At what temperature do you add winterizer to your diesel tanks?

In 26 years workin on trucks I had never seen fuel gel. Of course, it just doesn't get that cold in Arkansas very often.

February of 2021 though, we has crazy cold, ice, and wind for 3 days. Sub zero, which is rare around here.

Sysco was one of my customers, and they had called wanting anti gel put in their trucks. Not sure which one i used, but it didn't help. I started each truck and ran for an hour after i treated them.

I had to thaw them all out 2 days later. Very good week though. I ran 37 service calls in three days, myself.

 

I miss the days of the returned fuel being warm. The Series 60s returned so much hot fuel that I'm not sure they'd ever gel up if they were just idling. Not sure how the others are nowadays, but Detroit's DD motors add only a little heat to the return flow.

 

I've done that too, but it's hard to find #1 these days.

 

The chains usually don’t have it, but the smaller places usually do. Coffee Cup locations have it in SD, Town Pump in MT, KJ’s in Idaho Falls, and the Kwik Trip/Kwik Star locations have TundraMaxx. Those are my go to for where I generally run if it’s going to be cold cold.

 

Some of the mom and pops in rural Nebraska and Iowa have it too, but even there it can be hard to find.

 

If temps will be at or below 0 F then I add fuel treatment. I think I added fuel treatment 5 times in 28 years.

 

Is their a specific winter fuel treatment that works well with a Cummins X15 Engine? Our is a performance series and we are near Atlanta Ga but head towards Pittsburgh Pa regularly... We change the oil and fuel filters {Spin -on and Davco Filter} early at 20000 miles or less. No problems yet on the motor..Knock on wood!!

 

In my truck, i’ve got 2 sets blankets, So sheet, blanket, comforter then another sheet blanket, comforter and a throw blanket from a company i used to work for which was a driver appreciation throw.
Plus i’ve a sleeping bag, it’s not in this truck, it’s in my KW, it’ll probably be swapped over since it looks like i’m driving this freightliner now.

 

The more days in a row it stays below zero, the worse the risk going untreated. Setting overnight with super cold wind chills will also do the trick. Unthawing a gelled truck is much more difficult that keeping it treated ahead of time.

I would agree with anything below 10 f

I can remember some years where the tow trucks never seem to stop coming. Taken 3 or four days to get them all thawed out.