If you've got a key lock cap, you wouldn't know.

 

Same as BIgBlue said...Iv'e never seen them check at the shows I've been to. Only time I've ever heard of anyone getting caught was on the highway by a dps cop and another time at a border patrol check point where dps cops sometime sit and wait for diesel engines. Some people have heard that TX weights and measurments can check too. Sound right to yall? BTW, do yall know the amount of a fine? I know they fine you per gallon, but how much?

Hunter

 

The fine varies from state to state is hard to find at least on the internet. The federal recommendation to the states is $1000 plus $100 per gallon of tank capacity, thus a Ram would cost you $4500.
I haven't heard of any states charging more than this even though they can. Many charge less though. In Nevada it's $100 plus 42¢ per gallon (42¢ is the amount of their road tax.)

When you hear rumors of $10,000 fines it is most likely on a big rig that has large tanks.

With a savings of 52¢ a gallon in Montana under the price of on-road you would have to burn about 9000 gallons to be ahead of getting caught once. At 15 mpgs that would take 135k miles on red to rationalize taking the chance.

Being a farmer with my own tanks I burnt red for over 250k on my two rigs, but no longer do. In fact the savings was part of my incentive for buying diesel pickups.

In the over ten years since dyeing began I have never seen anyone checked living in Montana and E. Washington and have only known one person who was caught with a pickup. He stopped a weigh station pulling a U-Haul, if he hadn't of stopped he wouldn't have been checked. Legally he didn't have to stop.
I have known several guys who have been nailed with semis though.

 

There is some truth to the pump and injector myth, The red diesel will soot a lot more than highway use fuel. Injectors doesn't like it because it clogs the nozzles and builds up on the valves

 

I know the EPA has a $10,000 (or there about) fine for running high sulfur fuel in a highway vehicle (as per how it was manufactured not how it is used)..

Here in VA we have a $1,000 fine for running dyed fuel for the first 100 gallon of tank size.. If you have a tank larger than 100 gallons they go with the $100 per gallon fine..Then the IRS bills you the same amount. Both the state and IRS will bill you for the $0.16 state and $0.245 federal taxes..

They love checking for dyed fuel on construction sites, horse shows, cattle auctions because these ppl think it is legal to run.. BUT it aint..

 

In the three years I lived in Bigfork, I was checked a few times a year, as were my neighbors. Every time I visited the Kalispell stock, horse and auction sales I'd see the red dye patrol (MHP)inspecting every diesel truck in the lot including TDI's and semis.

In Wyoming we were never bothered by DOT or WHP inspectors, even at ports.

 

From our Co-op you can get about any fuel you want dyed for offroad #1, #2 or even a b20 winter blend. The Dye doesn't tell you anything about the quality of the fuel. But a lot of the red fuel is a high sulfer content because it's cheaper and a lot of farm, construction, industrial equip doesn't care. Probably why txredneck was told that. We use the good stuff in our turbines when they're not on Gas and it's red too. In Illinois the diesel cops like weigh stations, sale barns, and co-ops. I personally met IRS agents at a hotel bar in Lafayette, LA that were working the scales on I-10 there for about a week. That was about 10 years ago. I think their fine at that time was $2,500 per incident. They caught 1 truck belonging to a large construction company with red fuel and loaded up and drove too his yard and tested every truck in his yard and fined him for each truck as a seperate incident. I live on a farm and have a diesel tank full of red fuel for the tractors. I will never run it in my truck because I don't think it's worth the gamble nowdays. I can see why people might be tempted though.

 

the time they get you isnt when you filled up with the dye, its about 7 fillups later and its still in there. Thats when they finally find ya

 

Here in Ca.it is the same fuel as the on road fuel just dyed when put in to the tanker truck.No higher sulfer.Same fine though.

 

The UHauls, Penske, Budget-Ryder rental trucks now have to stop at all weigh stations. There are notices posted in the rental stores, since 2002. The fine in GA where I rented a truck to bring some furniture home, is $85 + points. Down in FL, they send the cops out after you, if you blow past one of their stations. And treat you just like a criminal. They brought the dogs out on one UHaul truck. Then made the guy unload it in the rain and spread all over the side of the highway.

 

That is probably because of the Oklahoma City Bombing and due to the 911 terrorist threats. Can't blame them much for doing that if you run a check point.

John (DH)

 

does this mean the truck will blow red exhaust

 

hehe, that was me DieselDude, We have been doing that for years, every once in a while dump a quart of tranny fluid in the tank and it lubricates the pump and cleans out the system, it is not very good since it is red, but I dont know If it stays in the tank like the dye does. I have never heard of anybody being stopped around here, they just dont do it. The only time that they check is at farm shows on the way out when all the diesels are leaving.

-Jared

 

"Technically" unless you paid tax on the quart of trans fluid you put in, you are in violation of burning untaxed transmission fluid.

 

If it's just ATF, they will be able to tell. Either with a field test, or they can take a sample. I've heard that now they use a litmus paper kind of thing that changes color only when the dye is present. I've never seen that though

It's not very common to see anybody tested here in central texas, but when I was in college in Lubbock, they'd check at farm equipment auctions, horse events, and the bigger gas stations.