On a working farm, a portable diesel tank is a piece of capital equipment, not an accessory. The right size and setup saves a day a week through harvest and keeps the header running when the nearest servo is 80 km away. The wrong setup has you running for jerry cans at 6 a.m. Here's the practical guide to sizing and running a diesel tank on an Australian farm — written for owner-operators, not catalogue copy.
Sizing by farm operation
Hobby farm / lifestyle block (under 100 acres). One tractor, a ride-on, maybe a generator. The 210L tank in the back of the ute is plenty — refill at the local servo every couple of weeks.
Mixed family farm (100–1,000 acres). Two or three tractors, a small header or a contracted one, a couple of utes. The 400L tank is the sweet spot — fills the tractor twice between trips to town.
Cropping or grazing operation (1,000+ acres). Multiple tractors, a header through harvest, ag bikes, generators. Step up to the 1000L tank with hose reel on a trailer or fixed plinth, plus a smaller tank in the ute for fieldwork refills.
If you're between sizes, go bigger. Diesel stored properly keeps for 6+ months, and the cost-per-litre to bulk-buy a 1,000 L drop is usually $0.05–$0.15 cheaper than splash-and-dash refills at the local servo.
Header season: plan three months ahead
A modern grain header burns 30–80 L/hr. A 12-hour day through harvest is 360–960 L. That means a 1,000 L tank is barely a day-and-a-half of headering — and that's before the chaser bin, the truck and the support ute.
Smart operators run a fixed 1,000 L diesel tank (or two) at the shed and a portable on the truck for field refills. The fixed tank gets filled from the supplier's tanker every 5–7 days through harvest; the portable feeds the gear in the paddock.
Order your harvest diesel allocation in winter, not the week before. Supplier delivery windows blow out as soon as the run starts.
On-farm storage: practical not theoretical
Keep tanks out of direct sun where you can — a shed, a lean-to, or even a tarp shade structure. Heat cycling degrades diesel faster than anything else.
Bund the tank. A simple poly bund tray sized to hold 110% of tank capacity catches the worst-case spill. Some states require bunding above certain volumes — your insurer and state regulator will confirm what applies to you. Joey doesn't issue regulatory certification.
Lock it. Rural fuel theft is real and rising. Pad-lockable filling caps come standard on Joey tanks; use them.
Water separator on the bigger tanks. Farm tanks live outdoors, condense moisture overnight, and that water ends up in your $200k header injectors if you don't filter it out.
Pumping in the paddock
A 40 LPM 12V pump runs off any vehicle battery via alligator clips — no infrastructure needed. The 4 m cable that ships with Joey tanks reaches the battery from the tray on every common ute.
For long refuels (200 L+), keep the vehicle running. A tired battery will starve the pump and you'll be there twice as long.
For depot fills off the 1,000 L tank, run the 230V variant if you have mains at the shed — faster and no battery wear.
What about petrol?
Most farms now run almost entirely on diesel — but the chainsaw, the brushcutter, the 2-stroke pump and the trail bike usually still take ULP. If you go through more than 50 L of petrol a month, a small dedicated 210L petrol tank in the shed pays for itself in trips to town saved.
Don't try to share a tank or pump between petrol and diesel — the seals and motor housings aren't compatible.
Frequently asked questions
Get the right tank for your operation
Tell us your farm size and what you're refuelling — we'll spec the right tank and freight it to the farm gate. Call 0468 462 047.
