Diesel is starting to hurt!!!

[J's Dream]

I made a call to the local fuel dock here to check on the price of diesel fuel. Much to my surprise, their price as of 3pm today was $3.89/gal + tax, which here is 6% (FL East Coast, Melbourne), so the total gallon price is $4.12!!!

Can anyone tell me why I shouldn't buy on-road diesel at the local station, and figure out a way to get it to the boat? On-road diesel today was $3.50/gal, so a savings of more than 60 cents/gallon. I can only imagine how high it will continue to climb.........

Jason

 

[Jaxfishgyd]

At my little marina (hey, only 23 slips) we all combined our 6 gal cans so if anyone wants to use them, there are now 22 of the available.... Now it is a PITA in time and hassle to do, but like you said... For the price difference...

 

[Brian Degulis]

Here's a better idea if you can go to a fuel supplier and get off road it will be about 40 cents a gallon cheaper that the gas station price and it will be the same thing your getting at the fuel dock. That's what I do I have a 225 gal tank that I put in my truck and then pump it into the boat.

Brian

 

[Jaxfishgyd]

Brian has the best idea, but at our marina, we tried to get a fuel truck to come out but due to the parking layout, it can't get close enough to "legally"fuel us as he is only allowed to use "X amount" of hose.
Luckily for me both tanks are full.

 

[ohiohatteras]

See if you can find a place besides your marina to meet the fuel truck....We used to do it all the time when we were fueling the 70....

 

[SKYCHENEY]

At our marina we dont have a fuel dock so several times per year we have a fuel truck come by and fill us up. It is a big savings and it usually gets better the more boats we have to fill.

What I used to do is put the 300gal tank in the back of my pickup and fill at the local truck stop. That was 20 years ago and I doubt that it would be feasible now with all of the new regulations. Even the local jobber has to have a marine permit to fuel us now.

 

[Brian Degulis]

Yeah I guess you can get into a lot of regulations I keep my boat behind my house so it's not a problem. But if you think you can do it go to an oil company not a truck stop or any place that fuels cars or trucks. Then you can buy OFF ROAD it's the same fuel you get at marinas but without the road tax or the marina mark up. In FL that's around 40 cents a gallon less.

Brian

 

[Pascal]

down here most delivery service can meet you somewhere else if your slip is too far from where they can park.

rules vary but the sea tow franchise here at the marina has a large tank and pump in back of their pick up truck and refuel their boats (gas) right at the dock... there are many construction pick up trucks on the road with a tank and pump for construction site, esp diesel.

 

[mtadamek]

It is funny your marina charges tax to begin with. Check your state regs, here in TX you can't buy non-tax gasoline anymore. You have to send in a form with receipts to get the tax back. You can do it for diesel as well, if you can't find offroad diesel.

 

[NAN-PO 41]

Here in Mass. you can file to get the road use tax back when you do your income taxes also. One thing you need to be aware of if you have a truck come to the dock is that some states require you to be using ultra low sulphur diesel. If you get fueled with home heating oil or get fueled by a truck that also carried heating oil without being properly cleaned between loads ( I understand that it is cost prohibitive to do that on a regular basis ) you can be subject to some serious fines. We have an on site fuel truck fill our boats at the dock but he does not carry anything but ulsd in that truck and the receipts state that we are indeed getting ulsd.
Like they say buyer beware.
Fred

 

[BUSTER]

Here in Mass. you can file to get the road use tax back when you do your income taxes also. One thing you need to be aware of if you have a truck come to the dock is that some states require you to be using ultra low sulphur diesel. If you get fueled with home heating oil or get fueled by a truck that also carried heating oil without being properly cleaned between loads ( I understand that it is cost prohibitive to do that on a regular basis ) you can be subject to some serious fines. We have an on site fuel truck fill our boats at the dock but he does not carry anything but ulsd in that truck and the receipts state that we are indeed getting ulsd.
Like they say buyer beware.
Fred

Regulations! They just started that here in Ct. as well.I have a seperate storage tank to fuel my heavy equipment versus the tank that fuels the trucks.a few weeks ago I met the fuel truck driver to get the fuel receipt and he told me the off-road fuel was now "dyed ultra low sulfur" how do they check that? It looks exactly the same as the old dyed #2 we were getting!

 

[Passages]

Regulations! They just started that here in Ct. as well.I have a seperate storage tank to fuel my heavy equipment versus the tank that fuels the trucks.a few weeks ago I met the fuel truck driver to get the fuel receipt and he told me the off-road fuel was now "dyed ultra low sulfur" how do they check that? It looks exactly the same as the old dyed #2 we were getting!

I'm also in CT. 2 Years ago I won a contest where the prize was a tankful of home heating Bio-D. In order to make room in my tank, I transferred a lot of #2 oil from the house to the boat. When I checked the regs then, the only prohibition was I could not use dyed #2 in over the road vehicles. Now with the new blend, each delivery reciept states "Dyed #2 fuel oil, use in over the road and marine applications prohibited."

 

[the kuz]

When we got our home heating oil delivery last week, I asked about off road use, and was told MD has recently gone to 3 blends; greenish on road ($3.44 at the local pump), red #2 ($2.96 delivered), and ULS red off road/marine (didn't know latest price). Driver told me not to get caught with # 2 in an off road application. My neighbor is a commercial fisherman with a 499 gal tank at his dock. I'll check with him and see what he is getting/paying now and let you know the bulk price here in southern MD.

Regards, Bob K

 

[solanderi]

FWIW this is the company that we used when our marina's fuel tanks were being cleaned.

http://www.petersonfuel.com/

Easy, Convenient and .....CHEAPER !!!! Not a common finding in todays market. Just call and make an appointment. Good Luck,

Greg

 

[Brian Degulis]

Regulations! They just started that here in Ct. as well.I have a seperate storage tank to fuel my heavy equipment versus the tank that fuels the trucks.a few weeks ago I met the fuel truck driver to get the fuel receipt and he told me the off-road fuel was now "dyed ultra low sulfur" how do they check that? It looks exactly the same as the old dyed #2 we were getting!

When they check trucks they don't care about the color they actually check the sulfer content the dye is only to make it easy for the user. In FL using off road in a truck is $500 first offense. So lets see I have 160,000 on my truck gets about 18 MPG highway so that's around 8700 gals of fuel. At 40 cents per gallon savings thats about $3500 I would have saved if I wasn't the civic minded taxpayer I am.

Brian

 

[krush]

I know the owner of a fuel business and he said you can carry up to 100gal in a tank in your pickup without a hazmat license and permit. I'm still trying to verify it (I thought it was LOWER, like 50 gal).

 

[BUSTER]

When they check trucks they don't care about the color they actually check the sulfer content the dye is only to make it easy for the user. In FL using off road in a truck is $500 first offense. So lets see I have 160,000 on my truck gets about 18 MPG highway so that's around 8700 gals of fuel. At 40 cents per gallon savings thats about $3500 I would have saved if I wasn't the civic minded taxpayer I am.

Brian

Our fleet averages about 2 million miles a year,if a fuel sample is pulled at a roadside inspection "or an audit in our own truckyard just past spring" and the fuel is anything but clear-to off green the operator will be fined.The only reason we discontinued our used motor oil/fuel blending program was to fall into compliance and not have problems with the Federal DOT.

 

[yachtsmanbill]

I'm also in CT. 2 Years ago I won a contest where the prize was a tankful of home heating Bio-D. In order to make room in my tank, I transferred a lot of #2 oil from the house to the boat. When I checked the regs then, the only prohibition was I could not use dyed #2 in over the road vehicles. Now with the new blend, each delivery reciept states "Dyed #2 fuel oil, use in over the road and marine applications prohibited."

Been watching this and I am now confused... All Ive ever been able to get for the boat is red #2 and its the same on our tugs. Is the ULSD gonna be dyed a different color? ws

 

[Brian Degulis]

Our fuel supplier at work is telling me that soon it will all be the ULSD the non tax off road will be dyed but it will be the same as road fuel. I wonder how they will check highway trucks?

Brian

 

[NAN-PO 41]

I was told by our fuel distributor that all off road will be ulsd and will be dyed red. That will make it easy for the powers that be to know if an on road vehicle isn't paying the tax. In addition to that they will actually be testing fuel samples from off road vehicles ( includes marine ) for sulphur content.
This means that we need to keep accurate records of our fuel purchases and a log of the use of the vessel. If you don't have everything on paper to prove what you bought and where you bought it you could end up with a serious problem. We were told that here in Mass. we can expect testing to start after the 1st of the year sometime and that it will definitely happen.
A question that came to mind is what do you Southern guys do if you make a trip to the Bahamas? A very small amount of high sulphur diesel will contaminate a whole tank of ulsd. That is supposed to be the reason testing won't start here until months after the mandated changeover. The time delay will allow the ulsd to dilute the sulphur out of the tanks.
Government regulation at its best.
Fred