HELP! HELP! HELP! OH MY GOD, DIESEL GAS IN MY HIGHLANDER!!

What makes diesel different from #1 kerosene? Just curious because I use kerosene in a small heater in my garage shop. I just bought 10 gal the other day at $3.09/U.S. gal and the next day I see it was at $3.19. My heater manual specifically says to use #1 kerosene.

You are not paying road use tax on your #1 Kerosene for your heater (or #2 heating oil for your home). I think the total of state and Federal road use ("gas") taxes in NC is around $0.339 (or maybe higher). Add that back in and then figure the price. I buy diesel in 1500 gallon lots for farm use. In

2003 in was $0.85 per gallon. Late last spring it was around $1.30. I'd hate to ask now. Road use tax is not charged on my farm use diesel but the fuel is dyed red and you don't want to get caught with it in your road truck's fuel tank (and yes the DOT guys will check diesel farm pick-ups).

Ed

In this goofy left winger state they charge sales tax on kerosene IF you use it to heat your home. A person has to remember to tell them at the station that it's not for heating my home and you'll avoid paying the sales tax, LOL.

Which Left-Winger state are you in? CA?

HHH's home state.

Uh huh...one state removed from a Cheesehead!

"Philip" wrote: snip

I realize that this post is several days old but I didn't have good hard facts at hand to answer it so I held off till today.

At least here on PEI in Eastern Canada, diesel fuel is about 10 cents per litre cheaper than high test gasoline. That's (of course) about 40 cents a gallon cheaper, and while not much cheaper, it IS cheaper. I asked my Brother-in-Law this question.

He owns a back-hoe and a tractor-trailer to move it around plus a half ton GMC truck all of which have diesel engines. He also owns a Honda car so I suspect that he knows whereof he speaks.

So there you go, I didn't want you labouring under a misapprehension there Philip...

There are several "excuses" given for the price of road diesel here in CA. I refueld the little truck tonigh with diesel. This was a cut rate station. Diesel $3.25, Premium $2.99, Unleaded+ $2.89, Unleaded $2.79. Now Off Road diesel is about $2.65 (all prices are US gallons, and US dollars).

I guess we'll just have to scratch our heads and say WTF then...

There sure doesn't seem much sense in POL prices nowadays does there?

There was a front page article in a newspaper recently about a guy that was getting used cooking oil from a local McDonalds to run his old MB diesel for many years. He was telling how he was saving a lot of money on the free cooking oil. A week or so later there was a small article that he had been charge by the federal and state government for not paying road fuel use taxes of thousands of dollars. ;)

mike hunt

Two main reasons road diesel fuel is so high in California are the taxes levied and the sweetheart deal struck between the state and the refiners that require CA diesel fuel to be lower sulfur than anywhere else in the US (methinks its about 30ppm currently) and that NO fuel can be imported from outside CA even if said fuel meets all the CA specifications. Recent news item read that if that sweetheart deal was terminated, CA diesel would drop nearly 60 cents per gallon.

Trust your government to screw the taxpayer.

I'm familiar. You CANNOT just pour used deep fryer oil into your diesel tank and drive away. To do so requires onboard heating and several stage filtration ... not to mention that the fryer oil you get cannot have had any animal or fish fried in it. Vegetables only.

I'd like to see the particular article or at least a clue what paper or news source you read regarding road fuel taxes.

Poor man's bio-diesel? Why can't the fryer oil have any animal or fish? Is it because of the smell or different kind of fat and oils in animal products? It would be kind or ironic if a vegan tree-hugger fount out he was burning animal products in his engine.

Hell, he shudda been smarter and sold advertising space on the back of his MB to McD for a sign saying "Guess what the exhaust from this car smells like and get an order of our fries at 10% off!!"

I have a friend here who used to heat his and his mother's house with used motor oil. He had a metal Quonset hut with a big tank for the oil and a special oil fired furnace in it. He ran insulated water pipes underground to both houses and had a big husky half ton truck with a big oil tank and pump on it...he'd go around to a particular bunch of dealerships and dispose of all of their waste oil...a win win situation... :)

Well, I can see the reasoning behind having rigid specs but that nasty clause about 'no imports even though the specs are maintained' sounds illegal to me...another of those "We agree with Free Trade as long as it meets our rules"...something like the West Coast's softwood lumber situation.

The latter ... for the most part.

"Fast Food makes this car GO!"

The original article included a picture of his filtering system.

mike hunt