red die - Diesel Forum

slydiesel · 03-30-2005, 12:03 AM

hey whats the deal with red diesel thats alot cheaper than #2.

tapadero · 03-30-2005, 12:25 AM

thats off road diesel...so no road tax. Some say its has a higher sulfer content, our distibuter that fills our farm tanks says his is not, and he puts the dye in it. In WA I've never seen the pickups being checked, but a neighbors dump truck was, I heard his fine was $10,000. But then that amount could be a small town rumour! Do a search on this, you should get pletty of reading material.

Ford_Forgotton · 03-30-2005, 08:39 AM

Red Diesel is Home heating oil AND Offroad diesel fuel BOTH. There is no federal or state road taxes collected on it, and that means its about 50 cents cheaper than "taxed" diesel.

Its illegal to run red diesel in a street driven vehicle. If you get caught, its a 10,000 dollar FEDERAL fine on top of whatever the STATE fine is.

Vehicle inspections do NOT require a warrant or any of that constitutional stuff. Its called IMPLIED CONSENT. By driving a diesel vehicle, you consent to spot checks for red fuel.

Sulphur content of Red diesel is dictated by its manufacture. High suflfur diesel is made from high sulfur oil stock (sour crude), but since it CURRENTLY does not need to meet sulfur rules, they bleed it off BEFORE its turned into road diesel with extra processes.

If the diesel is made from LOW SULPHUR oil stocks (light sweet crude) then its low sulfur already and needs no extra processing to turn it into road diesel, and they just add dye to the same fuel that road diesel is made from.

It takes about 4 FULL TANKS of green diesel to get rid of the red dye to undetectable levels.

RUMOUR: There is a rumour going aorund that they are adding a new chemical to red diesel that allows them to trace it by your exhaust. Supposedly have a roadside spectrometer that can detect the special chemical and then pull you over for your fine. This has not been proven, and could have just been an experiment. Given the high cost of diesel lately, I wouldnt doubt they are trying to find ppl running RED.

charles5088 · 03-31-2005, 10:47 PM

I was driving truck for a neighbot about 7 or 8 year's ago and was pulled over for a spot fuel check. I was driving a different truck than normal and it had red fuel in it. It cost $1,000 to the fed. and $1,000 the state. I was glad the he paid the fine's. At least that is what it cost in nebraska. I was told that is the least amount they fine. They can fine you up to $10 per gallon whichever is greater.

lafarmer · 04-07-2005, 10:27 PM

dye diesel is off road diesel. non taxable, my uncle and dad has been caught running it. 1000 dollars first time, then double's each time. It used to be alot cheaper, but has went up the last two years. most of the new models won't run it because of the fuel setup. my friend burnt up a dodge 350, and warrenty wouldn't cover it. I wouldn't recomend trying it. not only is it illeagle, but you take the chance of messing up your moter. we run it in our tractors, and old model farm trucks.

OOPstroker · 04-08-2005, 02:26 PM

Here in SD they do random (very random) tests, I worked at the local Cenex a few years ago and we were told about the fines and were told that if someone got caught with Red in their vehicle they station that sold it to them could also get fined, but since most of them are self service I'm not sure that would hold up. It's been quite a while since I've seen or heard anyone getting tested for it over the road, but I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes more common.

CompuDoc · 04-11-2005, 03:26 PM

There are 3 types of diesel fuel. Low sulfur clear also known as on road taxed diesel. Then there is dyed diesel which is also low sulfur but dyed red because of no federal tax. There is a state tax in NJ on red diesel of four cents per gallon if it is being used by a business even if it is for heating use. The third type of diesel is red dyed high sulfur which is basically the stuff people used before so called dry fuel. Of course back in those days it was not dyed red for road use but now all that is legitemately available for road use is low sulfur non-dyed.

Anyone of the above fuels will run in a diesel engine and also your home boiler or heater. So next winter if the price of home heating oil (AKA red dyed high sulfur) is higher than on road diesel you would be better off buying on-road diesel and burning that in your heating system.

I have recently delivered #2 Fuel oil (AKA Red dyed high sulfur) to a construction site that uses it for their equipment and have also put it in 2 HUGE generators while they were running with no difference in running.