Installing a dedicated APU fuel tank?

This will not be happening in the near term, but if one were to install a dedicated APU fuel tank, say a 10 gallon tank with steps in place of catwalk steps, would you be able to legally buy reefer (untaxed) fuel for it, since it is not fuel for the primary engine?

APUs do not use a huge amount of fuel, but they do use enough that being able to buy untaxed fuel to operate them would repay the cost of installing a small dedicated fuel tank fairly rapidly.

I cannot do this in the short term because the company whose authority I am running under would almost certainly object to my using their account to pay for my APU fuel, since they currently pay 100% of reefer fuel costs.

However, in the long term, I might go dry van, or o/o under my own authority. In the first case, I might be able to simply pay for all 'reefer' fuel, since I would no longer be buying fuel for reefer trailers. In the second case, I would be paying for all the fuel anyway.

 

Well, you can buy untaxed fuel pretty much anywhere by selecting 'reefer' fuel at the pump.

If you buy a rail mounted fuel tank with accessories it would probably cost about 1200 turnkey? Let's say 1500 dollars to be safe.

Average fuel tax per gallon is 60 cents.

To break even on the cost of a 1500 dollar installation, that means 2500 gallons of APU fuel.

At .3 gallons per hour, that would be 8300 hours of APU operation to pay off the cost of the fuel tank.

If you run the APU on average 5 hours per day, that is 1666 days. Or a bit less than 5 years.

At first glance this seems like a weak investment. However, it is a fuel tank. Unless you do something severe to it, maintenance is near zero. Sure, some hoses, valves, sensors might go bad, but those are not major expenses. A fuel tank can last a long, long time.

After you do get the investment paid off, you are pocketing a couple extra dollars every day. At today's fuel tax prices.

These numbers assume a 1500 dollar install, and average 60 cent per gallon fuel tax. Both of those numbers can vary wildly.

My concern was mostly about the legality of buying tax-free fuel for APU operation.

 

As for bad weather and access to fuel, I doubt anyone would have a problem with you manually siphoning a bit of fuel from the taxed fuel tank to the untaxed one. The reverse, of course, would not be acceptable to the taxman.

 

600 dollars a year for something that will require practically zero maintenance? Yes.

If fuel taxes go up, it will save more money, faster.

After you buy the tank, if you buy a new truck, you just install the tank on the new truck. One time investments that make money practically forever with little cost shouldn't be sneezed at.

On the other hand, it will reduce cargo capacity by a couple hundred pounds. It will also require separate fueling actions at the pump.

The biggest concern I have is that I will have to choose between a APU fuel tank and a lockable storage box for tools and supplies. Extra room for tools, oil, antigel, etc. Would be welcome.

 

I should probably wait until I get an APU installed. Current truck is an opti-idle truck.

APU installation will hopefully happen in six months or so, or when I have 20k in my personal account, and at least 10k in the maintenance account. Likely will be a used Thermoking unit from a TK dealer.