For the first time! Traffic check on state route 75 outside of Abingdon, VA. Wife, kids and I were on the way to town for some lunch and noticed the traffic check. We slowed and the officer immediately asked me to pull off the side of the road and handed me a slip of paper explaining my rights (or lack of) due to Virginia's laws concerning off road diesel testing. Asked me if I had a problem dipping the tank and I said "Not at all!" Then he said "You do just have on road fuel right?" "Yep, I even have every receipt for every gallon of fuel I've ever purchased." Checked my liscense and registration and said you're good to go. While he was busy, I noticed they were all Va State Commercial Vehicle Officers and they were only checking diesels, farm vehicles and trucks in general. Said they were also checking registered weight ratings on trucks and if suspected for violations they would weigh the vehicle which means that anyone running auto tags on 3/4 and 1 ton trucks would probably get weighed. They have had several issues with people abusing the 7500 lb max ratings for auto tags. I have truck tags registered for 9900 lbs for the truck and 18,000 lbs for truck and trailer. My truck with a full tank of fuel and just me and my daughter weighed exactly 7900 lbs and nothing in the bed but Line-X.


Moral of the story: Anyone in Virginia better be carefull about their fuel and type of registration. They're cracking down!

 

dont they have like $3500 speeding tickets in VA? thats harsh...

 

They were nailing big trucks at the state line last night when I came thru. Definately not playing around any more.

 

ODOT does this alot with trucks leaving the stock yards, you see them all the time heading north, seen 2 dodges and stroker a few years ago get dipped and caught, that wasnt cheap. ODOT sets at the bridge in Aberdeen waiting for dump trucks from kentucky to cross the bridge, busts them with weight restriction laws, different weights for X-number of axles in ohio than in kentucky, those portable scales suck, they get alot of grain trucks going down 32 to Cincinnati to the big grain mill hauling well over 80K.

 

That must be a lot of extra paper in your truck.

I was in Kentucky a few years ago and they were selling red diesel out of the regular pumps. How would you explain that to an officer in VA? 80 gallons of fuel, do you think they would believe you?

Also you never said that they did in fact check your diesel in your tank? I can't wait until they dip me. I look forward to the day.

 

That's why you keep your receipts, to prove you paid for road diesel.

 

Post Hurricane Katrina, the Gov't gave permission to use Off-Road fuel (after paying the highway taxes of course) in on road vehicles due to the imediate shortage of undyed fuel.
That expired after ~6 months.

 

And after adding a quart of amsoil synthetic 2 stroke to my tank, I kept the bottle for two fillups, as that stuff is RED, and I didn't notice till the last drops were goin into my tank !

 

Interesting, I wonder what they do with out-of-state plates? All we have up here is auto tags.

 

Have to be carful in WA State in Burlington WA. The Cenex has off road diesel at the same island as road diesel, the pump is marked off road, but if someones is in a hurry and not paying attention, oooops.

 

Yup thats reason enough right there, also in Colorado if you do a drive off from a station they will suspend your drivers license for I think a year, so if the dummy working at the station screws up and says you drove off you're going to want a receipt, I keep mine for two months plus

same in Colorado for pulling my 5er

 

I have a little folder that I keep my receipts, registration and insurance cards for my truck and trailers. Keeps things nice and neat!

They did dip me. Came out just fine! I assume it looked like Mountain Dew. I didn't see the tester they used after they dipped me but everytime I've drained the water separator that's what it looked like. The only additive I use is Stanadyne PF and Lube Formula.

The road I live on has a small country store/fuel station that sells off road diesel. I'd say they've been getting reports of guys putting it in their trucks.

The tag thing has been an issue for a while. Not only is the state losing the extra money for registration fees, the counties are also losing the extra money they get from the added property tax that is assessed for trucks running truck tags. The county treasurer has been upset about this for years.

 

the device they use to dip it does not matter what color it is it reacts with the sulphur in the fuel If the fuel is high in sulphur it will develop a dot on it and that will tell the officer the fuel is over 500 ppm

 

In most locations, the only differences between On-Road and Off-Road fuels are the color and the price (Highway taxes).
They both are supposed to be from the same hose at the depot, they add a dye pack to tanker load of the Off-Road stuff.

 

On road fuels has a max of 500 ppm sulpher content off road fuel can have as much as 2500 ppm sulpher content you can get off road diesel all day long that is yellow but high in sulpher that is why color does not matter