Ok so just for fun here I used to work in a shop who had red diesel for "shop diesel" for parts washing filling fuel filters during a service ect ect

I have changed hundreds of fuel filters and filled them with red die by the time they leave the shop and I parked them in there spot there was NO color in the tank or in the filter still to this day I keep red die in my shop for use in filters and such

As far as guys telling you that DOT will cut open your filters thats BS and they will only fine for a % of red in the tank say if you filled up with red 35 gal and then filed up with clear twice at 32 gal each fill up the % of red in your tank will be minimal

I dont remember the % is where you can get busted for but I think it was 15%-18%
they have a little scale that they use to tell how dark it is

in a dodge at 5 gal of red it takes about 3-5 tanks to completely flush out

This is how I know......

I got popped about 6 months ago in the woods I had a 100 fuel tank in the back and 5 gal of red in my tank and I told them that I was getting low up there and put in a few gallons to get back to town and showed them my fuel receipt from the day before I was let go with a STERN warning......

but little did they know is that was a full tank of red and a fuel receipt for another truck

but after that I dont run it in the tank no more its not worth saving $0.20 a gal now for $1000 + later

 

One of the farmers got caught last year and it cost him over $10K on top of the state revenue office came to his place and IIRC they made him pay road tax on all fuel on the 5500 gallons of diesel in the farm fuel tank along with some other costly penalties.

 

i got pulled over for the first time in my own town by a dot kid fresh out of training. this is in western new york just so you know. he checked the tractor and told me that he was goin to dip the tank. i told him if he wanted to climb up and open the fuel cap with the tractor running he could be my guest but i was goin to have my lil camera phone rollin when he did. needless to say he didnt.

 

Mikeyjj why did that stop him?


How does the dip test work for guys who ad a bottle of ATF to their tank. Most all ATF I've seen is red. Wouldn't that put a red die in the fuel?

 

it was a farm tractor with a manure spreader on the back his arguement was that i was on a state road. my arguement was it was farm equipment and there is a do not open while exhaust is hot sign on the fuel tank.

 

Ahh that's what I was wondering. I thought all farm equipment was tax exempt on fuel unless it's a licensed vehicle. Meaning it wouldn't matter what kinda fuel it has.

Anyone know what they do with red ATF or a dark Motor oil mix?

 

his snitfit was over that it was a state highway and when i pulled out from the stop sign it put out alil black smoke. not a cloud just alil puff. 20 tons of crap is alil heavy on a 200 horse tractor startin out on a 7% grade. he claimed that if any motorized object traveled farther than 3/4 of a mile on a state highway or state maintained road it has to run road fuel. And we were haulin it alil over a mile. then he told me he was goin to dip the tank while the tractor was still runnin. thats when i told him to be my guest but if anything happened i was goin to have it on camera. it was one of those wierd foriegn tractors that had the exhaust about 8 inchs from the fuel cap.

 

From where I sit, the possibility of any DOT dipping a non-commercial vehicles fuel tank is extremely remote. What would they do if you had black diesel fuel in your tank? Its not an approved fuel either???

Mike

 

i dont know about black diesel or atf dying the fuel but i add some 2stroke oil(usaully blue)to change the color from red

 

I can pack 42+ gallons on mine, LOL.