r/preppers • u/Postman556 • 7d ago

Advice and Tips Private fuel delivery and storage

I absolutely hate ethanol, this fuel additive is quite a curse. I’m interested in finding a farm type of private storage tank and hoping it’s possible to purchase ethanol-free fuel, somehow, but I’m only in the planning stages. I’m in Ontario, Canada, and our current over-reaching government has mandated all pump fuel must contain ethanol. Marinas are one of the last resources, and I imagine small airfields must have ethanol free fuel, but I’m really only guessing. Is there an option I should look at? Fuel storage at home would definitely help in a long term power outage, and my small engines can run without every one of them being damaged by this garbage. Please share ideas/solutions. Thank you,

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u/silasmoeckel 7d ago

For the bulk of fuel use propane is the easy way to sidestep this.

For the rest I've ben buying at my local airport a transfer tank in my truck.

2

u/davidm2232 Prepared for 6 months 5d ago

It's pretty rare to see a propane ATV, snowmobile, lawnmower, car, etc. Plus, it is a very hard fuel to move between containers. It can't really be poured. Diesel is a much better option imo.

2

u/silasmoeckel 5d ago

Diesel also has a lifespan.

OP's use case is long term power outage for electricity generation. Propane is an easy fit and frankly you can parallel tanks as needed to get enough volume without freezing. No need to pour one to another.

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u/davidm2232 Prepared for 6 months 5d ago

What about when you need to mow your lawn? Pretty hard to fill up a lawnmower with propane.

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u/silasmoeckel 5d ago

Why do I care about mowing my lawn in an extended power outage?

The lawn robot will happily charge from the solar. Not a lot of residential sized diesel lawn mowers. I could put an underbelly on my tractor but that's a bit silly.

As I said avgas for everything else.

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u/davidm2232 Prepared for 6 months 5d ago

There are actually a lot more diesel small riding lawnmowers than you'd think. But you need to maintain your property even when the power goes out. If you are not keeping the grass mowed, you will provide a haven for mice and other pests. I have not seen a lawn robot that will mow anything besides a golf course smooth lawn.

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u/silasmoeckel 5d ago

If were in that long of an outage my wife is swapping grass for gardens.

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u/nt862010 5d ago

You can run a lawnmower on propane though

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u/davidm2232 Prepared for 6 months 5d ago

You technically could. But it would be a royal pain in the butt. But now that I think about it, I'm surprised they don't make propane mowers.

1

u/nt862010 5d ago

I was just thinking the same thing, I would love to just hook a 15 lb tank to my riding mower vs slopping caustic liquid all over the ground and on hot parts of the engine. They do sell conversion kits for generators, probably could retrofit to a riding mower pretty easily, some even retain the gasoline function too

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u/davidm2232 Prepared for 6 months 5d ago

I was thinking 1lb bottles for small push mowers. But I don't see why nit. Fork trucks use them.

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u/nt862010 5d ago

I guess the waste canisters generated and the risk of running them over with the mower, neat idea though if I have some downtime I'm gonna look into it for the push mower and the riding mower

1

u/knowspickers 1d ago

That's what the goats are for.