diesel fuel

YES! However the State doesn't like you avoiding road taxes. If you get dipped be prepared to write a rather big check.

Absolutely.

Be warned, If you are caught by tax fellows (Very Rare out side of farm country) the fine is draconian.

More important. If Ford finds this fuel in your system, they will void the warrantee. BTDT, almost.

I lost the blower on my truck at 70,000 miles. The first thing to dealer did was pull fuel filter and check, he told me that had I failed the check I would have eaten the entire cost.

Be advised.

Hmm, considering all of the vehicles used on farms and ranches, I just can't imagine a dealer trying to void a warranty based on the use of farm fuel. If a vehicle is used off highway for example, it would not be required to use fuel with the road tax applied. If such a vehicle then developed trouble, I just can't imagine the dealer getting away with the voided warranty crap. That being said, one should do one's share to maintain the roads by using taxed fuel. What you save is not really worth the diminution of your good character is it? Please understand, I'm not implying that you are using untaxed fuel on the road. For all I know, your question is merely theoretical. But for those who might be tempted to try it, my question still remains for consideration.

I think I agree with this fellow.

Farmer get to burn dyed diesel in their vehicles, and they get full warranty if things go awry. It sounds to me like the dealer is trying to weasel out of providing warranty by playing "Moral Mother" and sucking up to the tax collector.

Of course, you'd possibly play Hell taking the welching SOB to court, as you'd have to admit being in violation of some minor statute, but if the cost of the repairs are much less than the price of the fine, it would be nice to have someone get a decision one way or another as to whether warranty should still be valid whether the truck had fully taxed diesel or not..

H.

Not a "Minor Statute! Fine is $10,000 ! FOMOCO will not be part of tax fraud. I'm sure is the truck was never used on road (?) they would be forced to cover costs. How rare would that be?

Pete

but if the

$10,000.00? That is one Hell of a fine for a few cents per litre in missing tax revenue...

It seems high - like an order of magnitude too high - to me. (Up North, we don't beat up on our farmers like this...)

HR.

It's not the farmers they go after, usually. OTR truck drivers get their names in the paper every once in a while for this. H

Yesterday, I just talked to a couple of state fuel inspectors who were testing gas stations as to the accuracy of pump fuel delivery. I ran this situation by them, and they said that there are two types of red, or dyed fuel. One is "high sulphur", and the other is "low sulphur" fuel. The low sulphur is identical to standard over the road fuel with the exception of the dye. He suggested I just order the low sulphur fuel from a distributor for farm use, which I'll probably do, risking the warranty question. One interesting note was the fuel inspectors are spot checking the exit ramps in California with a "sniffer" that detects dyed diesel, and when it alarms the inspectors check you out.

Years ago, I read a biography of Cummins - the Diesel Engine manufacturer. He got his start before the 1929 depression making pleasure boats for the paper rich. He used big diesel engines for power mills for these things.

When the depression came along, his market died off and he started looking around for another way to make a few pennies. He took what he knew about diesel engines in boats and applied it to diesel engines in trucks, but he found that the big, slow moving engines that he used in boats just would not work in trucks - way too much fuel used to move the engine and no payload.

So in order to get the size down, he had to get the compression up. But the problem was that when he tried to get the compression up, he found that the sulphur in the diesel gummed up his injectors. He had to fight with the fuel refiners to get them to get the sulphur out of the diesel fuel, so that he could make a practical diesel engine for a truck.

Now you are saying that someone is telling you about a high sulphur diesel fuel, and I'd never heard of this. Maybe for home heating? (But then what about acid rain??? Which is just sulphur in the atmosphere - and which happens to make pretty good fertilizer, BTW.) And I've certainly learned of very good reasons why I would believe it has gone the way of the wooden piston.

I'm starting to think that someone is pulling your leg on the high sulphur content diesel fuel - maybe? Or if now, what would it be used for? Anyway, I'd bet that if you are putting a diesel in a truck you'd want to stay the devil away from anything except the lowest diesel content you can lay your hands on.

Oh yeah, a diesel sniffer. This unit works like a radar gun. Now they are combining the two into one unit. The cops can tell if you are speeding on dyed diesel at a range of 1/2 mile. Damn, what is this world coming to? If you believe this, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I am willing to sell you quite cheaply.

On- and off-road diesel emissions are regulated at the federal level through engine emissions standards that apply to new engines and through regulations on diesel fuel.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has regulated on-road diesel emissions at the federal level through the Clean Air Act (CAA) since 1970. It was only 13 years ago in 1990 that EPA amended the CAA to include regulations for off-road diesel vehicles. The standards for on- and off-road engines set maximum allowable levels of emissions for new engines and diesel fuel.

Current off-road fuel standards allow up to 5,000 ppm sulfur content, however, EPA estimates current fuel has sulfur levels of about 3,400 ppm on average nationwide.

Under EPA's new proposal, a limit of 500 ppm sulfur content will take effect in 2007 for all off-road equipment, the current standard for on-road equipment. A second step - to limit fuel to 15 ppm in sulfur content - would take effect in 2010, three years after the 15 ppm standard takes effect for on-road equipment.

"High" is relative. Certainly current diesel fuel contains substantially less sulpher than it did 75 years ago.

To answer your question, "higher" sulpher fuel is used mostly off-road and in marine engines. Take a look at this Chevron page, titled "Diesel, Heating and Marine Fuel Specifications".

Note near the bottom note the % sulfur for on road (0.05%) vs. off road (0.50%) vs. marine (2.0%) use. The table even characterizes the off road (0.50%) fuel as "high sulfur." Recent changes in regulations, some of which take effect in 2007, require reductions in sulfur content of all diesel fuels.

Bob

Thanks for the explanation.

H.

It won't hurt the engine. It may even be better for it. BUT it will hurt your bank account when you get caught. It's illegal to run non taxed fuel on the road.

steve

The sulpher is actually a lubricant and is good. BUT it's bad for emissions and that's why they remove it for road use.

s