Are power service and howes compatible with one another?

I never ran into this situation before, I always use exclusively one or the other.

I wanted to have some extra anti gel on hand, and howes was all they had where I was today.

If my previous fill-up was with power service, and say I run down to about 1/2 tank, refill and treat with howes. Are the two compatible with one another. Anyone use both together or have any issues?

I just don't want to end up with two different products that end up reacting adversely with one another.

 

There are quite a few #1 diesel pumps in Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakota's, Montana, Wyoming, etc. Even some of the bigger chain stores have them. Obviously they aren't going to be put in places like Ohio and Kansas where they would almost never get used.

Yes, most fuel along and north of the I-80 corridor claims to be pretreated. At most it is usually a 20% blend of #1 diesel (or comparable additives) good enough to get the diesel out of the pump at 0 degrees. Once that stuff gets in your tanks it's your problem.

Diesel today is much more prone to gelling. The low sulfur content doesn't disperse the wax crystals, which can begin forming at temperature as warm as 20F if the fuel doesn't see any motion (if a truck sits in 20F weather elements for days without running). Biodiesel can make matters worse. In below zero temps if you shut your truck off for extended periods of time with "normal" fuel, you are asking for trouble, especially if you run the tanks low. A lot of people fuel up with southern biodiesel and run their trucks up north into the cold, and without treating it that's where problems start.

I always treat my fuel and keep my tanks over half full if I know it's going to be below zero. You never know if you could break down or get stranded and for how long. At least with treated fuel, you have a better chance of getting the thing started after it sits in the cold for 14 hours. The newer trucks also do not circulate fuel and return it to the tanks as quickly as the older trucks did.

If you live in the northern tier, look around this weekend and this coming week. You will see plenty of rookies, bottom feeders and absent minded drivers along the side of the road puffing smoke because they didn't take cold weather seriously.

 

I have seen #1 and #2 literally separate within a fuel tank on a farm tractor. And the #2 was slush... But it had been sitting for weeks.