dirt farmer wrote:
Hooked up old swimming pool pump to fill heating oil tanks. Was told to
switch
to propane by ignorant friends and neighbors. Now I have 250 gallons of
heating oil and diesel to fuel my truck when the gas lines get outta hand.
The
heating oil company will truck the oil right to my house.

I admire your spunk and ability to think of new ways to do things
cheaper. But - it sounds to me - that you are breaking the law by using
home heating oil to run your diesel truck. I realize that heating oil
and diesel fuel are the same thing except for one thing - the color. The
government places a high fuel tax on diesel fuel. This is the reason
that home heating oil costs so much less - it does not have the road tax
on it. I forget what color dye they put in the heating oil - but if you
get caught with the wrong color in your truck - it is a big fine.

The reason I know this is because one of my friends during the 1978
energy crisis - bought a VW Diesel - I forget which model. Anyway - we
were paying like 80 cents a gallon for gasoline - and he was running on
heating oil that cost around 30 cents a gallon. We were waiting in
gasoline lines on odd and even days. He simply had a petcock on his
heating oil tank in the basement - fueling his VW diesel in the privacy
of locked basement by gravity from the fuel tank.

He would have gotten away with it - if he would have kept his mouth shut
- but he kept bragging in the faculty room to a bunch of disgruntled
teachers - and someone turned him in. They came to the house - checked
the fuel in the VW - then sampled the fuel in the home tank - then
photographed his little "filling station." Not only did he pay a hefty
fine - but he became national news during the energy crisis. He was
scorned by many unhappy motorists.

I was not the guy that used the heating fuel nor was I the guy that
turned him in - but I can understand both sides.

Harry