bill18163
Silver Member
What is the differance between high and low sulfur fuel. Gas station down the road from me sells high sulfur diesel fuel with no road tax which adds up to about .44/gal. Which is the better to use in my B2710?
Oil & Fuel High & low sulfur fuel.
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Bird
Epic Contributor
Bill, I think you'll find on page 42 of your operator's manual that the B2710 calls for .50% sulfur maximum. I'm not sure what the "high sulfur" percentage is, but I never use it.
Bird
Bird
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Diesel comes in two base grades, #1 and #2. The primary difference is energy content verses gel point (the termerature where it starts to become a solid). #1 has lower energy content, but doesn't turn into jelly in extreem cold, where #2 has higher energy content, but if not specially treated, it turns to jelly at around 20 deg F.
Both grades of fuel are available in on-road and off-road variants. The fuel grades and energy content are the same. Historically, the difference was only whether road fuel tax was applied when the fuel was purchased. All road fuels are taxed. Un-taxed fuel is dyed red or blue to indicate it is not taxed and you will get in deep do-do if you get caught using it in a road vehicle of any kind.
Over the past years the EPA has begun to regulate how "clean" diesel fuels are for road use. off-road and on-road fuels now also differ in whether they meet EPA requirements for road use. The primary thing the EPA regulates is sulfur content. Specifically, the sulfur content for road fuels is limited to 0.05%. Off-road diesel limits sulfur to 0.5%. With this, the terms low-sulfur and high-sulfur are being used synonymously with on-road and off-road. Off-road diesel is also sometimes called farm-diesel.
All fuel bought in gas stations will meet EPA requirments for road use and hence will be low-sulfur, and will have road taxes included in the price. If you go to a fuel dealer you can at least avoid the road taxes. You can also likely get off-road (aka high-sulfur, aka farm diesel) and not pay taxes or the increased cost for the more refined and treated road fuels that meet EPA. You can also check with your fuel dealer to see if their #2 heating oil is the same as their #2 off-road diesel. At all my local dealers, it's the same thing so I pull mine from my heating oil tank.
Here are some suggestions for navigating all this:
1) Do you use your tractor on-road, or do you not want to worry about any of this nonsense? If the answer is yes, then just buy your fuel at the local gas station. You will be paying road taxes, which you must do if you use it on the road. You will also be getting fuel that's graded/treated for the current climate in your area so you don't have to worry about gelling.
2) If you want to use off-road, then first be sure your tractor is OK with it. The B1700, 2100, and 2400 specs allow off-road fuel. I don't know about other machines for fact, but I'd be real surprized to find any tractor that won't accept off-road fuel - after-all that's what they are principally made for. If your specs allow 0.5% sulfur, you are fine with off-road, high sulfur fuel. Go find a dealer to buy it from and you will save 30-40 cents per gallon.
3) If you are not buying from the local gas station, or if the fuel you buy in the summer sits in your tractor until winter (shame on you if this is the case), then you need to pay attention to gelling. The gel point can be lowered in fuel by cutting it with kerosene or #1 diesel, or by treating it with one of the many agents available in stores. One word of caution. Some treatments not only lower the gel temp, but also jack up the sulfur content. If you treat high-sulfur fuel with something that adds even more sulfur, you may go over board, so read the label.
Personally, I use the off-road stuff in the summer (right out of my heating oil tank) and buy from a gas station in the winter.
Some day I'll send Muhummud the write-up on all the reasearch I did on this subject a year or so ago so he can post it somewhere since this topic comes back over and over again, but for now this will have to do.
Peter
Both grades of fuel are available in on-road and off-road variants. The fuel grades and energy content are the same. Historically, the difference was only whether road fuel tax was applied when the fuel was purchased. All road fuels are taxed. Un-taxed fuel is dyed red or blue to indicate it is not taxed and you will get in deep do-do if you get caught using it in a road vehicle of any kind.
Over the past years the EPA has begun to regulate how "clean" diesel fuels are for road use. off-road and on-road fuels now also differ in whether they meet EPA requirements for road use. The primary thing the EPA regulates is sulfur content. Specifically, the sulfur content for road fuels is limited to 0.05%. Off-road diesel limits sulfur to 0.5%. With this, the terms low-sulfur and high-sulfur are being used synonymously with on-road and off-road. Off-road diesel is also sometimes called farm-diesel.
All fuel bought in gas stations will meet EPA requirments for road use and hence will be low-sulfur, and will have road taxes included in the price. If you go to a fuel dealer you can at least avoid the road taxes. You can also likely get off-road (aka high-sulfur, aka farm diesel) and not pay taxes or the increased cost for the more refined and treated road fuels that meet EPA. You can also check with your fuel dealer to see if their #2 heating oil is the same as their #2 off-road diesel. At all my local dealers, it's the same thing so I pull mine from my heating oil tank.
Here are some suggestions for navigating all this:
1) Do you use your tractor on-road, or do you not want to worry about any of this nonsense? If the answer is yes, then just buy your fuel at the local gas station. You will be paying road taxes, which you must do if you use it on the road. You will also be getting fuel that's graded/treated for the current climate in your area so you don't have to worry about gelling.
2) If you want to use off-road, then first be sure your tractor is OK with it. The B1700, 2100, and 2400 specs allow off-road fuel. I don't know about other machines for fact, but I'd be real surprized to find any tractor that won't accept off-road fuel - after-all that's what they are principally made for. If your specs allow 0.5% sulfur, you are fine with off-road, high sulfur fuel. Go find a dealer to buy it from and you will save 30-40 cents per gallon.
3) If you are not buying from the local gas station, or if the fuel you buy in the summer sits in your tractor until winter (shame on you if this is the case), then you need to pay attention to gelling. The gel point can be lowered in fuel by cutting it with kerosene or #1 diesel, or by treating it with one of the many agents available in stores. One word of caution. Some treatments not only lower the gel temp, but also jack up the sulfur content. If you treat high-sulfur fuel with something that adds even more sulfur, you may go over board, so read the label.
Personally, I use the off-road stuff in the summer (right out of my heating oil tank) and buy from a gas station in the winter.
Some day I'll send Muhummud the write-up on all the reasearch I did on this subject a year or so ago so he can post it somewhere since this topic comes back over and over again, but for now this will have to do.
Peter
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Thanks for the write up on fuel grades Pete. One other question though, if diesel fuel gells, is it usable after that??
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I've only had it happen to me once and I was surprised to find that it DID NOT reliquify when warmed up. I'm sure a petroluim engineer could explain it, but I'd only be speculating if I tried.
Junkman
Super Member
Re: High & low sulfur fuel.
I had a Mercedes Diesel that the fuel would gel if it got too cold and all I had to do was to put the car into the garage and warm it up... after that it would run fine. At that time, Mercedes said that you could add up to 20% unleaded gasoline to the fuel to counter the gelling (mid 1980's). They also came out with a fuel heater. You would cut the incoming fuel line and install this metal cylinder........ on the outside of the metal cylinder, it was wrapped with a steel line that made about 8 or 10 turns around it. The steel line had fittings on it that would accept the rubber heater hose. You cut the heater hose and put this device in between the heater.... Necessitated rerouting the fuel line a bit, but once the engine came up to temperature, which was quite quick, you never had fuel gelling problems. I bought two of them at the time and the date on the item is December 2, 1982. Just went into the garage to get it..... see attached picture.... Mercedes part #900 500 00 99.
I had a Mercedes Diesel that the fuel would gel if it got too cold and all I had to do was to put the car into the garage and warm it up... after that it would run fine. At that time, Mercedes said that you could add up to 20% unleaded gasoline to the fuel to counter the gelling (mid 1980's). They also came out with a fuel heater. You would cut the incoming fuel line and install this metal cylinder........ on the outside of the metal cylinder, it was wrapped with a steel line that made about 8 or 10 turns around it. The steel line had fittings on it that would accept the rubber heater hose. You cut the heater hose and put this device in between the heater.... Necessitated rerouting the fuel line a bit, but once the engine came up to temperature, which was quite quick, you never had fuel gelling problems. I bought two of them at the time and the date on the item is December 2, 1982. Just went into the garage to get it..... see attached picture.... Mercedes part #900 500 00 99.
