Stunt Fuel Suppliers

LAST EDITED ON Nov-07-04 AT 11:16 PM (CDT)
 
I'm just getting back into stunt after a lengthy layoff. I'm using a ST 46. I know that I can't use the traditional R/C fuels because they don't have a high enough content of oil. From everything I've been told, I want to use a fuel that has at least a 22% oil content which is normally 1/2 castor and 1/2 synthetic. I have been doing a lot of reading and it seems that the Powermaster GMA blend is one of the favorites. There's another fuel called Excalibur that was recommended, but I've been unable to find and/or contact them. I did a search on line and found that Cooper Fuels has a control line fuel that sounds pretty good. Someone mentioned that Sig has a C/L fuel, but I can't find anything about it in their on-line catalog. My question is how do you guys actually buy your fuel, and what brands of fuel are you using?

I can not find anyone in my area who sells Powermaster fuels. I live in the Lansdale, PA area, just NW of Philly. I talked to my LHS about getting me some Powermaster, but by the time he added in the hazop charges and the shipping charges, plus the actual cost of the fuel, it came out to something like $36.00 a gallon and I can't afford that. The Cooper C/L fuel looks good, and their shipping/hazop charges seem resonable, but I don't know anything about the quality of their fuels. I'm hoping that someone here can steer me in the right direction so that I can purchase some fuel and get going. Is anyone using Cooper C/L fuels, or should I continue to look for Powermaster or some other brand?

Thanks,

Vince...Try e-mailing Bob Zambelli as to a supplier for Powermaster, or try SIG.

See Ya

Isn't Lansdale the home of Penn Valley hobbies? They have a lot of CL stuff so they should have good fuel. They have adds in Flying Models and are on the web as well, give them a call.

>Vince...Try e-mailing Bob Zambelli as to a supplier for
>Powermaster, or try SIG.
>
>See Ya
>
>Peabody

I don't think that Bob Z sells fuel. He gets it from Windy, who doen't ship fuel either.
I usually pick mine up at the WRAMS show in NY as they are there and if you order it before the show they bring it for you minus the shipping/hazmat charges. A great way to get some really fine fuel.
Dennis

SIG makes decent fuel for stunters. What about your local dealers ordering from SIG?

I just found a local (more-or-less) blender who will make whatever I want at a great price. Just got two gallons of 15% nitro, 28% castor, 1% Klotz for my old/new Foxes for $10.85/gal.

He will ship, but shipping charges are prohibitive until you get into the 10-case (40 gallons) range. At that point, shipping is around $3/gallon.

faif2d

Yup, Lansdale is the home of Penn Valley Hobbies. I get a lot of my stuff from them. Unfortunately, they only stock all the Omega fuels in the R/C variety. Not a bottle of Powermaster in sight. I've checked most of the local hobby shops and haven't seen any Powermaster stuff in any of them. This shouldn't be so complicated. I'm going to call Powermaster directly tomorrow and ask them if there are any dealers in this area.

Thanks anyway

Vince,

YOu might try Wildcat fuels (if they sell in the East). The stuff called "Ducted Fan" fuel is pretty good. 10% nitro 23% oil (15% synthetic, 8% castor). I've used it in a lot of engines with good success.

Hey! I've got the same problem. I have almost settled on trying some Byron's. A local hobby shop has some of that with their separate bottles of castor. I can buy the 10% Nitro, and add enough castor to get the 25% I want.

The problem is that Powermaster says they don't sell to individuals. How can you get it?

I used to get RedMax fuel. They will easily mix anything you request and send it right to your doorstep. Unfortunately, there's a huge stink about their castor, and they even admit it on their web site.

I studied Fox's site, and they will sell over the web, and ship in quarts to keep the EPA happy. They also sell empty gallon Missle Mist cans, so I thought I might get one of those to show off. Missle Mist was always the coolest can and fuel. Anyway, the problem is that nothing they sell is over 20% castor, except for SuperFuel, and it has only 5% nitro. I read that 10% was necessary in a Fox 35 to make it as powerful with a muffler as without.

Just get Superfuel and add some nitro. If you can't get nitro, buy some car racing fuel and use it to spike the superfuel.

Vince,
You might check out Tom Dixon's websight I get a great deal from him.

> Vince,
> You might check out Tom Dixon's websight I get a great
>deal from him.

I have his catalog and have ordered stuff from him before - with good results. However, it sounds like you have to order 24(!?) gallons minimum from him.

JC/RC in Warminster, PA sells Powermaster at a very reasonable price.
In north Jersey, Windy Urtnowski and Carl Holzworth sell it.
For any of you who attended the old Johnsville contest, JC/RC is about 5 minutes from the (RIP) site.

Tom B. yes I had to order 24 gallons It can be most any thing,5%,10%,Champion Fuel,All Castor etc.He helped me.

"The problem is that Powermaster says they don't sell to individuals. How can you get it?"

Is this something new? I have ordered directly from Powermaster several times, although it has been about a year since I ordered from them. Have they changed their policy on selling to individuals?

>"The problem is that Powermaster says they don't sell to
>individuals. How can you get it?"
>
>Is this something new? I have ordered directly from
>Powermaster several times, although it has been about a year
>since I ordered from them. Have they changed their policy
>on selling to individuals?
>
>Bill Hodges

http://www.powermasterfuels.com/ecomm.html

Directly from their web site 1 minute ago:

"We do not currently sell fuel direct. However, if you do not have a local hobby shop that carries the Powermaster brand and you are interested in purchasing our fuel, we suggest using one of our on-line partners."

LAST EDITED ON Nov-08-04 AT 07:30 PM (CDT)
 
Thanks everyone for all the great input. I found out from Bob Z. that one of the hobby shops in the area will indeed be able to get Powermaster fuel for me. I wasn't very familiar with them before, but I will be checking them out.

Here is the website for Cooper Fuels. As I said, I don't know anything about them. I think their fuel sounds pretty good and I like the fact that they offer several special control line formulated fuels for us. It sounds like it has all the good stuff in it. You may want to check them out as well.

http://www.cooperfuels.com/default.asp?id=20

Thanks again,

>>"The problem is that Powermaster says they don't sell to
>>individuals. How can you get it?"
>>
>>Is this something new? I have ordered directly from
>>Powermaster several times, although it has been about a year
>>since I ordered from them. Have they changed their policy
>>on selling to individuals?
>>
>>Bill Hodges
>
>http://www.powermasterfuels.com/ecomm.html
>
>Directly from their web site 1 minute ago:
>
>"We do not currently sell fuel direct. However, if you
>do not have a local hobby shop that carries the Powermaster
>brand and you are interested in purchasing our fuel, we
>suggest using one of our on-line partners."

Going the rest of the way, it looks like Hobby People will sell a 6-gallon case of standard 10% fuel for $112 delivered including hazmat. That's about $18.67 a gallon delivered, which doesn't sound too bad considering it's about $15 when you buy it at the hobby shop.

I've had excellent results with Powermaster and SIG, and you really can't go too far wrong with those.

Brett:

Thanks for the info.

>Hey! I've got the same problem. I have almost settled on
>trying some Byron's. A local hobby shop has some of that
>with their separate bottles of castor. I can buy the 10%
>Nitro, and add enough castor to get the 25% I want.

If you want performance comparable to other brand's 10%, get the 15%. I am not sure why that is, but that's what I ended up doing when I was using Byron. Otherwise, Byron "classic" is prefectly decent fuel with *as advertised* oil content. If you need more, adding it will work just fine.

>I used to get RedMax fuel. They will easily mix anything
>you request and send it right to your doorstep.
>Unfortunately, there's a huge stink about their castor, and
>they even admit it on their web site.

That they themselves CAUSED. I used to get Red Max all the time, worked well, until the bad castor scare. I tried working with them a bit, and tried to get straight information from their fuel guy, and finally got so irritated that I just started getting SIG and never really thought about it much anymore.

I use Powermaster now, only because I can get it closer to home, and the reduced incidence of plug "taters".

LAST EDITED ON Nov-08-04 AT 08:21 PM (CDT)
 
I get a gallon of VP nitro from my local motorcycle shop. Get them to order it when they get their race gas. If you mix at 10% it makes 10 gallons.

I get methanol from a local sprint car racer but, you can get it at a good speed shop or at the drag strip. Can probably get nitro at the drags too. Take your own jug.

I mail order my castor from Red Max (FHS) and have had no problems what so ever. I use it in racing engines that turn 32K. I've used Red Max alot over the years and, he always wants to push his synthetic oil on you. I can believe him giving dis-information. Castor is squeezed from a bean, what could go wrong?

If you're worried about it get 2 gallons of Sig castor from a dealer.

You can also get good oil at the motorcycle shops. Look for Blendzall green lable castor and/or Klotz super techniplate castor/synthetic blend.

I guess fuel stays good for a while but, I mix about a half gallon at a time and try to burn it all inside of 2 weeks.

Vince,

In answer to your question about Cooper fuel, that is the only fuel that stunt pilots in our club use. We use it in everything from .049s to tuned pipe .65s.

The Canadian distributor is a member of our club and he brought some to our contest a few years ago for us to try. (free of course) There was some concern, before trying it, among those with high end engines about its quality. Without even a little bit of hesitation Kevin offered to replace any engine that was harmed by the Cooper fuel.

Most of us were using Sig fuel up until that time, but it's Cooper fuel all the way now.

Have a look at Kevin Blaine's Cooper fuel website testimonials page to see the comments that he got about the fuel. http://www.telusplanet.net/public/kblaine/Cooper/StaticPages/Testimonials.html

Hi Vince....I just ordered 12 gallons of Power Master GMA fuel thru the LHS and paid $11.50 a gallon. Three of us will take 4 gallons each. He makes a buck, we save a buck...This is the kind of LHS you WANT to support.

Tnx, Mike, the "Old Harley Man" [email protected]