I said last year that when we were able to offer soy-diesel at 10-20% we would. Last September we received our first load of 100% soy-diesel! We started offering it to customers for the fall season. We can offer what ever percentage of soy you want to make a B1, B2, B5, B10, B15, B20, B50 or B100. We stock Soy-Diesel not just Bio-Diesel. Soy-Diesel is bio-diesel, but not all bio-diesel is soy-diesel. Now since we have that cleared up…
The soy by itself is high in cetane, a great lubricant and has excellent cleaning characteristics. It also reduces emissions which may provide you with better fuel economy.
Soybeans can be used to manufacture a variety of goods in addition to being a valuable fuel source.
My recommendation is to add the soy to a low sulfur #2 diesel such as Sunoco or Amoco. However, I wouldn’t add it to Amoco PD or to diesel treated with our Premium package for 1 primary reason; cost. Our premium diesel increases cetane, adds lubricity and has a detergent package, as does soy-diesel. There’s no use in double dipping. It will save about 4-6 cents per gallon.
A couple of words of advice:- If you’ve only ever used a #2 diesel and you go to a B10-B20 soy-diesel, be prepared to change your filters after you’ve run the diesel through your system. It will clean it out!
- When winter approaches we need to be sure to treat the diesel and also look at your storage tanks, etc. Soy-Diesel by itself does not have great winter characteristics.
New lubricants
We have added our own line of Way oils and spindle oils. We have started stocking an ISO 32, 68 and 220 way lube w/tackifier and an ISO 10 spindle oil. We also stock concrete form oil, food grade hydraulic oils, bar & chain oils, 2 cycle oils and synthetic oils.
By April we will be offering our own line of greases!!! I’ve been working the past 6 months on what greases we would offer. My faith in some of the big name greases has waned as I have found that the packaging and the names seem to stay the same but the product inside may not! I figure there’s only one way for me to control what goes into a tube of grease and that’s to put my name on it.
I’m very excited about the three products we will be offering. All three greases could be used as the sole grease on your farm or in your business, each one has some unique qualities which you would need to tailor to you own operation. Extreme Red, Black Moly 5 and Supreme Green have all been registered with the National Lubricating Grease Institute (NLGI) and have received the highest certification rating of GC-LB.
Extreme Red is a multi-purpose lithium complex grease EP-2. It resists rust, corrosion and water and has excellent high/low temperature performance. It has good adhesion and resists throw-off. This grease is certified GC-LB and will perform well in high speed bearings. For those of you who liked the Marathon Super Maraplex EP-2 in the past, you won’t be disappointed using Extreme Red in the future.
Black Moly 5 is a lithium complex that is fortified with 5% molybdenum disulfide and has excellent extreme pressure anti-weld properties under shock loads. This product is very tacky and will stay put while in use and has outstanding water resistance. It also has superior high temperature performance and meets Caterpillar, Case, MPGN, John Deere, FMC, IH and Mack performance specs. It also carries the NLGI certification mark GC-LB. This product would be highly recommended where metal on metal contact is prevalent, such as loader and excavator buckets, etc.
Supreme Green is our top of the line premium product. You won’t find this product at the local store. It’s an over-based calcium product that has no environmentally harmful substances or heavy metals. It has load carrying abilities that are unsurpassed by every measure. It has excellent thermal and mechanical stability that easily exceeds ASTM standards. Supreme Green has reliable low temperature performance and pumpability as well as superior resistance to water, corrosion and oxidation. If you want one grease that you don’t have to worry about in the sand pit, cement plant, hauling silage or hauling liquid manure this is the product!