Diesel Fuel Deliveries, or lack thereof

[The Rod]

Many medium to large scale theme camps use towable diesel generators to power their camps/public offerings. The advantages of these over smaller gasoline generators are that they are more efficient, can power more things (reducing the number of total generators in BRC), usually dramatically quieter, larger internal fuel storage capacity means reducing the amount of dangerous liquids stored in camps and less opportunities for spills, and less maintenance than small gasoline motors.

In the past, the Bmorg has supported this effort by offering off-road diesel fuel deliveries to camps with such setups. Last year there were a few hiccups (or dropped balls depending on your perspective) with this service and several camps did not have fuel delivered and generators ran dry. Restarting a vapor locked diesel engine can be very difficult. Having to shut down your theme camp that you worked all year towards because of organizational oversight is also very difficult.

This year, rather than expanding their fueling capacity (buying more trucks with their 30+ million dollar operational budget) they are reducing, and several camps are being told that they will not be able have fuel delivered with a month to go before showtime. No I do not have a number of those camps. Yes, Camp THREAT is one of them. There is one OSS company approved to deliver fuel and they are extremely limited in their capacity and will only deliver to the 9:00 side of the city. The large company with the large capacity capabilities and infrastructure to support their capabilities just had their OSS fueling permit denied by the Bmorg.

The suggested solutions from the Bmorg: Walk to Hell station and transport, by hand, the fuel needed for your diesel generators, or make friends with an art car owner and convince them to allow you transport your fuel from Hell to your camp on their art car. The current fuel storage requirements state that a camp may not store more than 110 gallons of liquid fuel in their camp at any given time.

Many of these generators, especially the larger ones, require 50-100 gallons a day, or more.

This means daily trips to Hell station, where lines regularly take 4+ hours. Just to keep a generator running.

The Bmorg, in all of their ineffable wisdom, fails to see the abundance of opportunities for disaster with their current "plan" of burners having to figure out how to transport themselves, hundreds of gallons of flammable, un-moopable liquid across the city on a near daily basis

This shit just keeps getting easier and easier /s

[The Rod]

Pulled from a FB group. Seems like there may be some organizational effort being made to address this ridiculousness.

D70DD7CD-7FDA-4563-A7F6-6AB9B8CE2EE4.jpeg

[ygmir]

one might think management has never run an 80K person
event in the desert.

[The Rod]

Update: I reached out the DMV with a similar email to the one above and received a similar response. Awaiting some sort of direction.

At this point my contingency is to line my pickup bed with HDPE plastic, throw a couple of 55 gal drums in the back and drive out to fucking Gerlach every 2 days and hope to the gods that they don't run out of fuel (they will, they always do) and use a transfer pump to fill the generator tank. Its a shitty plan but at this point its the only way I can guarantee that I can uphold my end of the agreement I made with Bmorg and Placement about bringing 24/7 interactivity to the event.

[The Rod]

one might think management has never run an 80K person
event in the desert.

it is the logical conclusion

[Sham]

It seems that you might stay below the radar if you fill a bunch 2.5 gallon ziplock bags with diesel fuel. You could pack a ton of them in an art car or a red wagon. Be resourceful.


Mod note: just kidding!

[Token]

It seems that you might stay below the radar if you fill a bunch 2.5 gallon ziplock bags with diesel fuel. You could pack a ton of them in an art car or a red wagon. Be resourceful.


Mod note: just kidding!

Only if you use yellow ziplock baggies and not the red ones.

[The Rod]

Reply I just received from Petrol:

Screen Shot 2023-07-31 at 6.55.41 PM.png

Anyone got an Art Support Vehicle and wants to help?

[Elorrum]

So the confusion they needed to clear up, was the answer "Yes." to the question "Are you really serious, we have to deal with fuel like this?" If you happen to be in a vehicle fortunate group, this will work for you. If not, it's going to suck. I'm sorry you have to deal with this. I've been thinking of making a push cart out of an old trike axle and wheels, not heavy duty, but big enough for 2-3 Jerry cans, or to ferry my stuff into walk-in camping. Maybe I'll try some fuel delivery next time I go.

[Token]

Reply I just received from Petrol:
Screen Shot 2023-07-31 at 6.55.41 PM.png

Anyone got an Art Support Vehicle and wants to help?

In other words:

Petrol - we have fuel. We don’t give a fuck.

DMV - Art cars, Vegges & Gimps only - We don’t give a fuck.

Artery - Art support - We don’t give a fuck.

BORG - WE DON’T GIVE A FUCK!!!

Folks, you can’t make this up. Clusterfuck.

[The Rod]

I made an error in my post above. That email was from the DMV, not Petrol.






But yeah, the sentiment is the same.





Email directly to Petrol seeking solutions or advice has just been sent. Stay Tuned.

[The Rod]

looking like daily or every other day trips to Gerlach to fill drums is the likeliest solution at this point

[The Rod]

I just sent an email to ticketing support enquiring about how much they will be charging for re-entry so I can budget in 4-6 trips to Gerlach and back.

[Sham]

I just sent an email to ticketing support enquiring about how much they will be charging for re-entry so I can budget in 4-6 trips to Gerlach and back.

Another thing to consider on top of the re-entry wrist band, is the line of traffic waiting to get through the gate. Bring a book.

[The Rod]

Wait 4+ hours in gate line in my air conditioned truck or wait 4+ hours in Hell line with 10 jerry cans in a wheelbarrow?

Not that hard of a choice to make..

[ygmir]

Wait 4+ hours in gate line in my air conditioned truck or wait 4+ hours in Hell line with 10 jerry cans in a wheelbarrow?

Not that hard of a choice to make..

this. also, I wonder how the org. can spin this to say this process is carbon neutral?....

[The Rod]

No need for spin if it’s not a PR issue. Which I am pretty sure no media outlets are about to start covering the plight of a lowly playa dive bar

[The Rod]

Going on day 7 of non-response from inquiries emailed to Petrol and Ticketing concerning potential fueling solutions and how much to budget for re entry fees.

United Rentals in Reno and Carson City flat out refusing to rent me a 256 gallon double walled fuel cell.

At this point, the “in use” vs “stored” fuel loophole can and will be exploited if we can find the proper equipment.

If.

[Token]

Wow, United Rentals said no?

That’s is some conspiracy theory level stuff.

I can’t wait for someone to roll in with an IBC tote full of red off-road diesel.

[motskyroonmatick]

I can't really blame united rentals. Imagine how many generators they have had returned that had fuel system issues to be worked out after people ran them out of fuel and then destroyed the batteries and starters trying to restart them. Many people don't understand how to operate any equipment and could fuck up refolding a paper bag. Present company excluded but...

[ygmir]

I can't really blame united rentals. Imagine how many generators they have had returned that had fuel system issues to be worked out after people ran them out of fuel and then destroyed the batteries and starters trying to restart them. Many people don't understand how to operate any equipment and could fuck up refolding a paper bag. Present company excluded but...

this.

[Token]

Here’s a thought for plan C, maybe for next year …

Actually buy a used diesel generator, give it some elbow grease …

Convert it to Canola oil …

Not that hard. Just gotta pre-heat the oil to 50C before you hit the injectors …

OK, you do wanna make it fancy - fire up on Diesel to power up the Canola fuel heating core first and when temperature is reached, switch the fuel. But that’s like Playa max science fun, right?

No rules about hauling in IBC totes full of cooking oil.

Add a dab of bacon grease somewhere in the line, just for color and aroma, like a small tank via a Venturi … jam some culture while you’re at it.

[The Rod]

If we could afford our own 40kw+ unit, and we sometimes half-assedly watch the auctions, we would be all about owning our own and running pirate fuels.

I would take it a step further and make “black diesel” out of used motor/transmission oils. I run it in my 12 valve sometimes. Close to ZERO carbon footprint on recycling, better economy than pump diesel and WAY more smoke!! Eat that, hippies.

Back to reality, United in Reno and Carson both said they are only allowed to rent generators and nothing else for burning man event. They literally have a service yard at the event to deal with the hundreds of rentals they have on playa. They just won’t let me rent a fuel cell.

The “fuck it, let’s roll in with an IBC tote full of red diesel” option has come up in discussion many times!

[Token]

I would take it a step further and make “black diesel” out of used motor/transmission oils. I run it in my 12 valve sometimes. Close to ZERO carbon footprint on recycling, better economy than pump diesel and WAY more smoke!! Eat that, hippies.

I fucking love you!

Bacon and Black Diesel! That’s a theme camp right there.

[ygmir]

I would take it a step further and make “black diesel” out of used motor/transmission oils. I run it in my 12 valve sometimes. Close to ZERO carbon footprint on recycling, better economy than pump diesel and WAY more smoke!! Eat that, hippies.

I fucking love you!

Bacon and Black Diesel! That’s a theme camp right there.

I had a centrifuge at a point, to "clean" waste motor/transmission oils. It really worked, more smoke than usual but not a lot. Some folks I talked to were using multiple layers of denim/cloth and just letting it drip through, to get the particle size down to specs, and claimed it worked. I know I was under 5 micron with the "Simple Centrifuge" I had,
I'd also cut WVO with diesel so as not to have to pre heat. Ran them in my 12 valve and my MBZ diesel cars.

[The Rod]

Bacon and Black Diesel! That’s a theme camp right there.

Might need one or two more cranky red neck hog farmers to round out the ranks on that one…

[ygmir]

Bacon and Black Diesel! That’s a theme camp right there.

Might need one or two more cranky red neck hog farmers to round out the ranks on that one…

I'd consider being there for that! me and Mr. Ziffel....

[Elorrum]

I’m worried about fire. So much inexperienced generator use, fuel transport, transfer, storage.

This guy just had a thought at breakfast this morning? Less than two weeks out. So he posted elsewhere. How many more like him?
“Hi everyone, coming to Playa this year with a group of friends, 12 RV and a mobile kitchen, we have a large generator and I'm wondering how we can solve the fuel issues in the easiest way. I was unable to register for the fuel plan. Need to go out to buy? Is it possible to buy at the gas station in Playa? Is it possible to close a delivery of fuel?”

[The Rod]

I saw that one too. I comfort myself with the thought that diesel fuel is considerably harder to ignite than gasoline. Still way more dangerous than not having a concentration of flammable liquid in a camp. Though much more likely to make a giant mess than a giant fire.

Ever since the sellout, the BMORG never anticipated that so many of the the “core” group of capable and reliant people might just decide not to go one year, leaving hundreds if not thousands of available tickets and opening the gates to (even more) massive numbers of inexperienced and unprepared individuals. On one hand, had the large vendor been approved and able to help these dinguses, would it only be enabling the problem? Or would they be engendering a safer, cleaner and fairer BRC by eliminating failure points and having professionals handle large amounts of fuel and potentially introducing more competition on prices vs HELL station.

I don’t fucking know. And at less than a week before I hit the road, all I can hope for is that those poor suckers don’t make a mess out of my vacation.

In other exciting and pertinent news that I’ve been too busy to update: BRC Petrol moved Camp THREAT off the waitlist and we are approved for diesel deliveries.

Party on Wayne.

[Token]

… snip …

In other exciting and pertinent news that I’ve been too busy to update: BRC Petrol moved Camp THREAT off the waitlist and we are approved for diesel deliveries.

Party on Wayne.

Well look at that sneaky, sly, let’s slip this in here news release … you sure you ain’t into politics?!

Spill the beans brother! Who’d you have to fluff to get this glorious deed done?

Connections? Public Shaming? Bribe? Blackmail? Dumb Luck?

We the proletariat must know!