Freezing Diesel

Reasons like this is why I carry a Mr Buddy heater and 2 propane bottles in my truck. Also extra clothes and fire starting material. One way or another I will not freeze.

I keep 2 cases of MRE's on the truck. If I had to I could use the heaters from them to stay warm for a while. When I was in Minnesota Thanksgiving weekend it got down to -17 and I ran my bunk heater nonstop that weekend and it barley keep the temp in the sleeper. Can't imagine being stuck without a heat source in those conditions. Glad you made it out of that situation safe.

I read this thread but I'm still a little confused on exactly what to do at certain temperature ranges. If you do the 50/50 mix of #1 and #2, do you still need additive? Is it like, use additive at a certain range and #1 fuel at a different range? If someone could post the definitive, detailed, step by step guide to winter fuel, that would-be awesome...

I read this thread but I'm still a little confused on exactly what to do at certain temperature ranges. If you do the 50/50 mix of #1 and #2, do you still need additive? Is it like, use additive at a certain range and #1 fuel at a different range? If someone could post the definitive, detailed, step by step guide to winter fuel, that would-be awesome...

That's easier said than done. First of all, there is a range of different fuels you'll find in different climates around the country. Also, today's emissions equipment installed in the trucks and certain types of injectors and oils may not like certain additives. There are some companies that will tell you never, ever add anything to the fuel because they have fuel heaters in the tanks or because the equipment they have won't agree with it.

The first thing to do is speak with the mechanics at your company's shop and see what they recommend. I don't want to make any recommendations and then start getting letters from attorneys asking me to cover $30,000 engine rebuilds.

In winter in Colorado, We used to add about a gallon of unleaded gasoline to our older semi's diesel fuel every tankful. If we didn't it would freeze in the fuel filters and we would have to remove them and take them indoors till they thawed, dump them out and refill and go on. Some older bulk tanks will have quite a bit of water condensation in them and I suspect this was the case where we got our fuel. Another joy was having the moisture freeze up in the airlines, so that you couldn't release the spring brakes. We would pour a half a bottle of airline dryer, which is basically alcohol, into the system somewhere upstream of the suspected freeze and pray. Make sure to drain the fuel separator frequently in winter and also manually purge the air tanks daily especially at end of shift.

Phil

What if it's a team truck and doesn't stop moving except for 30 min breaks and driver changes