George E. Cawthon wrote:
Pop wrote:

Hi,

What do you folk do for gasoline storage for your generators?

I am in far northern NY with harsh winters and occasional multi-day
power outages with frequent outages of several hours in the winter.
Worst one so far was during the Ice Storm of '98 - 5 days without power.

Here's my solution, but I don't like it:
I simply keep about 30-35 gallons of gas on hand beginning about
late November through February. They're all in proper containers,
stored outdoors, in a small open "locker" I made for the purpose,
painted red, highly visible from the road/driveway for emergency
vehicles, and clearly labelled as gasoline storage, no smoking, all
that good stuff. But that's a LOT of gas sitting around in separate
containers, some of the plastic, which I know I should get rid of.
That locker is about ten feet from the garage and near a storage shed
behind them, with a wooden gate into the area. Theft is not a problem
- very rural, motion lites, siren, and someone is home near 24/7, etc..

I wanted a farm tank wiht a pump, but was refused; have to be a business.
Have two cars, which hold plenty of fuel, but ... no way to get the
gas out of them. Siphoning is impossible these days.

My next generator's going to be a diesel! I know how to pump fuel oil
from my furnaces! But what about right now?

TIA,

Pop


Do it like most small time farmers/ranchers. Fill a 55 gallon drum,
that you can roll or raise to a convenient height (drum horizontal).
You can even build a cage with an inner sliding part that you raise a
foot at a time with a hydraulic car jack.

The drum would have a locking tap on the downside opening with the other
opening up. Whenever you want gas you unscrew the top opening to allow
air to enter, then fill whatever you want from the tap. Add a hose
and get the barrel high enough and you can fill the vehicles. Probably
want to use up all the extra gas and empty the empty the barrel once a
year.

All those proper containers are a hazard. Much better and safer to
store a large amount altogether in an air tight container.
First I would consider moving to the natural gas/propane approach as
fuel, some exiting engines could be fitted with the type of carburetor
needed.

If that is not an option then next I would go with diesel as can be
stored much safer.

However weather diesel or Gas, I would go with a more durable and larger
container for keeping that amount on hand.

On our farm we used to have permanent tanks, We had to replace the tanks
once and the supplier said would need to now have EPA approved
installation, etc. We did not want to go through the expense of that.
The supplier told us that anything not a permanent fixture would not
necessarily need to be approved by the EPA. Many construction companies
use portable tanks to take to job sites. So we got a small heavy duty
trailer and mounted a small 100 Gal tank and then pulled down to the
supplier to have filled instead of them coming out to us. Worked out
better since when on one side of the property for a while we could take
the tank with us.

May be an option, would still depend on laws in your area, May can get a
55 gal drum that would be adequate and strap down on a suitable utility
trailer if you have means to tow somewhere to fill (Even the local gas
station)