Winter Diesel Gelling and Biodiesel

Reader Contribution by Bruce Mcelmurray
Updated on June 20, 2022
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Adobe Stock/José 16
What potential biodiesel disadvantages exist? Learn what biodiesel can do to a fuel system if not properly treated against gelling.
One would think that living in a gated community plus living remotely that we would not have a problem with vandalism. Unfortunately, that is not the case. In three years, we have had two episodes of vandalism, and the last one was diabolical and costly.

The first one happened to our log splitter, and in that case, someone put a substance in the fuel, opened the gas shut-off, and gravity feed did the rest. I was able to repair that myself so the cost was moderate. This time, the vandal sabotaged our new Kubota tractor. It took considerable effort to first determine it had actually been vandalized and second to determine how it was done.

A few nights prior to the vandalism being discovered, the dogs alerted us to something outside, so I took the flashlight and went out to investigate. I was looking for a coyote, bobcat, wolf or perhaps a mountain lion. I did not think to look where the tractor was parked as we were not anticipating any human being present, plus the area is partially enclosed.

A few days later, I was clearing some new snow with our 6-month-old tractor, and it began to sputter and lose power. I parked it and called the dealer. I was advised that perhaps the diesel fuel needed to be treated with an anti-gel compound, which we promptly did again. I had already treated it once, but the theory was the anti-gel may have been beyond its shelf date and had lost it potency.

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