I am so glad to drive a diesel

Anyone here from NYC/ Northern NJ will tell you gas lines have been so long after Sandy. Some people wait for hours for gas just to have station run out of it and waste time.

It pays to be different and drive diesel. I have no problems finding a station with diesel where they have signs "NO GAS".

I pulled into a Sunoco that ran out of gas in Queens past Sunday. Station employee started pumping fuel after having the usual "sorry no gas" to " your car is diesel?" to "back up to this pump". Less than a minute all these cabs showed up circling like sharks sensing blood. They all are in disbelief that my car is diesel before driving away.

Yet another reason to drive an oil burner! Back in the bad old days of gas lines, green flags, and odd and even gas purchasing days (for those who don't remember that --- or were too young -- the last digit of your plate number (odd, even) determined if you could buy up to 10 gal of gas that day). Anyway, those of us who drove diesel cars (and there were lots of them back then) were exempt! We could get fuel any time they had it, which was most of the time. Grim times, I hope we are not going to see those again!

Originally Posted by UncleJ

Yet another reason to drive an oil burner! Back in the bad old days of gas lines, green flags, and odd and even gas purchasing days

These rules were back during sandy. My friends from NJ and Penn were cribbing about them.

Prior to hurricane Rita(I think that was the name) making land fall all of the gas stations in the Houston area had LONG lines waiting to try and get gas. I remember pulling into a Shell with my truck and seeing one pump with a bag over the gas handle but nothing over the diesel. I drove right up to that thing and proceeded to fill it up. I got some really dirty looks from people and I recall some guy making some nasty comments about cutting in line but he was quickly shut up by someone else before I even thought of a reply to him.

After Hurricane Ike hit us and once stations finally had power to pump the gas was hard to find but diesel easy to find. It of course took 1-2 weeks in our area for power to be restored for those stations to even work. At the time I really wished I had a diesel generator but at least was happy I had a ton of boat gas tanks and just made a long haul out to College Station to fill them all up with gas and diesel to last me through the almost month of no power to my home.

With all that said though, if I remember right after Katrina there was basically a diesel shortage. I seem to recall diesel was being imported for needs and the cost of diesel skyrocketed. So I guess sometimes it is good to be on the "alternative" fuel at stations but other times it might not be so good.

Up here in MA, all the hardware stores are out of fuel containers from the folks down south coming up to get fuel.

1 diesel truck with a 28 gal tank, 1 diesel truck with a 36 gal tank, 2 diesel tractors,2 diesel kubota 900rtvs and a 300 gallon off road diesel tank on the ranch. if I had to I could go quite awhile without filling up someplace else by just running everything thru to the 335d. after Katrina I got a letter from the state comptroller that until the end of the year they were allowing off road diesel to be used in on road vehs. I always fill up everything at the start of huricane season and make sure everything is full prior to any coming our way arriving.
for generator power we have this





27kw
fueled by this



500 gallon tank

We have a couple of people in our neighborhood with those types of generators and then they just hook up to the natural gas line for the house to feed it. If I were to build or do major remodeling then I'd probably get one myself. I just have a small 5.5k or so generator, had two but sold one to someone after Ike. I just use them really to keep the freezes cold.

Speaking of off road diesel and here in Texas, I filled up a couple weeks back at a Chevron and noticed it was red fuel. Ended up reporting it to the State.

I agree, diesel is awesome. I just did a huge roadtrip from Boston -> NoVA -> Baltimore -> Phily -> Central Jersey -> NYC -> Boston. The lines around NYC/Phlly/Central Jersey were ridiculous. I had no problems with diesel

NYC Mayor announced today that they will start odd last digit plate number/ odd days , even # even days gas rationing tomorrow. The shortage is expected for another few weeks.

Looks like it applies to diesel also: http://blogs.wsj.com/drivers-seat/20...tioning-today/

Lucky for some diesel drivers that they can get more miles from a tank.

PL

Does rationing like that truly cause a major inconvenience? I just assume you still get to fill up completely and I'd thought most any vehicle would last at least a few days before needing more fuel.

Originally Posted by Snipe656

Does rationing like that truly cause a major inconvenience? I just assume you still get to fill up completely and I'd thought most any vehicle would last at least a few days before needing more fuel.

Having lived through the early 1970's when similar rationing occurred, I can say, yes it does matter. What you have usually is a limited supply of fuel and very long lines with only a few stations open at a time to create the need for rationing.

What this does, as you might point out, is make the line just as long or longer since people will wait a day to stand on line anyway. It may perhaps prevent the yahoos who get paranoid and stand on line just to "top it off."

Government there to help out, eh?!

I got to know which stations had more fuel more consistently and stuck with them. Usually they were company owned, i.e. Sunoco or Exxon instead of privately owned stations.

PL

Originally Posted by Pierre Louis

I got to know which stations had more fuel more consistently and stuck with them. Usually they were company owned, i.e. Sunoco or Exxon instead of privately owned stations.

PL

Just to let you know most, and soon all, Exxon stations in the US are privately owned. Exxon refines the product, and licenses the stations to be branded Exxon, but the stations are privately own. There was more profit in selling the coffee, twinkies and gallons of milk than in gallons of gas, so they got out of the selling the gas business (in the US).

Originally Posted by KeithS

Just to let you know most, and soon all, Exxon stations in the US are privately owned. Exxon refines the product, and licenses the stations to be branded Exxon, but the stations are privately own. There was more profit in selling the coffee, twinkies and gallons of milk than in gallons of gas, so they got out of the selling the gas business (in the US).

This was in the news this morning. Seems like you should try Hess, WaWa and Sunoco stations to find ones with gas.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8M91U620121109

The article indicates exactly what I said.

"At hundreds of Exxon Mobil's 500 branded stations in the region, a different story unfolded. Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, spun off the last of its retail division in 2008, licensing local operators to run their branded stores as franchises"

I'm in Central NJ and the problem has been resolved. No lines. I heard that NJ may drop the odd/even this weekend.

Looks like the stations owned and operated by local oil companies in the northeast have more fuel. Not surprising.

PL