Heating Oil in place of Diesel
Post by: Ron Wenrich on May 13, 2018, 04:51:59 PM
A number of years ago I asked the local gas station what the difference was between home heating oil and diesel.  He said about 65ยข a gallon.  
Title: Re: Heating Oil in place of Diesel
Post by: bodagocreek2 on May 13, 2018, 05:38:14 PM
X2 what Delaware Joe said. Usually black gunk in bottom of tank. The last 10 - 15 gallons used for starting camp fires.
Title: Re: Heating Oil in place of Diesel
Post by: WLC on May 13, 2018, 07:17:50 PM
Been running heating oil in my tractor and plow truck for years with no ill effects.
Title: Re: Heating Oil in place of Diesel
Post by: Crusarius on May 14, 2018, 04:15:17 PM
When I had heating oil delivered the bill said #2 diesel. It ran just fine in the boiler. No issues at all.
Title: Re: Heating Oil in place of Diesel
Post by: thecfarm on May 14, 2018, 09:20:08 PM
When I was heating my place with oil,the truck stopped here and filled me up and than went on top of the hill to fill up the wood cutting equipment on top of the hill. But this was about 15 years ago too.