articfriends

iTrader: (1)

Good luck with that, I blew a Snowmobile up that was jetted safe 6 miles after filling up in the UP of Mi, went back and tested the gas there too the next day, crap was watered down, phase seperated garbage, talked to a Lawyer, said bring him 2500$ and he would file suit, he sent a nasty letter to this independent,never got a response. I avoid that place now like the Plague, I try to never buy gas from small town low volume stations any more and I do test the stuff often. I mentioned this Trout Lake Mi gas station on a Snowmobile forumm and I wasn't the first guy to blow up after gassing up there!!!! Smitty

articfriends

iTrader: (1)

I have found in testing that MANY stations are past 15% ethanol and some were almost 20%, no one checks this. I have melted down Snowmobiles after getting crap gas, had a incident a few years ago from a local station near my house, it was closed while new owners took over, just re-opened, I filled 2 sleds up and went up riding over Christmas, I made it 1 mile before both sleds started running so bad they quit. I walked back and found some fresh gas, used one to tow the other back and luckily this stuff had phase seperated so bad they simply just quit instead of leaning out and melting down which was a pia but I didn't have tpo do anything other than drain them, clean out the carbs and lines then they were fine. I bought a gallon of premium there the next day and it was 1/2 water/ethanol and one half low grade gas. You didn't need to test it to see it, the clear 1 gal bottle I had it in was divided 1/2 way down!!!! The gas station owner gave me the money back for the bad gas, and 100$ for my trouble, still lost a day of riding and had to walk but I know from past experience that taking him to court would cost more than it was worth and I didn't in that instance acxtually have a serious loss. I can't stress enough for people to spend a few minutes doing a simple test to see the content of alchohol is there gas,, it will either give you piece of mind or you will know to NEVER buy from that station, Smitty

SDFever

Maybe this kit is a slightly easier version for what Smitty was talking about??

Looks like it's expensive enough and apparently you pay that much per sample so maybe you try to buy your boat fuel at one place only and say maybe sample it once a month??

I dunno -

http://www.fuel-testers.com/order.html

nitrousnolan

I am just going to buy a Diesel boat ......with stacks!! That will solve my issues. Can you say REDNECK??

articfriends

iTrader: (1)

That is a simple cheap test kit, 32$ and if you read the fine print the titrating solution is enough to test 450 times, not a one shot deal, Smitty

sun 304

Mercury marine sells a simple to use ethanol test kit for under $10.00 if I remember correctly. You put a small amount of gas in a vile and add a small amount of tap water, wait a couple of minutes then read the scale on the vile for percentage of ethanol.

Audiofn

Why involve a Lawyer in something like that? Just do the small claims thing. They would have a hard time defending it if you can show that the ethenol was over the 10% mark. Now instead of blowing a sled motor that costs you a grand or two to fix what about some of these guys motors that have huge money in then. I did do a search and there seem to be a few going but no results posted.

carcrash

The thing is, without subsidies, the only fuel sold would be ethanol! Ethanol without any subsidies of any kind, including all costs (such as land and the fact you've got to invest in growing it for a long time before you can make it and then it still takes awhile before you can sell it) COSTS ABOUT $1.10 PER GALLON in the tanker truck driving to your local gas station.

Its actually the petroleum industry that gets the hand outs, even at $100 a bbl. Count the ways: 1) they get the hundreds of millions of years it took for oil to form for free; 2) they get the hundreds of billions of dollars per year required for military protection of the global supply chain for free; 3) they get the global climate change effects for free (everyone will pay an awfully large bill soon for this); 4) they get the global distribution infrastructure (harbors, pipelines, trains, roadways) for free; 5) They get the oil itself for essentially nothing (the leases are essentially free); 6) They get to pollute the ground water for free (everyone else pays).

In other words, the petroleum industry is very similar to the financial industry in its privatization of profits combined with the public bailouts for liabilities. Its really hard to get further from free enterprise than with entrenched energy.

C_Spray

iTrader: (2)

Strike back. Buy stock in the oil companies and collect your share of the profits.

apollard

Really? Where can you buy it for that? I work in the chemical industry, and our commodity purchasers would love to know your supplier - fuel grade ethanol is trading right now for an average of $1.93 without frieght.

And that is, by the way, the subsidized price.