Rising Fuel Costs?

[drujinin]

We went looking at a "new" estate tractor (large lawn and garden). We can buy either way, gas or diesel. I like everyone else in the US is constantly watching Gas pump prices. Will Diesel always be 20 cents higher than gasoline or do you think gasoline will surpass diesel in price?
Curious minds need to know????

[STEPHEN]

I think diesel will remain higher. diesel has more BTU per gallon. Higher gas prices will lead to more tele-commuting, smaller more fuel efficient cars, or alternate energy schemes, but consumer goods are more likely to remain delivered by large diesel trucks. Diesel is the fuel of business, and that cost will be passed to the end user so it is less price sensitive. I already laugh when I read the the part in the Cat operators book where it recommends filling the tank at the end of each day. If every machine had a full tank, that would represent a large expenditure.

[gary ca]

I bought a diesel one ton in 2007 and diesel was about .20 cheaper. That lasted about a year and I have been behind ever since. Diesel demand is going to outrun gas demand as the technology improves to clean it up. My understanding is in th US, the refractroy equipment is set up to make a higher percenatage of gasoline. It would take significant retooling for the US to produce a higher percenatage of diesel. With more consumers using diesel, the demand is going to be strong.

Actually, I do fill up my diesel tractors after each use. This keeps the air volume low in the warm tank and limits the condensation of water from that air. Gary

[zootownjeepguy]

As far as SMALL engines in lawn equipment go, Diesel is the way to go in my humble (but well represented) opinion. I have a Ford 1210 compact diesel and it burns much less fuel mowing my little 1 acre yard than my Wheel Horse C160 gas tractor does (that was when I had 48" decks on both, now I use a 60" finish mower on the Ford). Both tractors are 16hp but the Kohler engine in the Wheel Horse seems to burn about twice as much fuel as the 3 cylinder diesel engine in the 1210 Ford. The Diesel engines in small equipment last longer too, and the resale value of a diesel is more than a gas engine (although it costs more in the beginning).

Yeah, our new "low sulfer diesel" will always cost more than gasoline but you'll get more work out of it per gallon.

[daron]

"Diesel demand is going to outrun gas demand as the technology improves to clean it up. My understanding is in th US, the refractroy equipment is set up to make a higher percenatage of gasoline. It would take significant retooling for the US to produce a higher percenatage of diesel. With more consumers using diesel, the demand is going to be strong."

A relatively strong economy results in a lot of air travel meaning a lot of jet fuel being burned adding to the diesel type fraction demand. This in addition to the increased railroad diesel demand.

Daron

[chriscokid]

Another thing to consider is that today's gas does not have a good shelf life, where as diesel can be stored for a much longer time.
So if you keep the fuel in the tank of the machine or in a can diesel is the way to go.

[dpendzic]

I gues a lot of it depends on the amount of hours you run the compact tractor. I run my 1310 ford about 50 hours per year cutting grass,grading, logging and discing my 2 acre field. I think the diesel engine is much more economical and maintainance free.

[ronm]

You have to remember the price of oil, therefore refined products too, is set by a cartel...many of the members of which are not friendly to this country...
and, the oil market is wildly speculated upon...
and, the whole Diesel technology is being set on its ear by the tier 4 emission standard due to take effect in 2014...saw on an ag equipment site that a Tier 4 Diesel irrigation power unit is projected to cost in the 50K range...
and, the current administration is committed to the demise of petroleum as a fuel source, replaced by natural gas & algae-based Diesel...
So, the only answer I can see for your original question is: Who the hell knows? but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it to go down...
When I built my first Diesel pickup in 1974, diesel was 39c/gal., not long after that, the "Diesel shortage" came along, mysteriously coincident with the advent of Diesel pickups & cars, & it has been downhill ever since...

[7upuller]

The Air Resource Boards are pushing hard on business. In California, it's already started with on-road and portable equipment, soon the off road will fire up again. It sure is funny how the last two years natural gas has dropped really low. The Carb rules exclude natural gas. I predict in the next few years a big push towards busineess to go to natural gas as an alternative fuel. I agree twenty years ago diesel was a lot cheaper than gas and now that so many cars and trucks have gone in that direction it's now more expensive. Isn't it funny that fuel went up towards $5 a gallon and economy tanked. Three years later, we are just shaking the dirt of our clothes, and bam, fuel goes up the second that economy starts to show a little sign of waking up again. They suck it out of us the first sign of things getting better.

[Deas Plant.]

Hi, Folks.
Algae-based diesel fuel, ethanol from sugar cane, fuels from rape seed and various other vegetable sources.???????????????

One estimate that I saw a couple of years ago claimed that for Australia to make enough ethanol to fuel all its cars would take ALL of the sugar cane that we currently produce PLUS six to eight times that much ON TOP of what we now produce, ALL going to ethanol production with NO cane sugar being produced from any of that total.

So where would we grow all that sugar cane? Or canola? Or rape seed? Or barley? Or . . . . . . . .. . . ???????????????

Same with algae-based diesel fuels. How much algae would it take to produce enough fuel to meet our CURRENT needs, never mind the future needs? I suspect that the real answer would blow your mind - maybe even worse than smoking dynamite. And just where would we grow all that algae?

I don't know what the people who put these ideas up are smoking but I don't want any, thank you.

Here's another issue that I doubt any of you have thought about yet. John West 'Natural Smoke Flavor' canned tuna? If they stopped having all those ferocious fires out in the kelp forests to 'naturally' smoke all that tuna, couldn't we use that kelp to make some sort of fuel?

Well, it's no wilder an idea than some others that most of us have heard from time to time and from some - SUPPOSEDLY - ed-jew-mack-ayted people.

What 'dunderklumpen' put the kibosh on the pipeline from Canada to Texas? What administration is sitting on the shale oil reserves in the Green River Basin in the corner of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming? Haven't I heard somewhere that there are some pretty extensive oil and gas reserves off the 'Calexico' coast? What else is going on that ain't for anybody's good but the 'chosen few'? And who chose 'em?

Who in America voted Democrat last time and who in Australia voted Labour? I'd reckon either of those categories would have almost as many people in it now as there are breast pockets in G-strings. And when is the bounty on 'greenies' starting? And is it a 12-month open season?

I'm dunn. (Well-trained little soapbox takes itself off back to its very own private corner. It KNOWS.)

Just my 0.02. (Smiling into his coffee.)