Anti Gel - When do you need it, or do you need it at all?

We run a small fleet of trucks around the midwest using Love's fuel and DEF from the pump. I was told there's additive to keep the diesil from gelling but we want to make sure the equipment is taken care of. At what temps do we need to start adding anti gel to our fuel?

 

I wait till around single digits, I use Howes Diesel Treatment. It's a lot cheaper if you get it from someplace like Farm & Fleet by the case rather than at the TS.

 

Fuel contains additives to prevent gelling. Depending on where you fuel though.

If you fuel in Texas. You could have problems in the dakotas.

Where as if you fuel in the dakotas. You have less chance of gel.

If the fuel contains bio. The stuff we hauled gelled at 43*

Bunk heaters have a tendency to quit working at 25ish degrees. If fuel isn't treated.

That's probably a good starting point.

 

Thats horrible. We used to be able to get down around 10 below with local fuels before the bio stuff.

Ive gelled before. Mechanic forgot to open a fuel tank line and we were left pondering a full tank on that side in 20 above for a week. It gelled because there was no return heating to it. So the truckstop had to throw it all away and refill it all and filters.

 

Diesel is already treated for the average temperature of the area, so the farther north you go the better fuel you will be buying for cold weather. The best anti-gel around is straight #1 if it’s going to get down below zero. And for me personally if it’s getting down in the single digits or colder I don’t shut my truck off at night.

 

Same thing I do and your DEF is NOT and CAN NOT be treated with anti-gel but the tanks are heated with a heat exchanger with engine coolant and the truck are programmed to not try using it tell it gets warmed up and if I remember correctly DEF freezes somewhere in the 10-20 degree range.

 

A few gallons of kerosene will work.

 

As long as its the clear stuff.

 

Anti-gel bottles will say to start treating at 30 or 32 F. It’s true that fuel stops up north will probably have some treatment in their fuel. The problem is it’s not clear up to how much treatment it has.

TA/Petro puts up a map every year indicating which of their fuel stops will be treated, when, and to what degree. Because of this uncertainty, I usually just treat it. Howes costs $10 at Walmart.

I use math to use exact treatments plus about 5 degrees. I wouldn’t recommend this method for drivers. It’s much more simple to follow the directions on the bottle.

Full-Service Travel Centers

 

Bellow -18 -20 degrees Celsius roughly below 0 Fahrenheit I add some treatment here on Trans-Canada, but our diesel is better treated . I have some thick socks special made cover the fuel filter, and oil filters usually first frozen paraffin gets stuck in filter clogging it; and keep spare fuel filters all the time. I used to have some isolation on my last truck, and kept fuel tanks covered and crossover diesel line covered with foamy pipe isolation .