So, it appears that gas shortages, for whatever reason, are plaguing regions of the Southeast US. ( I normally wouldnt link to Pravda-On-The-Potomac but…) I was reading some friends blogs and people were saying that they didnt even know if they were going to be able to go to work. In this case, is it some huge and ‘unlikely’ event that is causing this? Nuclear war? Act of terrorism? Red Lectroids? Nope..just a bit of collateral damage from a hurricane. Interestingly, over the last week or so, as gas prices have come down a bit ($3.50/gal locally) I’ve been taking time to refill/rotate some of our existing stocks. Whats involved? Just what you see here:
This is about 30~ gallons of gasoline. Thats enough for two tanks of gas for the truck, or, to put it another way, about 450~ miles of range if we wanna leave for somewhere. The fuel stabilizer (PRI-G, by name) keeps the fuel from degrading over time. I usually rotate the stuff out every year, but it should be good for at least a year or two once treated. (The PRI-G, by the way, was a gift from the girlfriend when we first got together. Having an understanding significant other makes things alot easier around here.)
The gas cans, by the way, are the ‘Euro’ style that use a stirrup-style closure mechanism rather than the usual screw-on type we normally see on Blitz-style cans. I usually pour gas through a funnel because I just havent found nozzles that are as fast. Each can will have a plastic funnel para-corded to it for convenience. However, I do have the correct nozzles as well but seldom use them. I got a very good deal on a bunch of used military cans and bought about two dozen and these are from that batch. The dark colored German ones are my special favorite. Nothin’ says lovin’ like something from the Bundeswehr
Were we to have a Georgia-style gas shortage right now we could, under normal driving circumstances, probably be okay for six to eight weeks. Quite simply, we dont really need to use the truck for much of anything except going to CostCo. We both work only about none or ten blocks from the house. I usually ride my bike well into the late fall, so just whats in the picture above would last us a good while. Of course, whats in the picture above isnt all that we have 
I should also mention that DOT regs require gas cans to be red. These ones are quite obviously not red. They are a lovely shade of brown and olive, ideal for my purposes. DOT can write me a nasty letter at their convenience. Additionally, there are a buch of safe-handling practices for gasoline that I won’t get into here but broadly – don’t store the stuff anywhere that you dont wanna see burst into flames.
Right now theres plenty of people in the southeast who would happily hand over the contents of their wallets for whats seen in the picture above. So, like ammo and food, a small stockpile of fuel can be very handy to keep.
hey!
Quit takin pictures of my gas cans !
I actually have a couple that look like those, and I also spent a few dollars for the plastic OD cans, too.
Being back home in the southeast (SC) , I can attest to the gas problems.
Three weeks ago, I could only get $40 worth of the 93 (hi-dollar) stuff. yeah, I paid 40 bux for eight and a half gallons of gas.
Then last week it was $40 max, but only 89 octane, and it was a bit cheaper.
This week, no gas AT ALL on Friday, but by Sunday only 89 octane available, but you could buy what you wanted.
We, however, were never in danger of being stranded, cause we had some Bundeswehr love, too 🙂
Keep up the good work, dude.
SLED 238
Supply chains are stretched tight in all sorts of ways. One of the reasons WAMU went under is that there was a run on the bank caused by rumors that people were going to lose their deposits, which was nonsense. It quickly drained their liquidity. That could happen to just about any bank, not just those in trouble. Groceries, building supplies, and lots of other supply chains are on a just-in-time basis, so that any disruption in the process can result in shortages. Gas just happens to be very vulnerable in some parts of the country because of the type of supply chain. They don’t have local supply storage to carry areas through periods of supply disruption. Who wants giant gasoline storage facilities in their pristine backyards?
If refineries slow down or shut down, pipelines have to be closed down – they can’t run part full. Then when supply comes back on line, it takes time to get everything full and running again. And we see the result.
The sad part is that a few cans of gas are a really short, short term solution. A friend came up with a much better solution. A house he bought had a large underground diesel tank (this was before all the new underground tank regulations). Since there’s no problem storing diesel, his diesel car was good to go within half his cruising radius as long as the tank held out. Diesel is also a better choice than gas for things like generators.