Stockpiling gasoline beyond your vehicle's built-in tanks and maybe some spare cans is legally regulated in many places, so do your due diligence and find out what the law says for your particular situation. Such laws may be the result of legitimate safety worries, environmental concerns surrounding transportation and storage, or there may be other motives. Do a little research. Besides legal concerns over storing large amounts of gasoline or diesel there are some practical factors to address, as well. Diesel and gasoline don't age well, so unless you are able to cycle your large fuel store at your bug-out location, you'll need to treat your stored fuel with proper additives.
If you're using large storage drums or a big tank, you also will need a way to pump the fuel properly. Remember: if you're serious about preparing for a disaster scenario you might also not have electricity readily available. Either get a hand-powered pump as a back-up or even as your main method of transferring the fuel so you don't have to burn some of the precious fluid running a generator just to pump! Don't forget safety supplies, either. Just because laws may be breaking down around you doesn't mean you shouldn't follow simple safety precautions. Be prepared for spills with some Floor-dri or similar product and be certain you can manage sparks or fires! No law, no infrastructure probably also means no fire department or haz-mat team to help out.
As mentioned, powering vehicles is only one reason you may need to store fuel. Skilled Survival listed some great pointers about fuel storage besides gasoline and diesel:
Firewood
Firewood is probably the most common form of fuel to store for long term survival. Why?
Firewood is often abundant (location dependent), it’s relatively inexpensive, it’s not complicated to store, and there are no laws on how much you can store. Firewood is also great for creating heat and cooking foods without electricity or chemicals.
You also need to plan to allow firewood to be seasoned to get the most benefit from it.
Seasoning firewood consists of chopping it, splitting it to useable sizes and then storing it in a dry location for at least six months (a year is better) before use.
Long Term Gasoline Storage: The Most Popular Bug Out Fuel
While there are quite a few diesel vehicles on the road, gasoline powered engines still dominate. Only about 3% of all US vehicles are diesel powered.
So 97% of US road vehicles are gas based…
What happens when SHTF and gas stations have no electricity to pump?
Or what if the gas stations are overrun with extremely long lines due to panic and go empty within hours?
You better hope you have enough long term gasoline storage to get to your bug out location.
Gasoline left alone, won’t keep…it has a very short shelf life. As it ages, it will quickly deteriorate over time. If you store this fuel long enough, it will eventually become useless. Essentially it’s one of the most difficult fuel to store long term.
So you have two options…you can either learn how to store gasoline long term (keep it from deteriorating) or come up with a regular fuel rotation system.
How To Store Gasoline Long Term
Gasoline stabilizer additives are designed to be periodically added to your stored fuel to prevent natural deterioration of its ignition properties.
Just add the stabilizer to your gasoline within a year, mix well and you’re ready for another year. It generally needs to be done every year…not just once.
How Much Gasoline Should You Store?
This depends on a variety of personal factors, but in general, I suggest storing 25% more than it takes to get to your bug out location.
Diesel Fuel
You’ll want to store diesel fuel instead of gasoline if your bug out vehicle of choice is diesel powered.
The Diesel Fuel that is typically seen today is actually Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel Fuel or also referred to as ULSD. The Diesel fuel that was stored “back in the day”, lasted for numerous years without any deterioration effects.
However, with the new formulation, ULSD will typically won’t last much more than about 6 months. You can extend the life of USLD by adding additives to the diesel fuel storage tanks (similar to gasoline).
Another way to extend the life of the USLD would be the process of nitrogen blanking the fuel, which will increase the life of the fuel indefinitely.
Nitrogen Blanking involves injecting external nitrogen into the diesel fuel storage tanks.
You inject the nitrogen as the fuel increases and decreases from the use and any temperature change basically by removing the empty space in the tanks and replacing it with nitrogen.
This removes the atmospheric air in the diesel fuel storage tanks that can cause fungus to grow since it is made up of both oxygen and water.
KeroseneKerosene is an ideal fuel to store because of its versatility. It can be used for lighting, heating, and cooking.
Kerosene is considered a non-volatile fuel, meaning won’t explode (unlike gasoline), which is always a plus.
It can also be stored for many years without significant degradation. Kerosene is very dense in energy and holds almost 50% more energy than propane.
Propane
Propane is relatively straightforward to store. It can be stored in propane storage tanks in both large or small quantities.
There are different sizes of propane storage tanks available so you would need to check with the supplier to see what sizes are available, as well as what sizes are permitted to be stored in your state.
Unless the crisis you're preparing for will definitely be over quickly, you'll want to store as much fuel as you're comfortable maintaining, and in some cases, defending. The more different types you must store, the more complex the task becomes, so keep that in mind as you develop your long-term strategy. In the end, having enough fuel also comes down to how effectively you find alternatives to hard-to-acquire sources like gasoline. If you expect to be in it for the long haul, wood for heating and cooking and animals for cartage may be necessities.
Alternative power sources – and storage – such as wind, solar, and water are each huge topics on their own, but a plan for safe long-term fuel storage will get you through the tough parts when those alternatives are not viable.
Have any other fuel storage recommendations we missed? Let us know in the comments.
How does this work? fuel goes bad after time.
LP last a lot longer.
Right that’s what I said to myself, I would think, storing propane or natural gas is better, you can get converters for your vehicle as well. I’m not sure if kerosene is good for long term or not, personally I would only use a vehicle initially after that your basically painting a target on yourself
Production > Storage.
If you use fuel stabilizer it will last years that’s what you’re supposed to put in your gas tank if you’re storing your car for an extended amount of time
Steve Lagasse here ya go
Jeff Kounter
I would like to know the longest lasting fuel I’ve dealt with is jet-a which is basically diesel with a lot of additives, kinda wanna known cuz having long storage fuel is definitely a personal game changer
Just put a pickle in each five gallon jug. The acid in the pickle will keep the gas fresh and ready for use. It will also provide a tasty treat when food is scarce.
I’ve consistently used 1-2 year old unstabilized low octane gasoline in all my equipment and vehicles for the last 20 years even after it became 10% ethanol without any problem whatsoever.
Diesel will last a very long time like 15 years
Use propane; you can readily buy it in bulk delivered and it never goes bad in storage.
A Wood Gasifier turns wood into a gas the can be handled like natural gas, if you use a propane pump to pump it into a Propane tank you have both production and the ability to fill smaller tanks to put in vehicles. You can buy Wood Gasifier Generators (a gas generator of the back end of the Wood Gasifier) online now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas_generator
They sell fuel additives at Walmart to extend the life of your fuel
Propane goes bad also
Yea, not quite that fast though, probably most reliable would be kerosene right
sad thing is the fuel turns to varnish after time rendering it usless
Not yrs….about 1 yr using 93 octane and stabil marine stabilization. Diesel alittle longer.
Nope not anymore, when they took sulfur out of diesel it doesn’t last very long anymore unless you add stable diesel stabilizer to it and it might last maybe 2 years but will not quite give you as much bang for the buck in the end when you do burn it it’s best to put stable in it and rotate the source so that you constantly have nothing older than one year
That may be true I just know that the older diesel and heating oil last for 15+ years
I think years is accurate enough. Idk About you but ive used fuel that has sat in the can for a year. That’s without the octane.
Yes it goes bad… Very bad. And sometimes it needs to be punished…. It basicaly turns to lacquer since it’s organic compositions break down.
Some of has to do with how old the engine is. Newer Diesel engines are a lot more finicky with the computers. Meanwhile my old IDI 7.3L still fired up like new off decade old fuel.
See you know lol. This is why I’m not interested in running anything newer than what I currently have. Something to be said about being able to drain the transformer off a power pole and just dump it in your tank.
Stabil
Premium fuel lasts for multiple years. I know from experience. Granted, i wouldn’t be running a vehicle with old gas in it at high r.p.m’s but it will still run.
I store alcohol. We had a power outage last night, but I had light in my home.
Octane has nothing to do with it at all. Use whatever octane the engine you are putting it in calls for. Stabil will keep it for about 6 months in a humid environment like Florida unless you use ethanol free which is preferred. That will last about 9 months. What happens is that the additives break down over time and ethanol is hydroscopic.
Bob Peisley
Daniel Boone
I just stay active with my fuel storage. 10 x 5 gallon containers, not much, but enough to last to aquire a full assessment of the situation.
My method is simple. I keep my fuel stored no more than 4 months at a time. I put Sticky notes on the cans with the dates of purchase written on them.
Usually, the cans on 3 months, ill use in my car, as not to waste it, and refill… Writing the new date of purchase on the Sticky Note.
Basically, I rotate, use and avoid wasting.
Ok I put a fuel stabilizer in the gas how long will it stay good.