Gas Station

In my absence from this site, one of the new things done around the place was a new fuel storage shed. Had a smaller one in the same location, but an early fall snow hit us couple years back, and the leaves were still on a big oak that butted right up to the shed (my bad for building it there). It came down root ball and all, lifting a corner of the shed, pretty much ruining it. I had a diesel and gas tank on metal stands, it knock them over, but they didn't puncture or spill. So I removed the fuels, and knocked the shed down, and built a bigger one with concrete base. (Other was just 4 posts in the ground).

Put 4 - 4x6 treated posts in the ground and poured an 8x12' slab around them.
Framed the walls, put a loft in just over 6' high to hold the tanks.








Finished shed. 300 gal gas, 250gal diesel in loft so they gravity feed thru filters into filler hoses. Shelving below is for cases of oil, grease, trans fluid, etc.

 

Call the farm co-op for fill, or I pump up from 55gal drum storage with a 12v transfer pump.
The plumbing down from the tank is metal, into a filter with a water drain.

 

Awesome !!! I only wish I was 1/3rd as talented.

 

Nice setup.

 

What did you do with venting on tanks?

BTW - so good to see you around and posting on the forums again. Thank you.

 

That's cool!

 

Awestruck - again.

 

Looks good, TnAndy. I'll assume you have both tanks well grounded, as well as a grounding/bonding system, for when you're transferring fuel? Diesel's not so bad, but gasoline's too dangerous to transfer without (from your 55 gallon drums, to the tank, especially).

If you need info on how to set that up, I can give you some pointers.

 

Clean stick. Run in the filler hole, bring it back around in front of the tank. The wet mark on the stick gives me the level of liquid left. If I was being REAL scientific and all, I'd mark points on it with gallons, but it's close enough for me.

 

Tanks are open vented with a 1/2" pipe/fittings to give a 180 bend, screwed in the rear top hole.....plus the filler caps are just flip ups, so it would vent there as well. Filters on wall have water drains in the bottom. I use a dose of PRI-G/D when filling each tank, fuel never seems to go bad.

 

Are the metal tanks grounded?

 

yes

 

Super nice!

 

Thankyou....that is a useful bit of information for those who might want to emulate your setup. Although grounding fuel storage may seem a no brainer, it's something easily overlooked. Static electricity has a way of ruining one's day, unexpectedly.

 

And not just grounding, but bonding, too (which is why I mentioned it, above). Tank to ground, drum to ground, tank to drum. Always a triangle. That way, if you lose the bond on one leg (loose connection, broken wire, etc.), you've still got everything bonded, and all static electricity is grounded safely.

Heard a story about 2 fellas who came into the Navy fuel depot, late one afternoon, with a defueler truck half full of JP4 (which, like gasoline, has a very low flash point....in this case, negative 20 degrees Fahrenheit). They were tired, and got in a hurry, and failed to bond their truck correctly. They were about halfway done, pumping the truck into the tank (via a hose, into the tank top, for whatever crazy reason they had), when the static charge sparked, and the tank blew up. They said that the guy on top of the tank, at the manhole, was found in pieces, scattered everywhere, from the force of the explosion (which also blew the top off the tank, and set the fuel inside on fire). The guy down at the truck, running the pump, was killed by the concussion of the blast. Chances are very good that neither one of them knew what hit them.....just lights out!

You treat fuel with the respect it deserves, and it won't bite you.

 

After WW2 the farmers started to get the overhead tank for fuel, then most were gas, some bad things happened at first thought to be at random, then someone realized that the tanks that blew up had the legs either on a concrete slab or concrete blocks. The fire insurance co's sent people out and made you bond the tank, no matter what the legs were on to an earth ground. You also had to use a conducting hose and a metal fill nozzle. They also strongly suggested you use a ground clip to the tractor etc, being fueled. Old story, if 1 in 10,000 chance of happening, and you have 100,000 policies, it is going to average out to 10 a year. I politely ask people filling a gas can on a truck to put it on the ground, and if they don't, move my vehicle and come back after they are gone and fill it the rest of the way. May sound stupid, but it has worked for me for about 65 years, so I not about to change Had a gas station blow up in what is now a ghost town of Hader Mn in the 1940's 0r 50's. No survivors at the pumps or in the general store that had the pumps. Think either vapors from pump got into building or tanks leaked with a high water level and fumes got into basement and blew. Cousin had filled truck about half hour earlier and knew all that were killed. Drove by the burned wreckage for weeks. Was just a kid and it stuck in my mind after attending funerals and seeing where it happened.

Excellent post and I like your plans. Thank you.