Ive been hearing alot about gelling fuel this winter.Whats going on,i havnt had any problems even when it was 20 below im using power service the one in the white bottle.does it depend on were you live and the kind of fuel that is in that area?The only kind of problem i had was when i forgot to treat my fuel and it was about 10 below ,my fuel tride to gell but my truck started and my injecter were rattling pretty good but it cleard right up.Im just curious if its different fuels in different parts of the country.

 

I'm suspecting that there may be a few bad batches of fuel that are popping up in different places.

 

The new ULSD gells at a higher temp than the old stuff. If a station or supplier were to skimp on the additives, this stuff will gell quicker.

 

Well i have been hearing alot of these problems lately and i been fortunate so far trying to keep the fuel level above half with a shot of DK here and there when the cold really dips down, knock on wood.

 

I think there mixing our diesel with water, maybe its some government plan to lower emissions again...

 

The sad thing is that sounds about par for the course!!

 

From what I've learned, ULSD does have a higher gel temperature than LSD. The other problem is winter blending. #1 ULSD that is 15 ppm or less is much more rare than #2 ULSD, so some suppliers and certain areas are having a harder time getting enough #1 to blend into highway diesel to effectively make a winter blend. Since the EPA requires less than 15 ppm, if they don't have enough #1 that fits the bill, they have to skimp out on it. So some of use are finding summer fuel at stations during the dead of winter.

The other issue is additive packages used for years on LSD aren't as effective on ULSD. So suppliers have to reformulate, and apparently for some it's a very slow learning curve.

Anyway, that's the two main issues that I've read about here and there regarding ULSD in the winter. Maybe there's more to it? I dunno, it's just what I've found so far in my limited research.

On a personal note, this year's mileage and last year's winter mileage really hasn't changed much from the summer. I'm used to a 1-2 mpg drop during the winter months, but it hasn't really happened much in the past 2 years. Not having enough #1 diesel blended into the fuel would explain it.

 

I agree with Curtis there on what he said. Yeh this new fuel doesnt have the flowing capabilities in the cold the old did. I had never anything gell untill two years ago when the changeover was made. An we got to realize these fuel filters are way more restrictive on these trucks then they were before. BTW pretty fast truck there Curtis.