Recreational Gas

CRF6179

Goofologist
Senior Member
Member
A gas station about 15 miles south of here has started selling ethanol free gas. They are calling it recreational gas. I bought 5 gallons for my “vintage “tractors. Worst part is that they charge $5.00 a gallon for it. The ethanol blend is $3.58 a gallon.
 

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Ethenol was invented by a guy in his garage as a way to not have to pay outrageous gas prices and taxes. When the government found out, they seized everything he made and shut him down. Few years later it was an addititive that was in gas.
 
How can you charge less for gas that's had something added to it??
Since it's a low volume product there aren't economies of scale in the shipping and blending (even ethanol free has an additive package blended) so it likely costs the station more than the fuel with ethanol.

There may well be credits associated with blending the ethanol that make it cheaper than straight gasoline.

Another for sure reason is since not every station offers it there is less price competition so they can sell at a larger profit.

In light of this you might wonder why off road diesel can be cheaper than highway diesel. First it's exactly the same fuel as highway diesel except it has dye added just before delivery will be a relatively cheap process. Second there are a lot of highway taxes added to the on road diesel. You can bet though that since not every station offers it they make a better margin to boot.
 
Off road diesel has no road tax that depending on the state can be $,50 to $1.00, here in MN we have 92 non ethanol gas for rec vehicles classic cars small airplanes it has road tax on it.
Research into producing ethanol was a big thing in the 70;s early 80's and its a lot bigger deal than a lot of people think for corn farmers in the cornbelt its a big deal
Personally I think ethanol is a good thing it cleans the air and I like breathing clean air when it came into being here in MN we no longer needed to have our vehicle emission test every coulpe of years it been in our gas here in MN since the 80's I use it in everything with no problems with one exception 2 stroke engines like weed whackers I use it in mine but they don't like it
 
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Ethenol was invented by a guy in his garage as a way to not have to pay outrageous gas prices and taxes. When the government found out, they seized everything he made and shut him down. Few years later it was an addititive that was in gas.
There were many guys experimenting with making ethanol back in the 70's but the goverment did not seize his ideas ( if in fact they seized his operation it was because he was making drinkable alcohol) The government was pretty much against ethanol in the 70's and 80's the Gov was in with the big oil companies that were producing MTB as an oxygenator, the corn belt states were lobbied by farmers and environmental lobbies and finally got it to replace MTB as the oxygenator. Its big money for farmers its many local jobs and it means that much less gas is needed and its renewable
 
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I do remember when the first "gasohol" came out back in the '70's and it sure seems like it was a better product then. It smelled good and even had a good color. Now it looks like weak pi$$ and stinks. Not a fan of it but it's one of those deals that there is no affordable choice in much like the feds are now doing with EV's.

We have non ethanol at pretty much every gas station around here, some have two octanes, 85 and 91. I buy the 91. Should try the 85 sometime I suppose. Yesterday I filled 7 gallons worth of gas cans and put a little over 15 gallons in the '72 GMC of the non E 91. Just under 91 bucks at $4.05 per gallon. 87 octane ethanol 10% is 30 cents cheaper at 3.75 per gallon.

DAC
 
Close to me, $3.599 for 87 octane ethanol fuel, $4.059 for 90 octane ethanol free fuel. I pretty much run nothing but ethanol free fuel in all my small engines and use about 10 gallons a week, zero turn mowers, hand mowers, blended for two cycle used in weed eater and blower.

 
Close to me, $3.599 for 87 octane ethanol fuel, $4.059 for 90 octane ethanol free fuel. I pretty much run nothing but ethanol free fuel in all my small engines and use about 10 gallons a week, zero turn mowers, hand mowers, blended for two cycle used in weed eater and blower.

Imagine that, another government pushed program that is a flop!

DAC
 
If you think this gas thing is nuts did you hear about the other gas fiasco that's come up. I'm sure this is going to fix things. You can't make this stuff up!
 
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