OT Long Term Gasoline Storage

What are you going to do with 150 gallons of gasoline in a72 hr survival situation? Mow the grass 200 times? :)

Just wonderin...

I'd also check your local fire codes. Around our town, you can't have more than 10 gallons stored.

Now, if you have 100 gallons, and something happens and you burn down your house/barn/etc , I would check that your insurance will cover you and that there isn't a clause that says since you didn't follow the fire codes, you're not covered.

Better to find out now than after you have a BBQ

Tony

What you are looking for is gasoline stabilizer that contains Polysorbate-80 (same stuff thats used to stabilize mayonnaise).

Go to either BoatUS.com or Westmarine.com ... used all the time for marine fuel storage. "STABIL" is one of the products that I use. Last dosage in 55gals lasted 3 years. You will get some gum and varnish formation if left in small orfices of carburators, etc. .... better to flush such devices with isopropyl alcohol and store 'dry'. Stabilizers will prevent the gasoline from 'souring' but will sometimes not prevent gum formation. If you intend to store gasoline, be sure that the gasoline is FRESH to begin with - only buy it from a high volume source, not a mom & pop source that is probably already soured.

The additi> I am interested in storing 50 -100 gallons of gasoline as part of my

Kinda depends on where you live. If you use a regular farm style fuel tank, and can get gas delivered, run your stuff from the tank and you probably won't even need any stabilizers since the fuel will be refreshed on every delivery.

If you think like this then you would be far better off with firearms than gasoline. In a survival situation, firearms can be used to obtain gasoline, food too...

Earle

Why does that not surprise me. ;-)

• * * Matt Macchiarolo
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I'm surprised it took this long for this suggestion. I have 2- 55gal drums and use one. When it's empty I start on the other and fill the first. That way I've got at least 55 gal on hand for "emergencys". I go thru 55gal in about 2 weeks. Literally YMMV.

To Bill Hughs......only 2000 rounds? Although I've heard it said that if you can't "solve" the problem with 1000 rounds you aren't going to live. This is probably true unless you're using belt fed weapons.

If you have a lot of guns and reloading equipment, etc, dont you have a rider on your insurance policy to cover them? If so, then they are already aware of them.

Well, I was also going under the assumption that you were storing the gas in 5 gallon containers in the garage. If you buy an actual storage tank approved for gas, then that changes things a little.

You may still have to jump through hoops with the fire marshal and with code enforcers, but I'm sure both of them would rather see an above ground 500 gallon tank properly installed than (50) 5 gallon containers in your garage.

As for the reloading supplies, you have the gunpowder stored properly....right? It's not piled next to the gas hot water heater or you'd be responding to these messages from outer space.

Tony

I always figured that the gun powder should be put in the gun safe just in case someone gets creative and takes an oxy-acetylene torch to it...

Actually, unless it's black powder, I don't think it'll blow up. That's why our lovely BATF (aka "cat stompers") will only allow us poor little peons to own smokelss powder and require a special class 3 license to own black powder.

But I think it is good to store ammo and gun powder in a gun safe with some silica gel. In humid environments, gun powder can become very unstable, and will often ignite with the slightest jar. It caused my father to shoot his truck tire once.

Yow. Almost as bad as a poor local person who discovered that their garage had been used for storage of old style dynamite that had apparently been there for over 40 years. Not bad except that the stuff had sweated all over the wood storage platform on the top of their garage and soaked in pretty well, but with the nice little beads of pure nitro all over the place. The local hazmat and fire department figured out the easiest way to remove it without setting it off [given that there was liquid nitro outside of fullers earth or wood containment] was to burn the top of the garage.

Guess they were lucky their car never backfired, nobody ever rammed the garage wall, etc. etc.

I lived in student apartments at Colorado State at the same time as a few families from Sudan. They were Muslim and ate kosher, so they would go out to the local farms and buy a lamb to slaughter themselves, then divide up the meat. One day one of the mothers sent her three or four year old to return a hatchet she had borrowed from one of the other mothers. Little kid comes walking by our apartment holding a bloody hatchet...

Earle