Fuel is fuel... Right?

[johnjk]

One of my friends here at work has a BX and let his neighbor borrow it to try it out mowing. Drove it over with a half tank of fuel. Neighbor did him a favor and topped it off before returning it.... with around 3gal of gasoline.... He got to spend the rest of the day with the fun task of draining the entire fuel system, flushing the lines, changing filters and hoping there is no long lasting damage. Got her cleaned out last night and put back together with a clean tank of diesel. Said it seems to run OK. Not my idea of a fun afternoon at all.

 

[D2Cat]

Might want to quit loaning equipment to folks, or paint the fuel tank lid Caterpillar yellow and put a label on it saying, "DIESEL ONLY" and hope the borrower understands what that means!

No, on second thought, only loan the tractor with an operator....the owner!

 

[Lil Foot]

I only loan the tractor with an operator....the owner!

That's my policy.
Had a couple people ask "Why, don't you trust me?"
My answer is always "NO!"
If that's not clear, the answer becomes "NO, HELL NO!, and F@#% NO!"

 

[Redlands]

Have a couple of friends that do the same thing. All loans of high dollar equipment comes with a operator. Pricing if any depending on the situation. Have learned the hard way to do the same.

 

[Lil Foot]

Used the backhoe to dig 9 holes for new trees for the neighbor, and he said he'd top my fuel off for the favor. Great, except he sent his "less smarts than a box of rocks" (his words) son-in-law for the fuel. He walks up with a can of gasoline, but I caught it before the pouring began. Crisis averted.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Friends love loaning me equipment to use...It usually includes notes as to what's wrong with it, and of course I fix it before using it or sending it back.

I really don't mind, had friends loan me their 35 ton excavator (after I fixed it for them for free) to do some dirt work, beat the living snot out of what would have been weeks of work with my little bobcat, an saved me a ton in rental fees!

 

[dirtydeed]

One of my friends here at work has a BX and let his neighbor borrow it to try it out mowing. Drove it over with a half tank of fuel. Neighbor did him a favor and topped it off before returning it.... with around 3gal of gasoline.... He got to spend the rest of the day with the fun task of draining the entire fuel system, flushing the lines, changing filters and hoping there is no long lasting damage. Got her cleaned out last night and put back together with a clean tank of diesel. Said it seems to run OK. Not my idea of a fun afternoon at all.

Same thing happened to me a few years ago. Neighbor borrowed my BX23 and my wood splitter. I was being nice and provided a gas can (with gas for the splitter). Neighbor used it to top off the tractor (about 2.5 gals) and refilled the gas can. When I got the tractor back it started losing power pretty quickly. I opened the fuel cap and smelled gas. I figured out what had happened immediately. Limped it to the garage and drained it all, filled with fresh fuel and it was none the worse for wear. Ran fine for years. So, likely, no real harm done.

 

[johnjk]

I need a friend with a 35 Ton excavator. Think I could swap some slow cooked BBQ, good beverages and maybe a cigar or two for a few hrs of seat time?

 

[Lil Foot]

Friends love loaning me equipment to use...It usually includes notes as to what's wrong with it, and of course I fix it before using it or sending it back.
I really don't mind, had friends loan me their 35 ton excavator (after I fixed it for them for free) to do some dirt work, beat the living snot out of what would have been weeks of work with my little bobcat, an saved me a ton in rental fees!

I had a lot of similar friends, the only difference was that they only wanted me to fix it for free, not use it.
They don't come around anymore.

 

[skeets]

Sounds like a guy I knew, let his SIL use a brand new snow blower,,2 cycle and it was marked right there in BIG LETTERS.. kid filled it with straight gas, brought it back and said it quit working,, ahh no the warrenty didnt cover it

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I need a friend with a 35 Ton excavator. Think I could swap some slow cooked BBQ, good beverages and maybe a cigar or two for a few hrs of seat time?

Sounds like a good trade to me... I'll run it by them.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Always wanted a 3 point backhoe, but no need to buy one. My old boss has a 2 year old Case 4x4 Extenda Hoe with thumb (that I never use anyway) but I do use the hoe when I need to dig something. Has a 6 way bucket too.

I know enough to put diesel in it and even though he never says anything, I top it off with fuel and grease it before returning it. He has a JD crawler too but I've never had the need.

Someday I'll borrow the crawler just to mow down some trees....lol

 

[D2Cat]

I do have a neighbor I would loan any piece of equipment I own to without hesitation. He's retired from the local Gas Co. and operated all the machinery they had for whatever job needed done, has a farm with cattle and does his own haying, owns two Kubotas. Just easy going, smooth with all he runs and doesn't get in a hurry. Insist on greasing and checking details before starting. He know diesel from gasoline and what uses what!

 

[hope to float]

When I put petrol in my new-to-me van by mistake the local mechanic told me to top it up with diesel and carry on. Apparently it's not as bad as putting diesel into a petrol engine. I've done 170,000km since then. So you are probably ok

 

[Hodgy]

.

I was raised on a farm in Saskatchewan so 99% of the neighbours we had were already operators and did not need much of a tutorial when swapping equipment.

Now living away from the farm there are very few people that I lend equipment to, including hand tools. There are just some people who should not have access to tools.

When I borrow tools from someone they ALWAYS go back cleaner than when I picked them up. My next door neighbour has a fully equipped and stocked shop that would make anyone drool. You can't buy a man like that and keeping him happy is paramount.

.

 

[bucktail]

When I put petrol in my new-to-me van by mistake the local mechanic told me to top it up with diesel and carry on. Apparently it's not as bad as putting diesel into a petrol engine. I've done 170,000km since then. So you are probably ok

Depends. Prior to O2 sensors and cats you could get by running a little diesel in a gas engine without problems. My brother had a gas powered MF 36 swather that I was running on a 100F + day that kept vapor locking on me. He had me bring it up into the yard and topped the tank off with #1 and sent me back out. Ran like a champ and quit vapor locking.

 

[GeoHorn]

I had a lady friend whose car was in the shop and she came by on her bicycle wearing short-shorts and a halter-top wanting to borrow my car.... My middle-aged buddy, eyes-popping quickly offered her his Mercedes... and she took it instead of my old pickup.
About a half-hour later she called asking if there was a secret to getting it started ***8230; so I drove my buddy to where she was (a small grocery/gas-station on the highway) and she explained she was trying to return his car to him when it wouldn't start.
Sure enough, it actually WOULD start...but ran so badly, knocking and shaking and stalling ***8230;. it would shut down. Smoke wafting ot the exhaust...

While Bob was under his hood I saw the gas station receipt on the console... freshly dated.... Yep. 12 gals of Diesel in his GAS 240 Mercedes.

Bob's eyes quit "popping" after that. Afterward he just refered to her as a "Boob"... or is it "BooBs"...??


(I responded to him that HIS name is maybe also spelled with two "O's" ....)

 

[pjoh784350]

A dear old friend once told me "never a borrower nor a lender be". After years of ignoring that I finally understood. It never works out for both parties, most often the lender takes it on the chin. Hard to do at first, but as he often said, "if your friend holds it against you that you are not willing to part with your hard earned money, they ain't no friend". He wouldn't even let someone borrow his pocket knife, "what do you need cut" he would ask and then go cut it for them and re-pocket his knife.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I put off road diesel in my zero turn Kowalsky 27 horse just for kicks to see what would happen, it was a hot July day. It ran but terrible. wouldn't idle at all and no power. Only put in maybe a pint so I topped it with regular gas and all was well. Not enough compression I guess.