The world runs on petroleum. Imagine a post-apocalyptic period when
the local gas station is closed, and has been for two years. How
will you carry out your daily activities? Generate electricity? Pump
water? Plow your garden, or fields? All of these can be done by hand,
and have been for thousands of years. Modern life has given us tools
to help with these chores, and we can store the tools, and the food
for them, for quite awhile. Gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, kerosene,
Coleman® fuel, and other petroleum products – all can
be stored.
For long term survival purposes, only one vehicle fuel is worth talking
about: Diesel.
Why pick diesel fuel? Simply, because it stores so much better than
gasoline. It offers better mileage in similar vehicles than gasoline
would (so you get more bang for the storage volume).
Diesel engines are inherently more reliable and getting 200K miles
or more from a diesel engine isn’t at all unusual. For example:
our daily driver car is a 1982 Mercedes 300D Turbo, that has almost
400K miles on it. The only maintenance the engine has gotten (besides
fuel and oil filters) is cleaning the fuel injectors (a simple, DIY job)
and the injector pump has been rebuilt and timed. The transmission
did have to be rebuilt at around 300K miles, I’m not sure why.
Diesel fuel is also far safer to store than gasoline is. It rarely
forms explosive vapors like gasoline will, and it has a knack of finding
any pinhole or loose fitting to leak out of, so you can find the leaks
and stop them before they get bad.
It’s also possible to make your own diesel fuel from waste cooking
oil (like from a restaurant), or oil from crops like soybeans, that
you might be able to grow yourself. The process of making biodiesel
isn’t hard, you just need some equipment and inexpensive chemicals
on hand.
For those who live in areas where homes are still heated with heating
oil, you can use that (or farm [untaxed off-road] diesel) in your vehicles
in an emergency. Don’t use it in a road vehicle until it is an
emergency, or you can get into tax troubles. If you’re planning
on scavenging for heating oil, a 12 VDC electric pump, with a good
filter (like another
diesel engine fuel filter) on the discharge side into your storage
containers. Water and fungus will grow in poorly maintained (heating
oil) tanks and gum up your engine. Filters are relatively cheap now,
get them and store them.
Unfortunately, diesel engines have to be heavy, so they don’t
lend themselves to smaller engines like for chainsaws, or similar appliances.
About the smallest sized diesel generator is 2Kva, too and it’s
not easily portable. So, in addition to diesel, it may be necessary
to store gasoline (and maybe kerosene) as well.
Storing fuel:
Whatever kind of fuel you want to store, it’s best to check and
find out the local (town, county, state) laws on storing fuel. Environmental
concerns these days make it hard to store legally, so it’s best
to find out what you can legally do before the state moves in and does
an ‘environmental cleanup’ that you will have to pay for.
These cleanups routinely exceed 5 figures in cost, and unless you specifically
have insurance for it, your insurance probably won’t cover it.
For these reasons, storing fuel above ground is usually easier than
in below ground tanks. When I decided to get a large tank for diesel,
I purchased a surplus airport refueling vehicle with a 5,000 gallon
tank, rather than try and get a permit for a 5,000 gallon tank. Also,
you should check with your insurance carrier to see if there are any
limitations on the quantity of fuel you can store.
Storing fuel in any quantity can be dangerous, and should be done safely.
If you don’t have a detached structure to store fuel in, I’d
recommend not storing any in the house – get a garden shed or
something. We have a fenced-in area (about the size of a dog run) with
a simple roof of corrugated metal, to keep the worst of the sun and
weather off the cans. Paint your above ground tanks white to help keep
them cool in the summer, and reduce evaporative loss. The tanks should
also have seals that are in good condition, to avoid water from rainstorms
getting in.
And since fuel is flammable, keep a couple of big fire extinguishers
nearby (but not in) where you keep the fuel. I’d suggest at least
two, 20 lb dry chemical extinguishers, with a rating of at least 60B:C.
These are not the usual type of home fire extinguishers, which are
too small for the quantities of fuel that might be involved.
Whatever you store, you need to make sure that it’s stabilized
for long term use. There are at least two products to stabilize fuel,
one called “Sta-bil” and another called “Pri-“,
with different versions for gasoline and diesel fuel. Most people consider
the Pri- products to be superior, [but] the Sta-bil is easier to find.
I’d
recommend getting a supply of Pri on hand. In addition to stabilizing
diesel fuel for long term use, it works pretty well at restoring old,
non-stabilized diesel fuel. See the PRI
Products and Sta-Bil web
sites.
All fuel (gas, diesel, jet, whatever) will collect water in
the tanks, from condensation. The water will allow bacteria and fungus
to grow,
if not kept in check. Pri (and others) make a bactericide that you
can use to keep the bacteria from growing. Stock up on it, too.
Whatever fuel you store, you should have different sizes of containers
of them – I keep 2-1/2, and 5 gallon fuel cans, 55 gallon steel
drums (filled only to 50 gallons), and larger tanks. The assortment
of sizes lets me move fuel in the quantities I need, or to share. The
steel containers need to be grounded while they’re in storage,
to prevent a stray static electrical spark from causing an explosion.
I also keep the smaller containers up off the ground by using wooden
pallets, to help cut down on rust. I wind up cleaning and painting
a few every year, to keep them from rusting too badly.
All of our vehicles are diesel powered. The only gasoline requirements
we have are for things like chainsaws, and for ATVs and snowmobiles.
We store liquid fuels in a variety of containers, including 55-gallon
drums (filled to only 50 gallons for gas, 52 for diesel, because fuel
will expand when it warms up, in a couple of farm tanks (medium sized
tanks on stands), 5 gallon military fuel cans, plastic fuel cans, 5-gallon
metal square cans (which store better than the round ones), almost
any kind of container that’s intended for fuel will do. It’s
easier to refill the chain saws and similar tools from smaller containers
than the large ones, and it’s not too hard to refill the 2-1/2
gallon containers from the 5 gallon cans, or the large farm tank, or
at the gas station. The stored fuel gets stabilized when we refill
the big tank, and once a year, with Pri.
To move all that fuel around, I have two AC electrical pumps, two DC
electrical pumps, and two hand pumps. The AC electrical pumps are explosion
proof, and are connected to the farm tanks with a water separator/filter
on the discharge hose. The hose has a nozzle just like at the gas station,
and we have some drip pans (made out of the cut-off ends of steel drums)
to catch anything that drips. We don’t have a meter, we keep
track of about how much we pump on a log sheet. The DC pumps connect
to the vehicle batteries, and can be used to move fuel from any source
to any tank, and have strainers and filters on them. One is for gas,
and one for diesel, of course.
For the fuel drums, you should get a legitimate bung wrench to safely
remove and replace the bungs (hole caps). These aren’t too expensive,
and handle both sizes (large and small). [They are available from Northern
Tool & Equipment.] You
can get by with regular hand tools but it’s harder, and you can
damage the drum. You should either keep the drums stored on their sides
(with
the bungs
horizontal), or at the very least keep a cover on top of the end of
the drum (there are made from plastic specifically for this purpose)
to keep water from pooling on the top from rain, which will get sucked
into even a sealed drum (through the bung).
Once you have drums, or large tanks, how do you fill them? There are
a couple of ways, you can buy fuel at the gas station in 5 gallon containers
and transfer them, or you can put a drum in the back of your pickup
truck and fill it at the gas station. I have found that if you can
find a commercial fuel distributor they will deliver, if you order
more than a few hundred gallons. They send out a smaller fuel truck
(not a semi) and charge you about the going price for fuel. Once you
have a very large tank (for the farm/ranch, you know) you can get a
good discount. I paid about 20% less than the going price to fill my
large diesel tank. In order to do this, however, you have to have a
good enough driveway and access for the truck to get to the tanks.
Finally, there’s one more way to get fuel: If you have a large
tank in your truck, you can fill it up at the gas station, and pump
it out at home. Repeat as necessary. The advantage with this is that
nobody will know that you have fuel storage at home, the downside is
the cost, because you will be paying top dollar for the fuel. And,
you have to switch around to different gas stations, going into the
same station every day for a week and buying 75 or 100 gallons of fuel
might make someone suspicious.
The farm tanks, explosion proof pumps, hoses, nozzles, fuel filters,
bung wrenches, and all the rest of the specialty equipment I mention
is commonly available from farm supply places, home centers, or industrial
supply companies. One good company to deal with is Northern
Tool & Equipment
How to ground large tanks:
First of all, you need a good ground point. The easiest way to ground
is to buy a copper-clad steel grounding rod at the home center, they’re
usually 8’ long. You pick a location (near your fuel storage
area, which of course should be away from anything that might burn)
and drive it into the ground, all the way (start on a ladder, obviously).
All it takes is time and a big hammer.
The grounding cables can be made out of old welding cables, large gauge
wire (at least 4 AWG, anything else will break pretty quickly, and
won’t withstand a lightning strike), or what the military uses
for grounding drums, 3/16” diameter, nylon or plastic coated
stainless steel cable, available at the home center or farm supply.
Attach the grounding cable to the grounding rod with a permanent clamp,
and then with alligator or battery clips, get clipped onto each metal
container, on bare metal. It’s okay to have more than one clamp
on a cable, just make sure (with an ohm meter, available for under
$10 at Radio Shack) that you have less than a couple (3-4 ohms) resistance
from the furthest end of the cable to the grounding rod. If your resistance
is more than that, clean off the connections of all the wire pieces
and try again.
NOTE: It’s not a good idea to use your home grounding point for
the fuel ground, first of all it’s probably too close to the
house, and secondly you can get into issues with ground loop currents
and other violations of the National Electrical Code – not a
law, just a good idea (usually) to follow.
Wood
If you have a fireplace, or wood burning stoves (either for cooking,
or warmth), you’ll need wood. You can cut your own, or buy it,
or both. By the way, I don’t recommend reliance on a pellet or
corn stove. They require power, and pellets (or corn), and unless you
can grow enough corn to feed them, they’re just unreliable. Even
if you can grow enough corn, they still require power.
Buying wood (rather than cutting it yourself) has some advantages.
You don’t have to do the work, for one. Cutting and splitting
wood, then stacking it to dry, then stacking it again when dry, and
moving it, all are a workout. When you buy it you can usually get it
stacked where you want (perhaps for a small extra fee).
At any rate, you should store the wood under cover, to help keep it
dry. A pile of wood with a blue plastic tarp over it isn’t going
to stay dry long. The tarp will rip in the first breeze, and they don’t
last long exposed to sunlight. If possible, build a wood shed or lean-to
that’s near where you will need the wood so you don’t have
to haul it too far. It doesn’t have to be completely weather-tight,
but if possible it should have a concrete or rock foundation, and enough
on the sides and top to keep the wood mostly dry. Your wood storage
shouldn’t be attached to the house, insects will be in the stored
wood, and you don’t want them attacking your house.
How much wood to store depends on how much you use a winter, how much
room you have, and how much you want to store. The type of wood matters
too, each type of wood has different energy values. Use what you can
get. We have a very energy efficient house, and only use about two
cords a year. A cord is a pile of split wood that’s 4 feet high
and wide, and 8 feet long. The wood in the pile is supposed to be stacked
"loose enough for a rat to run through, but not so loose that
the cat chasing it can."
Oftentimes vendors will try and sell you a pile that’s 4x8’,
but only of 16” (or smaller) pieces, this is not a real cord;
sometimes it’s called a ‘face’ cord. Adjust the price
accordingly, and shop around. I like to keep at least two years supply
of wood on hand (to allow for an especially bad winter, and since we
have a wood cook stove that we could use in the kitchen, to feed it).
In reality, I have about 10 cords of wood on hand right now, in three
sheds. Since the price doesn’t seem to go down much, it’s
not a bad investment.
I actually cut some of the wood myself (check with your local forests
to see if you can get a permit), it’s good exercise. It’s
nice to know how to cut a tree with hand tools, then limb it (cut the
limbs off), buck it (cut it into smaller sections), and finally cut
and split it to length (usually less than 16” for the stoves,
somewhat larger for fireplaces) but it’s a lot of
work. I know how, and have the tools to do it put away, but once I
learned, I decided
to use power tools. Even so, cutting and splitting with power tools
is still a pretty good workout.
Using powered or hand tools to cut wood are dangerous. You should get
trained by a pro, and be careful. Be sure to get all the protective
equipment, including Kevlar chaps, a hard hat with face and eye guards,
and hearing protection, and gloves. Follow all the other safety recommendations
as well. If you’re going to use powered cutting tools, stock
up on spares like chainsaw chains, 2-stroke oil, bar grease, a sharpening
guide (and files), etc. If you really want to get serious with crosscut
timber saws, get a kerf setter, too (kerf is the degree that the saw
teeth bend out from the saw, to prevent binding. It has to be reset
from time to time).
Propane
If you live in an area where propane is used for cooking or heat, you
will have (most likely) a white “sausage” tank outside.
These come in different sizes, but 500 to maybe 1,000 gallons are common
for homes. Larger tanks are available, you can buy them from individuals
but the propane companies will want the tanks pressure tested and certified
before they fill them, or they will sell you (or lease you) a tank.
Shop around. Usually at least two companies that serve an area. Play
them against each other to get the biggest tank you can, filled for
as little as possible). By the way, the propane company will probably
want the propane tanks grounded, or they may consider the pipe going
to the house sufficient. Personally, I’d put in another grounding
rod.
I have two tanks, one for each company in the area, both plumbed to
the house with shutoff valves. This allows me to fill up the tank from
the company that’s charging the least each year, and worked a
deal where I lease the tank for $1 per year from them. My tanks are
far enough away from everything that should they explode it’s
not that risky, but I still have them surrounded by a chain link fence,
and have a berm around them (to hide them, when they ask…the
berm has grass and flowers on it). This provides a little protection
should one ever blow, they’re also on opposite sides of my property
so if one goes, the other won’t.
We also have a couple of travel trailers, which have their own propane
bottles; and a number of smaller (20#) tanks. Propane will last forever,
so storing it isn’t hard – just keep the bottles out of
the way, and closed.
Other fuels and petroleum products
Since we have some kerosene lamps and a kerosene space heater, we store
about 50 gallons of kerosene in 5-gallon cans. Our Coleman camping
stoves are all white gas models (with propane conversions, a great
thing to do, cheap, you can use bulk tanks or disposable canisters,
and the conversion is cheap and lets you switch back and forth) so
we also have around 25 gallons of Coleman-type fuel (naphtha).
It’s not strictly fuel, but of course I store engine oil and
lubricants for the vehicles, paint thinner, solvents, gun lubes and
cleaners, etc. They are kept in original containers until I move them
to the garage, gun room, etc. The 3 trucks each use more than 3 gallons
of oil (each) at each change so I try and buy larger (1-, or 5-gallon)
containers of oil, rather than 1 qt containers. They get stored in
the covered shed.
Finally, since I do some engine maintenance around the house, I sometimes
have waste oil and fuel to dispose of. I have a 50-gallon drum that
is dedicated to this waste fuel role, and some 5 gallon cans (the ones
that have previously held kerosene or engine oil are great for this).
I can fill up the 50 gallon waste drum and then pump out smaller quantities
of
waste
oil to burn in a waste oil heater in the winter time, or to take to
town to get rid of in an approved dump.
