New Rigs & Red diesel

The guy that delivers fuel to my station told me this morning that the new DMAX has a sensor in the tank that will NOT allow the engine to run if red diesel is put in the tank. He asked me if my new Dodge was the same way. I had no idea one way or the other, anyone else heard of this?


Brian

 

this is funny that you bring this up... my first fill up in my '06 ram was w/ offroad diesel... the situation was that i picked up my truck after hours from my friend that owned the dealership... well to say the least it was on E, and i mean get some f'in fuel E... well the direction i was headed there was a diesel station about 10 miles away, so i headed that away... i get there and there was a bag over the pump, GREAT!!! this is at about 10:30 at night and i was trying to get on the phone w/ the service guy and find out if i could run red diesel in my truck... he wasn't 100% sure but neither of us could figure why it would hurt... anyways, he said go for it and if it f's something up i'll cover it under warranty, so FILLERUP, no problems what so ever... but now i haul cars w/ my truck and i wouldn't get w/in 100ft of that stuff w/ the DOT...

 

It's the exact same fuel with red dye in it. The new trucks would have to have some of color sensing sensor. I say its bull anyway.

 

If it's the same stuff, why is it illegal? I haven't heard a lot about 'off-road diesel', anyone care to clue us in?

 

These days the composition is exactly the same, the only difference with the red dyed fuel is it is exempt from various taxes, so them revenuers (tax guys) might object to it. The sensor seems odd, since I think if a truck is used exclusively for farm use it should be able to run red dyed fuel legally. That is going from my memory however, so that may very well be incorrect...

 

exactly, no taxes, and farm trucks? they need to run regular. how many times does a farmer leave his property with his pickup... all the time, if you get caught on the road, your done for, even with farm plates.

 

do cops check your gas tank around there for that?

 

some vehicles checks will get you. they tend to do it at farm auctions alot, and roadside DOT inspections can get you, and they will red tag your ****, and there it sits.
as of recent they have been checking construction site trucks....
they are even getting the ford guys that are sneaky who run wit ha transfer tank plumbed into the regular fuel system, becuase on the PS's they are opening the water drain since its so easy and check what color it hits the ground.

 

Now if you actually had a truck that you ONLY used on the farm and did NOT see the road, you'd be fine. I've got a friend with a gas truck like that (not even licensed or insured) but I don't know of anybody who's got a farm-use-only diesel.

I've got farm tags on my truck and I've never been tested, or heard of any of my local diesel buddies being tested, but I'm not gonna risk it.

 

on the ranch I work for we get regular diesel but when we fll up we have a sheet to fill out the gallons and when implement it was so they can send into state to get a rebate on the non-highway vehichles. Also all the pickups that see dual-use they have a folder to write down the mileage of on highway Wy, off-highway wy, on highway mt and off highway mt since the ranch covers both states then they can rebate from both states and such.

 

He meant a farm truck, not a farmer's daily driver.

I have two pickups that stay on the ranch. No insurance, no registration.

 

because there is no tax on red diesel. I shouldn't have to pay for the county to patch a road with fuel that goes into my combine. Got it?waytogo

 

I heard somewhere that when a diesel (or any car for that matter) shuts off it cycles the fuel back into the tank, and that when the diesel is cycled back into the tank it's black. I don't know the science or even the logic behind this, but it would be nice if someone could clarify it.

Also, I know that our Ram has a little filter in the fill neck to stop people from siphoning the fuel out of the truck, so that would theoretically prevent anyone from checking the color of the fuel with a dipstick of sorts.

 

How about farm tractors that get operated on the road? Do they need to use road taxed diesel in that situation? I guess I don't see how the farm plated pickup would be any different from any other implement used exclusively for farming, provided it's used only for official farm business...

In the event they can't dip the tank directly they'd probably pull a sample from the water drain tap on the fuel filter cannister, or even theoretically go so far as to open the filter housing to find a sample.

 

Farm plates? Who said anything about that? I am talking about a truck used around the farm/ranch. Meaning... " a vehicle that sees little to no use on public roads, it stays on private property drives that is included in the farm/ranch.

We do not have to run road fuel in our equipment when we run it down the road. That would be rediculous to even try and hold us to that, as we would have to have two seperate storage tanks and the 2 gallons of clear would turn red anyway. It's just like our 1% tax plan, farmers and ranchers only have to pay 1% tax on all farm/ranch related purchases in the state of California. Then different people think this is unfair, people that have no idea why this was given to us in the first place.

Have you ever driven in a private parking lot before? Ever driven down a long private driveway? Ever gone through a drive up window? These are all places you are burning TAXED fuel on PRIVATE property. Should you be able to dump a quart of red diesel in your pickup when you pull into an Albertson's parking lot? Of course not, beause that would be silly. So why should us farmers be asked or criticized why we don't run taxed fuel when we drive a tractor down the street? Because it equals out to maybe .1% of the overall hours on the equipment.

Yes we run equipment down the road with red fuel, BFD. We don't actually rack up any kind of mileage at all. Farmers and ranchers don't like questions asked like that because they want to be left alone.

They can kiss my rear if they want to dismantle my truck for a fuel sample. If I ever get asked for a sample and want it by opening up my fuel system to contaminants and air, they will have to provide me with some sort of legal documentation which shows they have legal authority to do this. Not that I am trying to hide red diesel at all, I have a bunch here on the ranch, but I wouldn't put a drop in my truck. I don't like what the red dye does to the fuel system.

 

where is the BS flag
i hear al lsorts but never an red sensor....
like it was said its all the same the only thing missing from off road red fuel is ROAD USE TAX
oh and in most states you sign off on letting em dip your tanks as pasrt of registering the vehicle, trust me its in there in some small little paragraph,


"yes sir my red dye sensor went out" how much please ?? 500 smackers
rotfl rotfl rotfl

 

so if it is the same thing, then how can it damage your fuel system??? seems contradicting...

 

Ok, for the last time.

There is no difference in the fuel itself, it's all paperwork. No onroad highway tax so it's cheaper for us farmers since we run our equipment in the field, not down the road so our equipment shouldn't have to pay to repaint the lanes.

The way they identify offroad fuel is with a red dye. They dump some nasty, sticky, stainy red syrup into regular onroad clear fuel to dye it red.

Why I would not run red dyed fuel in my pickup is because the VP44's are already sensitive enough, I don't know what the stains would do. The dye completely coats everything and stains all the fuel lines, injection pumps, injectors, and lift pumps a pinkish red.

 

Just for fun...

I read in a thread about red dyed once and a guy said we couldn't run it in our onroad vehicles because it was designed to plug the fuel filters in an onroad vehicle.rotfl

Yeah, because my tractor doesn't have three inline fuel filters....rotfl

 

look, i was not looking for smart ass comments like i am an idiot... the question was asked is there a difference and can you run it in a "new" truck... now in just the last post you stated that there was no difference and that it is all paperwork... THEN, in the same post you state that they put "nasty sticky stainy red syrup" in it, thus making it DIFFERENT...and not safe for new trucks... reasons not to put in your truck... so when someone asks for advise and they take information that they get here to heart, dont contidict your own statement which might be confusing to others that dont fully understand, just make sure you are stating facts when you are stating them as such... it could cause some alot of money from confusing information...