My own personal "gas station"

As far as the regs, you are probably storing an illegal amount of fuel. The regs cover both health and safety, such as environmental spills and fire/explosion hazard

When gasoline is spilled on the ground, it tends to readily percolate down. Gasoline range organics readily enter the water table and create huge cleanup concerns if you are proven negligent. Diesel fuel and diesel range organics tend to present less of a danger, though it still is a danger

One of the practical ways of cleaning up large spill volumes, especialy from underground tanks, is high vacuum extraction combined with air sparging. You can see it could get exotically expensive

At my hobby farm, there are two 250 gal diesel tanks, and a 250 gal gasoline tank which is currently unused. All tanks are aboveground

These tanks were "grandfathered" otherwise I'd need a containment system, double wall tanks with leak detector, etc. One thing I did do was set up a concrete pad area with a berm, and put the tanks in there. I don't want a leak going directly onto the ground

If the storage container is sealed fairly tight, you will have little to worry about deteoriation, moisture, etc. If you have a tank that is intended to be vented, like mine are, then a desiccant breather system is a must to prevent volatility and dirt/moisture ingress. Gasoline is a fairly volatile liquid

For long term storage and to minimise issues, try to avoid the over the counter potions that contain alcohols. Commercially, I've had the best luck with PRI additives. They are usually sold by the barrel, some RV places carry gallon and smaller containers of the gasoline treatment and the diesel treatment

PRI Advanced Fuel Treatments

 

I don't think it's practical. By the time you store enough to last as long as you'd need, you'd surpass the length gas can be stored before it goes bad(doesn't gas go bad?), as well as legal and environmental considerations.

The ideology is impressive though. More of us need to be better prepared to self-survive in case of catastrophe/emergency/total civilization collapse

OFF THE GRID
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Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. During the "Gas Crisis" a few years ago several people in this area tried to do the same thing only to have thier homes burn.

Gasoline has a high expansion rate and as temperature increases fuel in a closed container has to have somewhere to go. Either the cap or a seam gives and with any kind of ignition (gas hot water heater) and you have fire with the potential of an explosion when other containers burn through.

Think this over very carefully!!!! The savings ain't worth it!!!

 

Give a call to your insurance company and talk to them. Do it now... better now than finding out later that your house isn't covered due to the storage of large quantities of combustible liquids on your property (doesn't have to be "in" the house for those little character clauses to trigger)....

 

My Uncle had a big property in Rural IL, and he had a huge above ground storage tank and pump. Problem is, at some point we stopped using it, and the gas in it became stale.

 

Hey it's not a ridiculous idea. I think many people were trying to visualize how they would do it. However, you live in an area where you probably could, especially if it weren't an attached garage or something that you were storing it in. It might not be a terrible idea incase of a global, or national "event." I know that sounds broad and weird but I bet you rural areas could be hit hard. However, I wouldn't expect to save enough $ to pay for the containers and any pumps or additives you need. Not a terrible idea though..

 

I'm not being negative, I'm just stating the facts. Here, it would be illegal to do what you propose, even on a rural property. You'd need an approved above-ground lined storage tank, with provision to readily check for leaks between the inner layer and the outer layer

I actually did check with my insurance agent about the issue of storing fuel on my rural property. He said if a fire was caused by a fuel spill, or was increased in intensity as a result of the fuel being there, my insurance would be NULL and VOID.

That gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling

So please check with your insurance agent. Even having a chimney in your house - for a solid fuel heater - will result in dramatically higher insurance rates.

Does that make it fair? No. Can you do anything about it? No.

 

sounds like a lot of work to save what? $10 to $20 ???.

with prices these days, it aint worth it. i might consider a couple 5 gal cans for a generator. that would last a few days with frugal use.

 

Here is a quick simple idea... get a smaller container that is some fraction of the size of the fuel tank in the car. Then fill the car's tank with the jug.

Example...
The car's tank is 16 Gallons (something like that.. whatever).
Use a 5 gallon jug to fill it...
Any time the car gets below half a tank of fuel, fill the 5 galon jug and empty it into the car.

You won't get a 100% full tank with this method, but you will always be dumping full jugs and not need to measure.

DDR

 

if overfilling is your main concern, then dont. get off the notion that you need "to fillup"... put gas in 5 gallons at a time. that is 200-250 miles... im sure you can manage that. dont fill until you are down to 2 bars... at 5 gals, you will never overfill

 

are the times that bad that we need to store fuel in plastic cans in our homes?

i have heard of horror stories when people were transferring the fuel, and i even heard of people's homes burning out.

unless you have a certified underground storage tank on a safe distance from the house i would not recommend doing what you are plaining.

and, i do not know how can you avoid the spills while filling in the prius tank due to lack of auto shuttof while using manual refueling method.

 

I haven't researched it, but I would kind of doubt it. Since any little failure or spark could ignite gas fumes quality has to be top shelf. For what you could sell one for to the home market, and what it would cost to build it really well, is it really worth the potential liability? There could be a product out there, but thats not a market I would get into.

On the other end of the spectrum, here's a wacky NE Yankee probably completely unsafe kind of idea. How about a used gas tank out of a truck or SUV? There should be plenty of those around cheap, I believe many are double lined, and would have an accompanying electric fuel pump (no auto-shutoff though). How about even parking a dead truck on the property as a fueling station Would solve the insurance question. Gas station? What gas station? Thats just my old junk truck

If you are concerned at all about emissions/HCs/VOCs, I wouldn't touch any of these ideas with a 10' pole. Every time you transfer gas from one container to another there is a considerable amount of vapor lost due to the high volatility of gasoline. This is one of the points the diesel fans like to make. The combined evaporative emissions from handling, transporting and fueling gasoline along with what evaporates right out of the car (not so much in the Prius thanks to the bladder) are greater than the actual tailpipe emissions of modern cars. There is also some evidence that these type of emissions are more harmful from both carcinogenic and smog perspectives compared to Nitrogen emissions that have gotten more attention lately. These kind of emissions are potentially much greater in manual/unsealed transfer and storage situations.

Rob

 

Instead of getting a huge drum and filling it with gasoline (which is a pain to keep rotating the stock) why not just make moonshine? You can get a big distiller and you can sit in your backyard playing the banjo, dancing, and making good ol shine that you can use in your car. This could be fun for the whole family. Whatever your car does not need you can drink. It worked for uncle Jesse and the duke boys.