Diesel fuel?

Educate me, is one diesel fuel better than another?

Do you need an additive to prevent bacteria?
Do you need an additive for cold temps?
Is one diesel fuel additive better than another?

Planning on bringing a new Kubota 3560 LE home today and storing it in old barn. Want to add some chain hooks, get familiar with tractor, see if I can't use forks I made for terramite or go shopping for forks. Front bucket is quick attach.
Might make a redneck snow pusher for front bucket. Does anyone have a pic of their homemade snow pusher?

Where did you get your quick attach forks?

I do not run my diesel much so I put additive in for algae and another like house or Stanadyne that is a multi purpose anti gel and injector cleaner type stuff.
A regular set of forks will be way stronger then the ones that slip onto a bucket. Plus it keeps the load back farther so you can lift more.

I bought some biocide a few years ago, and use a little occasionally, last fall I had an extra 5 gallons of summer diesel that was not treated that I stored over winter. When I went to pour it in the tractor this spring it clogged the fine screen funnel that I use with some slimy stuff. So, this year again I have extra summer fuel so it has been treated! I don't have anyplace to buy fuel near where I use the tractor so I keep at least 5 gallons on hand all the time, the JD 4600 burns about a gallon per hour. The place where I buy fuel has winter diesel available in mid Nov. so I drain the tractor and refill with winter. I am gone down south Dec-Mar, but I want it ready to go in March. I keep some winter fuel treatment on the shelf but I prefer to buy winter diesel, which should be straight no 1 but is usually a blend, as no 1 is a lot more expensive. I do add 2 oz of 2-stroke oil to every 5 gallons of fuel for pump lubrication. I have been doing this for 18 years, 1160 hours on the tractor, no problems, it's all cheap insurance!

My dealer stocks forks. I have both types and agree, the ft-lbs gets you on the add-on-to-a bucket-forks and are only good for light loads.

I use Power Services products. Will answer your questions for engine and fuel hygiene, algae and other storage problems. One is specially formulated for anti-gel. Your tractor supply store or maybe wallyworld in your area carries their products. Google gives you the history of the company and how and why it was conceived and developed.

A lot of guys have used a section of pipe and slit it to go over the cutting edge and seem to get along good that way. I have yet to try it. I do not have much area to do so I still use the walk behind snow blower.

what does the dealer say locations can vary temps ect

Just use pump fuel from a local station, it should be blended for your climate. Every fall the treatment debate goes around and farmers overwhelmingly go for power service products, but then most every year someone comes on here and says they treated with it and still have problems. If you go to a truck stop and look you will see pallets of Howes diesel treat and a few bottles of power service. Most every trucker has a story of power service failure. Farmers and you will rarely get in a dangerous situation so it really doesn't matter much. A trucker can be many dozens of miles from help and can't afford to take the risk of a problem as gelling on the road could be fatal. What ever you use I would treat the First tank at double or triple the recommended rate. I don't think you can get too much as you can pour it directly into the filters

Congratulations on the new tractor. I use power service on diesel and haven't ever had any problems. The problem with smaller tractors and forks is the frame is heavy enough it takes away from the lift capacity. Try looking up a place called Artillian. He designed a lighter frame but still has the same capacity as most other manufacturers. He mostly specializes in JD but I think your tractor has a skid steer attachment and he offers that.

Getting the loader that's going first class keep it first class and buy a set of quick attach forks for it and never look back... I doubt you will ever be sorry for that decision... ; )

Mite as well add the third function while you have the dealer in the sale mode...

How I got by without pallet forks I dunno I use them all the time its made a one man show out of most of my projects.. I keep some of my bigger shop equipment I don't use much in another shop to free up space in my work shop I retrieve them with the forks. I keep several work tables around and move them to the job site with the forks. Transmissions, engines, gas tanks they all get moved with the forks... : )

You are the man life is good...

I use road fuel from the local station. I hate the dye in off road fuel.

Can't believe you actually bought a diesel!

farm bureau or country mark farm fuel called ruby red always used in my farm diesels as well as dads for many years. also farm bureau now country mark I think has a saeies III oil. premium oil. Back in the day new 730 John Deere diesel . Dealer always rechecked pumps and injectors after one year,.Mechanic at shop said he could tell diesels using series III from farm bureau as they were cleanest of any internal engines on diesel tractors he worked on at one year recheck.

I buy premium winter blend off road diesel fuel for the farm and use it all year. Never had any problems with it, and never buy or add anything to it.
Winter-blend fuel has a higher RVP, (Reid Vapor Pressure) that allows it to evaporate at low temperatures for the engine to start and run properly when the engine is cold.

If you are looking for forks check out palletforks.com. They sell all kinds of quick attach implements and the prices are very reasonable.

OTJ

Put a blade or a snowblower on the back and keep the loader bucket on the front. That'll give you more options. If you're too cheap to buy either you can make a snow pusher for the 3 point. We pushed snow with a home made snow pusher on a 2 WD tractor for 50 years before I got a 4WD tractor. Loaded tires with chains and wheel weights. Worked great. Diesel fuel? Wait until your fuel dealers have winter diesel. Probably #1 in your area. Up here, they usually go to "arctic". That, plus block heater and you'll have no problem. It'll start like summer time. Kubota is absolutely the best.

First thing I would do is check your owner manual to see if there is any guidance on fuel. Ulsd( ultra low sulfur diesel) is what you get at on road diesel pumps. Off road/ farm fuel can be low sulfur diesel. Then consider that winter is coming and you will want winter blend fuel. Here the switch is done about this time of the year, but remember that at first the winter blend at the gas station will be less than full blend as it is mixed with what is in the tank , so you may want to wait to buy it for a couple weeks then use a supplier that sells a lot of fuel. Last you may want to consider a fuel additive be sure it has anti gell properties. A lot of people like white bottle power service, Howes and there are others. Congrats on the new tractor.

As Columbo would say ?just one more thing ? if you plan to use the tractor a lot in the winter and you get real cold weather there in winter you may want to consider getting a block heater or coolant heater to aid in cold weather starting. I will say that a couple people I know have owned smaller Kubota tractors and they usually start really well just using the original equipment pre heater or glow plugs.

I got forks from Titan in KY I think. Work and fit perfect. Ron MN

So the one thing people get confused on: dyed fuel.

They add a red dye to fuel that is not taxed for use in licensed, road vehicles. All the different blends of diesel fuel may or may not be dyed, it makes no difference to the engine running it. You want the right diesel fuel, but the red dye has zero meaning to the quality of the fuel or how your engine will like it. The non dyed stuff will cost more because you are wasting money on road taxes.


#2 diesel is the best for a hard working typical tractor engine.

Unless it is below freezing, we?ll below about 25 degrees, the fuel starts gelling. Means the little waxy bits become more wax and less liquid. They will stop up, plug, your fuel filter when it gets cold enough. Then it is hard to do much about it. Below freezing you want to either add some anti gel (Power Service or several others) or blend in #1 diesel fuel. #1 diesel fuel won?t gel until you get to minus 60 degrees F. But it costs more, and it is a ?drier? fuel so it will make your engine run warmer. This is good in winter, but not so good in summer. So you don?t want to run #1 straight all year long, in the heat of summer. The colder it gets, the more #1 you need to blend in, or the more anti gel you need to have mixed in. When it gets 10 below F or worse, you really need to be on top of this, the #2 can get very thick. It?s not fun trying to get thick diesel fuel out of your filters and lines when it is that cold.

Here in Minnesota, and other states I think, we have a 5% blend of soybean oil in the diesel fuel year around. In summer that blend goes up to 20% here. Soybean oil is great, it helps replace the sulfur lubricity we lost and makes your engine last longer, and it is a good solvent t keep crud from building up on your fuel system (in an old dirty vehicle, you might need to change the filters if you start using a higher blend of bean oil, it scrubs out all the gunk....). But, the bean oil will gel a little faster. So you don?t want to be running the 20% summer blend of diesel in a cold winter. Here they switch over on October 1st.

I have only added the bio-cide once for algae, when I had it show up. Normally this is a non issue and not something to fuss with. Anyhow around here.

Paul

I bought one of these quick attach plates for my skidsteer and love it. I can attach my 3pt landscape rake and have down pressure which makes it a lot more efficient. I also put my back blade on in the winter and push it backwards so it is not as aggressive, again it gives it downpressure and if I get a packed area I just scrape the opposite direction. As for forks, just spend the $750 and get a set made for a skidsteer.

(quoted from post at 09:31:24 11/01/19) I hate the dye in off road fuel.

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:? :? Huh???? :? :?

Curious why you "hate" the red dye? Does it do something detrimental to the quality of the fuel? I can overcome a lot of hatred for 30 cents a gallon savings.

(quoted from post at 09:03:36 11/01/19) Curious why you "hate" the red dye? Does it do something detrimental to the quality of the fuel? I can overcome a lot of hatred for 30 cents a gallon savings.

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I hate it cause I can't run it in my truck

Comes from working on furnaces. The dye builds up on the nozzle and ruins them. True that nozzle is cheap but the ones in my tractor aren't and the pump isn't either.

If that was a real issue, it would have shown up in the past 40 plus years that its been used.

Congratulations, George.

You realize that you will become spoiled within minutes of start up?

I would suggest that you become familiar with the Kubota forum on TBN and also the Orange board.

Post back if you need links.

Dean

Hi George you wanted to see some Red neck snow pushers



I posted these for you a couple weeks ago. Position the pickle forks close to the side of the bucket so it doesn't move back and forth. Attach with chains it takes only seconds to hook up or remove.

For the fuel it get kicked around here all the time like the electrical questions. Just buy clean fuel and keep it clean. I figure if it is kept clean enough to eat off of it will be clean enough for the fuel.
The fuel is blended for your area in the local stations so if you get it from a reputable location it will be fine with nothing added. We don't add anything here for the tractors. I didn't put anything in the fuel on the truck when I was over the road either. Just bought fuel from reputable places. In winter If i didn't have trouble in the past I kept buying there in the winter. I never had any trouble with fuel in the winter. I even shut the truck down one night at Montpelier ID it got down to -28 that night started right up the next morning. Took a while to warm up though.
For the snow deal they make blades to go right on your tractors loader. I would get the stainless moldboard so it doesn't rust in the off time.