500 gallon diesel tank ~~~ its mine now!

I've been looking for a good farm diesel tank for over a year.

So last week I posted a "WTB" on the local Craigslist and I get an email from a local farmer (the other side of the county) saying he has what I need. Spent a year looking and a simple free ad on Craigslist gets me a solid lead on a tank in 24 hours and a tank as soon as I can pick it up.

Talked to him several times over the past week to arrange for a meeting time when I could come look for it. Finally got to his farm today. Nice older guy, selling off his equipment because he retired from farming a couple years ago. The tank is 500 gallons and is a 'ground' tank as opposed to an elevated gravity tank. That makes it much easier to fill for me, so I'm happy to have the ground tank. The downside of the ground tanks is you need a pump to get the fuel out. So the farmer threw in the pump. $300 for the whole thing. I know the high quality pumps sell for $200 and up.

A friend of mine is going to pick it up at the end of the week, or early next week. Now that the guest house is completed (got the "final inspection" and occupancy permit last Friday) the tank can be brought out and set in place without getting in the way of the contractors.

Ha! Your Screwed, now you got to fill it up!

Too bad you didn't get it a few years ago!

Right now, here locally, the cost of diesel is about four and a quarter bucks a gallon, and for offroad fuel, the price isn't much cheaper anymore.

Good luck though, now everyone will know you got that much fuel stored there and.... well you get the picture...

Wow, Good deal, too bad you couldn't have gotten it filled before the hike of the last few months

I'm confused why you didn't just call your local farm service....I didn't pay a red cent for my 500 gal tank.

Do you have the mandatory containment tank that can hold all of it's contents if it springs a leak? I couldn't get mine filled until I welded up a 'bathtub' around it that would hold at least 550 gallons. Odd thing is that they never cared with my little 275 gallon tank. The other thing that sucks is that the distributors absolutely rip you off if you don't buy something like 1500 gallons or more at a time. It makes no sense at all, but now I can literally go fill my 110 gallon transport tank in the back of my pickup for less per gallon than the dyed #2 off road diesel that has no road taxes paid. It took me a few trips (only 4 miles away though) to top off all my tanks at $3.72 per gallon about 2 weeks ago. Now I have the option of filling my pickup at home since none of my fuel is dyed. Oh, when I bought the non-dyed fuel for $3.72 per gallon the best price I could get from 4 different distributors for dyed #2 was $3.85 plus tax per gallon!! What a rip! I used to get #2 dyed delivered for $0.76 per gallon for years when it was a buck and a half a gallon at the pump.

Be sure to get you a good filter system and change your filters a couple of times right away after you use it some. Moving the tanks around gets all the 'settled' stuff back up and suspended in your fuel. I took a 550 gallon Rural King tank back about 3 years ago that I'd purchased on clearance because the entire inside of the tank was covered with rust. No way I was going to chance plugging an injector or trashing a fuel pump with rust that may have gotten past the filters. Now you be a regular farmer! Whatcha plantin' this year?

Dargo said:

Do you have the mandatory containment tank that can hold all of it's contents if it springs a leak?

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No I don't.

I'm getting the tank filled for FREE with ROAD diesel.

I had to buy the tank because the fuel supplier would not supply a tank to someone who is not paying for the fuel! Already got a 275 gallon tank filled with road fuel. And another empty 275 gallon tank. The way I figure it I'll have about 2 years worth of diesel stored up, for only the cost of the tanks.

OH, and DARGO, thanks for the tip about the filters. I'll take your advice, probably double filter it and change those out a few times early on.

As for the containment tanks, none of the farms around here have those and only SOME of the commercial operations have them.

i have a 500gal ground tank for gas, had it for about6 years. I find the local delivery gives me a break of about 3 to 5 cents a gallon if i pay cash and get over 100gal at a time.

Hey..now I know where to come if I need gas








don't you hate it when people say that to you, as if you get it for free. The last person who said it, I told them I charge the same as BP down the road- the got a little irritated which made me happy

Make the first filter a water trap one so you can drain off any that comes out when you start pumping.

i think you will find a "size limit" on containment tanks. we had to put our tanks in "half septic tanks" in order to get them filled.....and have a roof over them. our old 250 tanks didnt need them..... you can get no. 2 septic tanks pretty cheap as they wont pass health dept. for some reason but pass for containment tanks. hmmmm tells me sh$% must be worse than gas.

thepooguy said:

i think you will find a "size limit" on containment tanks. we had to put our tanks in "half septic tanks" in order to get them filled.....and have a roof over them. our old 250 tanks didnt need them..... you can get no. 2 septic tanks pretty cheap as they wont pass health dept. for some reason but pass for containment tanks. hmmmm tells me sh$% must be worse than gas.

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All depends on where you're eating.

thepooguy said:

i think you will find a "size limit" on containment tanks. we had to put our tanks in "half septic tanks" in order to get them filled.....and have a roof over them. our old 250 tanks didnt need them..... you can get no. 2 septic tanks pretty cheap as they wont pass health dept. for some reason but pass for containment tanks. hmmmm tells me sh$% must be worse than gas.

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That makes sense to what I've experienced. All of the distributors around me are pretty big and would be ones who would go by the letter of the law. Like you, they didn't care about my smaller tanks but wouldn't consider filling my 550 gallon tank until I had it in a containment tank. Some smaller distributors may not heed the rules as much.

DaveNay said:

I'm confused why you didn't just call your local farm service....I didn't pay a red cent for my 500 gal tank.

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It doesn't work like that around here. You have to buy the tank. The last time I checked it was about $700 for a 500 gallon tank. They will supply a tank on a stand with hose and nozzle for about $1100. You buy the filters and any kind of gauge you want on it. Also, they won't schedule a delivery of less than 300 gallons. You can get less but it is at their convenience meaning that if they have some left in their tank after making another delivery, they'll drop by your place.

Also, around here, you need a containment wall if it is a "permanent" installation.

Sounds like you got a good deal Bob. I'd love to have that much storage capacity. It's funny that over the years we often seem to be traveling down the same road, in the same direction, but you are always at least 10 steps ahead of me.

Ah well, until I luck into something, I'll have to keep on using my 55 gallon drums.