I was just pickin' with ya Steve...hope you didn't take it wrong. I do mess with much bigger, harder trees though (oak, hickory, etc.) and they just wouldn't cut it for me...'bout as useful as an A/C powered generator after an ice storm :).

Tim - I agree with everything you said, I've had the same issues...I have lots of engine also, mainly snowmobiles and motorcycles....If in long term storage, I drain the carbs dry and fill the tank.

If it's gonna sit over the off season, I start it once a month (Snowmobiles in the summer, motorcycles in the winter).

I can get non-ethonal fuel in my town. I try to run that in everything except my car and truck that get driven on a regular basis.

It's all good. I grew up in central TX before it was popular to be there. You'd need a mile of extension cords to get to the back corner of the land that was cleared... We kept the place up with a Ford 3910 and a Stihl trimmer and chain saw. If I had land here or the yard had trees I'd have the same stuff. It's a shame though - anything my parents have with a small engine on it is lucky to last more than a couple of years.

Serious question - I'm still debating whether I'm going to try and starve my Toro riding mower or start it up and drive around every few weeks this winter to keep the gas flowing and the battery topped off. Which would work out better?

Although I've got 6 tenders in use, don't have one on my Scag ...but it's got non-ethanol in it and I don't empty her. Given the proverbial "rock and a hard place" I think I'd opt to leave her empty...mine's only a few years old, but I've never had a problem with the battery sitting between Thanksgiving and early March without a tender or cranking. I've got 'bout $600 worth of batteries on the bass boat...they get "tender" LC :).

Older diesels do in fact have all the same problems as the gasoline engines with current fuels. In the diesel world, the mandated addition of biodiesel to fuel has resulted in the same issues (deteriorated hoses and seals, corrosion of some metals in the fuel system and lowered fuel economy). I love diesels and have owned them for decades, but they are just as much affected by this issue as gasoline engines. One side note after running biodiesel for a year I had a running problem with a 90 Landcruiser turbo-diesel. I started changing out hoses and filter housings etc.... but to no avail so I pulled the pick up tube on the tank and found the screen was completely "filled in" with a membrane of something that required brake cleaner to remove..... well on a positive note, I'd never seen the inside of a fuel tank of a twenty year old vehicle look so pristine. Cheers

Thanks. The mower is about 16 years old and I'll look into running it dry after I mow the yard to even everything out and chop up leaves and pine needles that've blown in over the last couple of months.

I am so thankful that I have 93 pure gas right up the road. More and more stations keep showing up too.

Steve, that Toro is probably better than a new one. My dad's still got the Allis-Chalmers I've been using for 45 years (PTO for tillers, etc. and I still use it too on occasion)...still my favorite. I began mowing lawns with it when I was about 10...I knew if I wanted a "car" later on it wasn't gonna be "given" to me...bought a new Jeep CJ5, "mostly cash" shortly after getting my license.

PS: Drain the Toro this year...next spring, go find the "good stuff" as MCA states, it's reappearing slowly but surely :).

Besides some potential for corrosion of metals in the fuel system, Et-OH can also damage rubber fuel hoses.

See this pic of a post-mortem fuel filter:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/465200-slow-going-5.html

post #83

Not much crud (30,000 miles on the filter) but I have to wonder if the traces of black seen in the pic are rubber particles from the fuel hose. There is just a foot or two of hose before the filter, but who knows. I will replace all the fuel hose before next car camping season.