Filling your own oil tank

[Otahyoni]

FYI, a 55 gallon drum of diesel weighs a little over 400 pounds. I wouldn't want to drop that off my pickup.

If you have a farmer friend near you, fuel trailers are becoming pretty common. Most hold 500+ gallons and they're all road legal for hauling diesel fuel (which is probably what will already be in it).

 

[olympyk_999]

but it is illegal to put gasoline in yellow or blue.

guess i was breaking the law yesterday when i filled two unmarked 5 gallon blue containers with 93... thinking i should go write gasoline/diesel/kerosene/water on it...one on each side of the can along with painting it the proper colors?

 

[olympyk_999]

I know in Manchester VT you have to use a yellow can for off road diesel and blue for Kero, red for gasoline of course. I'm not sure if it's the law or not but the lady running the place I go to won't allow anything else.

the station i use pulls my blue chemical containers, old red mobil/ white castrol oil buckets, or what ever im using out of my truck and just asks if i want on road or off road...theyre the biggest home heating oil company in the area, with a big diesel station for trucks, and a seperate station for gas...they have never said anything about containers to me...?

 

[Wisneaky]

About 8 or so years ago I used to fill my own tank. The oil company wanted a minimum fill and we were really strapped for cash that winter so we filled 8 yellow 5 gallon cans full every now and than and that got us through.

 

[Marine5068]

I was looking at your place and where the oil fill port is and you could run a fuel line along the side of the place to fill it at the driveway or get a long portable line I guess.
An electric pump would make it easy too. That way you would have to manhandle a larger tank, just pump it out of the tank into the line that runs to the house fill port.
And what's a milk jug? I haven't seen one of those for over twenty years.

 

[NSMaple1]

Any chance of moving your oil tank to the back of the garage?

 

[1967 Tempest]

Any chance of moving your oil tank to the back of the garage?

No, house is built on the side of a rock face.

I did love how the oil company called me again and asked to come back. I told then sure if they can lock in $1.80 for the full year. Short conversation. Their big thing was that they offer a service contract. No thanks. The one time I ever used it, it was more of a hassle.

I think that the reasons stated are the ones I want to do this. The 5 Gallon yellow can thing is not that bad of an option, but it is time consuming. Say that I get 5 that is 3 trips for 75 gallons. I also do not like the 150 gallon minimum that a lot of places charge for oil around here. My wood stove does most of the lifting, but a lot of the time, the heat will kick on in super cold weather. And it looks like El Nino might play a role for us this year.

I like the Idea of a hose from the transfer tank. 400 lbs is exactly why I was worried. Not that the truck can not haul it, but moving that around is tough. I think Ill keep my eye out on CL.

What are you guys searching for? Diesel?

Thanks

 

[Wisneaky]

No, house is built on the side of a rock face.

I did love how the oil company called me again and asked to come back. I told then sure if they can lock in $1.80 for the full year. Short conversation. Their big thing was that they offer a service contract. No thanks. The one time I ever used it, it was more of a hassle.

I think that the reasons stated are the ones I want to do this. The 5 Gallon yellow can thing is not that bad of an option, but it is time consuming. Say that I get 5 that is 3 trips for 75 gallons. I also do not like the 150 gallon minimum that a lot of places charge for oil around here. My wood stove does most of the lifting, but a lot of the time, the heat will kick on in super cold weather. And it looks like El Nino might play a role for us this year.

I like the Idea of a hose from the transfer tank. 400 lbs is exactly why I was worried. Not that the truck can not haul it, but moving that around is tough. I think Ill keep my eye out on CL.

What are you guys searching for? Diesel?

Thanks

Is there any other oil companies you could go with?

 

[olympyk_999]

Is there any other oil companies you could go with?

too easy

 

[1967 Tempest]

Totally could go with another oil company. My thing is that I wanted to see if it was cheaper to do this on my own.

 

[greenskeeper]

Totally could go with another oil company. My thing is that I wanted to see if it was cheaper to do this on my own.

Do you know how efficient your furnace is? How much fuel oil would you consume per day if it ran all the time? I would think that a couple of 5 gallon jugs would be enough to hold you over (a week minimum?) so that you don't have to be running to the station every day.

I'd probably get 5 jugs and whenever I was near the station fill them up and dump them in the tank. No reason to try to fill the whole tank at one shot unless your furnace guzzles fuel oil.

 

[1967 Tempest]

Last time it was cleaned it was at 80% efficient. Yeah I'm sure I can do a few 5 gallon jugs easy enough.

 

[Marshy]

FYI, I just bought 500 gals of fuel oil at 1.98/gal. Get it while its cheap! I still have more room for 325 gallons but wont buy more unless it drops another $0.25

 

[brenndatomu]

And my company compensates me with all the fuel I want for using my truck at work so price never bothered me.

So you are saying you have free heat as a bennie?
So how's their insurance plan?

Back on topic, metal 20-30 gallon drum with a hand crank pump. Easy to wheel around on a two wheel dolly, but big enough to not be too much PITA like 5 trips with 5 gallon cans...IMHO of course

 

[stihly dan]

My 86% efficient boiler used 5 gal of diesel in 7 days for hot water only, in the summer. I do not own an oil anything anymore.