I buy it when it goes on sale around here. 7.99 for 2.5 gallons. never heard of it going bad. I buy a couple at a time. never even thought of making my own. it is like trying to make your own diesel.

 

I th no the other big issue with making it, even if it's 99% pure and you have a gaurunteed pure RO water, is what contaminants are in the other 1%, and what contaminants are in the bottle you use? You also have to use a container with the appropriate spout.

The economics don't make a lot of sense like your hearing,, especially considering what damage could be caused to the systems of the truck. When the zombies come, I will be deleting everything and burning bio I make myself, but until then, going to stay stock....hopefully till my arrests runs out.

 

I'm all for doing things yourself, but let's be realistic. Even at $10/gallon, if you're using one gallon every thousand miles, that works out to $0.10 per mile. That's so low on the list of expenses inherent to owning a diesel as to be meaningless.

Even your oil changes, figuring $100 per change at a 3000 mile interval cost three times that per mile. It would make more sense to look for a homebrew recipe for motor oil, and that's ridiculous.

Plus the risk involved with damaging a complex and expensive system that was never intended to operate on the fluid you put in it, will likely void the warranty and possibly cost you thousands of dollars. To go from $0.10 per mile for DEF to... What? $0.05?

To any logical person, the reward simply isn't there.

If you can't afford the $0.10/milefor DEF, you definitely can't afford to drive a diesel.

 

FYI - @ $10/gal per 1000 miles = $0.01 per mile, not $0.10 per mile, so at a more realistic price from the pump of $2.50/gal per 1000 miles, you really only talking about $0.0025 per mile.

 

Doing things DIY is fine. However, given that you can afford a Lariat Ultimate, the idea of trying to save a tiny sum of money by mixing DEF at home actually makes even less sense than if you were only able to buy a base F250.

 

Good catch MJR - Don't know how that slipped past me.

 

So you can still drive your truck when they start rationing DEF.

 

yes, with minimal thought.
You have between 2,000 and 5,000 miles before you start to NEED it, it SHOULD NOT be s suprise to you that you might want to look for some.
the only thing thing that will cause s shortage is if people start horsing it.

 

Well, this is a 5 year old thread, so.........

 

One thing I can speak for, if the DEF is old, or crystalizes, it’s hellaciously expensive to repair. I was a warranty writer for 3 years.

 

So the morale of the story is not to hoard DEF from 2017. Regardless if it’s homemade or store bought. Got it.

 

Correct. Guess I didn’t add much to the op’s question, but want to save someone grief.

 

I wonder how the OP is dealing with the current cost of diesel???

 

Probably driving a Prius by now.

 

There are concerns that DEF and raw UREA (it is a common fertilizer component), could become very scarce in the coming months. I run a fleet with 25 diesel trucks and just by coincidence we also happen to be in the DI water business. After a few hours of research I was able to determine a couple of things A) that buying DEF in bulk, like a 250G tote has a few issues. The stuff cannot be stored in the sun and it has about a 6 month shelf. So if you do not use it you end up throwing it away. B) It can be messy if it is spilled as once the water evaporates you are left with the white crystalline reside (the urea), all over the place. As a water company I also do not want to pay for the water or the freight for a product that is 66% water. Water is heavy.

Anyway, I can mix 20G of DEF at a time using one #50 bag and 14G of DI water for $2.50 per gallon. So the savings is actually +/- 50% on the product itself. However that is NOT why I am doing it. I am doing it because if UREA is $1 a lb now what am I going to do when it is $3 a lb or $5 and lb and DEF fluid is $15 or $20 a gallon? Or worse if packaged DEF is just not available.

So my decision to mix my own DEF (we use about 100G a month), is not necessarily for TODAY. It is actually for what is going to happen as things get worse. I also feel like I am using the freshest DEF out there

JFoley