gmedson

Hi - Does anyone know what has become of Davis Diesel Development?

I used to buy DDD fuel thru Tower Hobbies, but now this site shows gallon cans as discontinued and quart cans as on order but not in stock.

On the DDD website, the price list for products has been taken down. And calling the telephone number, 203-877-1670, gets an automated message that the number is no longer in service.

Looks like DDD is no more. Does anyone know more?

So our last commercial source of diesel fuel is gone? Back to self brewing, using starter fluid ... until THAT disappears too?

Happy New Year and Best Regards. -Gary

JohnAV8R

Gary, I have placed an order just this week, with Tower Hobbies for 1 L bottles of diesel fuel. It is on back order, but the order was accepted.
I am hoping that it will come through.
My past problem was that DD would not ship to Canada.
Did you check Andy's thread on fuel with no ether?
John

rfk1381

My Feedback: (7)

DDD moved to Tennessee last year. Here is the DDD website...

http://www.davisdieseldevelopment.com/home.php

Hobbsy

My Feedback: (102)

615-625-3778

The correct number.

ddd

We are alive and well and producing our products including fuel. We left gallons out of production as the amount damage done by UPS was too great. We are now in round quart cans in both 1/2A and our regular blend. $14.95 for 1/2A and $12.95 for regular. What some people are coming up with when they look for us is pieces of an old website we thought was removed. Our contact info is 615-625-3778 and our address is 516 Johnstown Dr. Smyrna Tn 37167 Our website www.davisdieseldevelopment.com

JohnAV8R

Bob, is there any way you could ground ship to Canada?
I am trying Tower Hobbies....they didn't say no, but the fuel is on back order.
Thanks
John

ddd

We will be shipping to Great Planes within the next two weeks, they own Tower Hobbies. As for shipping fuel into Canada, sorry no. These are the ways you can get our fuel in Canada 1. Hobbie stores use what are called border brokers were things are shipped to and of course you could have us ship to a friend on this side of the border, then you can retrieve it.

gmedson

Hi Guys - Thanks for the replies. Bob Davis' replies above supply the relevant up-to-date info. I just talked to him and ordered 4 quarts, 2 of 1/2A, 2 of ABC. Both have oil blends of synthetic and castor. Curently they are out-of-stock but fixing to brew more. He hopes to start shipping by end of next week. Will accept your order in the meantime.

These prices for quarts are the equivalent of about $50-60 per gallon. From price info on website, shipping and handling will be almost another $20. Altogether, real expensive! But I'll bet Bob is not getting rich, and I am grateful that he continues to make fuel available.

My real annoyance is directed at our Government! Owing to illegitimate use of ethyl ether by drug makers, nobody else can buy it anymore. I think this follows a pattern in which more and more things are becoming unavailable to responsible law-abiding folk who have common sense. The easy, government authoritarian answer is to ban stuff outright.

Irony is that elsewhere in the world, where there is less preocupation with personal liberties than here, there is freer access to an array of things such as (legitimate) drugs...and ether. My friends in Europe and Singapore buy ether and mix their own diesel brew.

I would be curious about ether availability in other countries.

OK, so I have blown of a bit of steam. Now back to the workshop.
Regards to all and Happy Gnu Ear! -Gary

PS- Thanks for the no-ether diesel fuel info, Andy. My understanding is that ether's main function is to light the little beasties off and is of much less benefit once they are happily singing away. So maybe a reasonable approach is to mix up a suitable blend of kero, castor, and an ignition improver. Lets say 20-25 percent castor, enough ign improver to make 2 percent active ingredient, and the balance kerosene. And then give the pot a good shot from a pressure can of starting fluid. If not enough to allow reasonable cold-flipping start, give another shot. And so forth, keeping in mind that half or less of the starting fluid is ether and that as starting fluid is added, oil percentage is going down and at some point should be adjusted.. Anyway, this would be a trial-and-error approach to fuel making. Rather than recipe-based. Besides perhaps saving $$$, advantage would lie in finding the minimum ether content consistent with the apetites of one's engines and one's desire for ease of starting... As for myself, I like the convenience of buying my fuel readymixed.

ddd

Yes you're right, most manufacturers in the hobby don't get rich. I would like to say that our fuel is in what is called distribution and can be ordered from your local hobby store if his distributor is Great Planes and their mail order arm Tower Hobbies. Our fuel has been like this since 1975 for your convenience, and as you might expect it costs more because they all have to make their piece of profit. So If your hobby store tells you they can't get it (and many do) and you see OS engines in their show case they are not being straight with you. Years ago we told this to one of our customers so he went to his local store and they said they what us to buy by the case and there's only you. A month goes by and he gets one of his buddies to go diesel and he goes back to the store and the guy says well its only the two of you. What we had here was poor survice or you could call it a badly run store. I'm sure it's not there any more like a lot of stores that lost business to mail order before the web even existed.

I want to take this opportunity also to thank everyone for their support during the past 35 years in this wonderful hobby. When we started diesel was on the ropes and over these many years we have brought many people into the wonderful world of diesel and that's rewarding.

fiery

My Feedback: (2)

Great info. there Bob.

Though I'm half a world away I've got three of your heads atop nice engines, and never an issue.

Also just placed an on-line order for a certain skin creme as I have a child in my household with bad dermatitis

I also thank you for giving me the "basic" BR diesle brew formula some years ago, as your fuel was (and still is) unavailable outside the US. Formula used in my TBR conversions with no issues whatsoever.

Thanks and please keep up the good work.

ddd

We are now process of shipping our new quart sized diesel fuel to all orders in house. The new can is a very rugged cone top design. We have two blend as before one is for 1/2A and antique engines which require a heavy dose of castor in the mix and regular for everything else.

JohnAV8R

Well I did hear back about my order...no luck.

Dear Tower Hobbies Customer,
A recent back order of yours has arrived, however we are not able to ship this item to your address as this is restricted to domestic addresses only due to being flammable.
Unfortunately, we aren't able to ship fuel to Canada with the shipping options we have available.