The tax on fule that you would be getting fined for is a road tax. the tax you payed on ATF is a sales tax. So it would still be illegal that being said I'm about to go put my used ATF in my tank right now.
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94 F350 Crew Cab Long bed 4X4 7.3L IDI Factory Turbo, AKA The Land Yacht. E4OD, 4.10 posi. Getting further from stock with 35 inch BFG alterains on 16 inch micky's, straight pipe, Triple A-piller pod with pyro, boost, modifyed stock oil presure gauge, tc lock light&switch
If you told them you were running used transmission fluid here, they would hand you a ticket for 5000 dollars plus court costs.
Hi Dave just curious how many of us regular pickem-up truck boys get checked for fuel issues??? I mean really my grandpa used to drive tractor trailor years ago and sometimes icc would check his tanks with a dipping cup. but how the heck would they check a regular pickup?? and mostly he got checked at the weigh scales we arent required to go through the weigh scales towing a camper and such or are we (I never went through one). Not arguing just trying to nail down weather or not a desperate fellow short on cash has a lot to be worried about . Now maybe im all wet here and they do keep an eye on us pickup truck diesel guys that im knowing about as I just got my truck a week ago and it is my first diesel. Im not asking anyone justify or advocate the practice of not paying ceasar his due. just curious to how many had experiences getting caught or darn close?? thanks guys
When they set up a fuel check here, every diesel that comes down the road is checked.
Pickups, semi's and VW Rabbit Diesels are all checked.
Off road fuel is dyed red, so is much of the kerosene and home heating oil.
The red dye means no highway use tax has been paid on the fuel.
Last year, I was stopped three times, the weater just now is starting to get nice here, but so far I have not seen them this year.
They fish a small tube, reminds me of the line for an oil pressure gauge except it is a greenish clear color.
The nice green/yellow taxed fuel almost glows in the tube on a sunny day.
Any trace of red in the fuel and it looks black.
Black is bad, fine coming.
Rest areas, by interstate intersections, even on the side of the road on 4 lane divided roads are all good places for them to set up.
Motor oil, off road fuel, home heating oil, kerosene, jet fuel, home made biodiesel, WVO and SVO are all non taxed fuels.
Fines differ from state to state.
Whether or not you may get checked also varies from state to state.
But I can bet as money gets tighter and road maintence costs continue to soar, more states will be checking fuel.
From posts here over time, I know at least 8 or 10 states are checking fuel now.
In WV the highway use tax is 53.4 cents per gallon of diesel.
That also varies from state to state.
If I burn 3000 gallons of diesel a year, I am paying 1602 dollars in highway use tax.
Not that much money.
But if only 10,000 trucks here in WV ran home made biodiesel and ran the same 3000 gallons of fuel I do, WV is out 16,020,000 dollars of highway use tax.
Also next time you see a semi running down the road, remember he is paying road use tax on close to 1000 gallons of fuel a week.
So his highway use tax bill looks like about 28,000 dollars a year.
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86 F250 HD 6.9 IDI ATS turbo "not exactly" stock 4x4 T19 BW1345 3.55LS both ends D60 front, 10.25" Sterling rear, ram air, dual stacks.
Here in PA they have gane as far as to pull the fuel filter off of my 93 to check the fuel and I no for a fact that here in PA they have the right to stop any diesel powered vehicle for non-taxable fuels and if you are running bio, wvo,wmo or any other non taxable fuels you must provide proof of how much you have run and that you have paid the road tax to PA for that amount of fuel. Here it is not illegal to run the stuff but you must pay the tax to the state for running it. Now that said I have friends that have run there diesel trucks for years and never been "dipped" but they don't drive the kind of miles that I do or tow the loads that I do a 93 f250 pulling a case 580 tend to scream look at me.
Actually where you drive has as much to do with it as anything else.
The place I get stopped most of the time has a lot of truck traffic.
Power plant coal trucks.
Two cement companies.
Two freight terminals.
Two excavation equipment dealers.
One pipe supply yard.
An auto auction.
Hot ticket here this year is a transfer fuel tank in the bed.
Filter sample and or visual inspection to see if the tank is tied into the vehicle fuel supply.
And I have heard the french fry smell comment at the road check before.
The police are not the ones checking here, neither is the DOT.
WV Department of Tax and Revenue Criminal Investigation Division is the vehicle logo and the shirt patch logo.
I also know that last year, the WV enforcement officers attended a seminar in Columbus Ohio that was all about WVO, SVO and home made biodiesel and a sniffer that samples exhaust gasses.
Yes you can pay the road tax and be legal if you keep good records of miles driven, gallons burned and all that.
But if you have to prove all that, you are probably going to miss a days work or more every time you get stopped.
Not worth the headache for me and I have exact record of fuel mileage, fuel purchased and everything truck related on my computer for over 12 years now.
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86 F250 HD 6.9 IDI ATS turbo "not exactly" stock 4x4 T19 BW1345 3.55LS both ends D60 front, 10.25" Sterling rear, ram air, dual stacks.
I couldn,t agree with you more Dave which is why I run straight pump diesel in my pickups and my two Peterbuilts and nothing but offroad in my equipment. Not worth the headaches allaround in paperwork, possible fines, and potentially maintenance. I just think that the savings in fuel cost are gonna bite me in the a** later down the line. And DOT is the only ones I know of checking in PA but I was just saying that it can be done legally allthough I not about to try it just doesn,t seem like a good idea to save a few bucks however I also make my living by doing construction work funded by that road tax so maybe I,m a little biased. lol
I have driven a lot of Pa roads, I 80 two or three times a week back in the 70's and early 80's.
I know Pa needs all the money they can get for road repairs.
WV is no different.
I am also in the excavation business, so I know exactly how much fuel a dozer burns as well as that dump truck that hauls the blacktop out to fill the pot holes and the roller that rolls it down.
Last fall I know blacktop was 45 dollars a ton.
One ton of blacktop will cover an area 9 x 9 feet 1" thick.
So 2 tons will not even cover a two lane road for 9 feet 1 inch thick.
After the latest round of oil price increases I bet blacktop doubled this year from last year.
Maintaining the highways is no cheap undertaking.
Building new ones is even worse.
The highway use tax is the only tax I don't mind paying.
I can pay my part to fix the holes, or I can buy new springs, tires and what ever else I break driving through pot holes everywhere I go.
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86 F250 HD 6.9 IDI ATS turbo "not exactly" stock 4x4 T19 BW1345 3.55LS both ends D60 front, 10.25" Sterling rear, ram air, dual stacks.
Well Dave and 3/4 man I think you answered my question about as good as can be expected. So from what im reading you can run your own home brew as long as you keep records of miles and gallons and pay road tax accordingly. (seems like alot of red tape) to try to keep folks from developing a possible better fuel cheaper almost seems the state and oil companys are in business together! hmmm . so I guess i will be a good little soldier like they want us to be and pay 4.25 a gallon for the stuff they tell us we dare run. You know guys one of these days the little man is gonna get damn tired of big brother tellin us what we can and cant do. And to think we still call this land of the free? Dont get me wrong im as patriotic as the next man. I have a small construction business here in Pa and employ 6 men till you get done paying wages and insurances and matching taxes and paying unemployment contribution a fellow kind of shakes his head. Now we confronted with these ridiculous fuel prices at the pump. Here in Pa the truckers got together and went to the capitol and asked to have the state lift the tax on diesel fuel. They politly said NO. ok im done venting now my counselor said it is good for me now and then. lol anyway thanks for clueing me in on not getting nabbed i did not relize they keyed in on the diesles like that. Pump fuel for me!!!
As I said above, the semi trucks are the big losers.
I drove one for years.
Yes the truckers did the capitol run here as well.
But it should have been to DC, not the state capitols.
If the state drops the highway use tax, ....I should say here that 1/2 the tax is federal and 1/2 is state highway use tax, then how do the roads get fixed?
In the winter, how will the ice get salted?
How will the snow get plowed?
Where will the next bridge fall down because there was no money to inspect it or fix it?
When you go somewhere strange to you, aren't those nice big signs telling you which way to go nice?
The highway use tax money all goes to road maintenance and construction.
It is also a rather fair tax, the more you haul or the more you drive, the more you pay.
The rest of the taxes you pay, income, property and sales taxes to name a few are paying for stuff you may never use or don't believe in.
My grandmother is paying property tax, part of which supports the schools, and she had her last child graduate for the school system 70 years ago.
At 97 I don't think she is likely to have any more children, so why is she still paying for something she will never use again and hasn't used for years?
I drove 50 miles today on a two lane road.
If the state repaved that 50 miles it would take 65,185 tons of blacktop to put a 1" layer of new pavement down.
That is 2,933,333 dollars worth of blacktop at last years prices, which does not include transportation from the blacktop plant or installation on the road.
Now figure that at 15 MPG, I paid 1.78 to the state to drive that 50 miles.
What a deal I got.
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86 F250 HD 6.9 IDI ATS turbo "not exactly" stock 4x4 T19 BW1345 3.55LS both ends D60 front, 10.25" Sterling rear, ram air, dual stacks.
Well, here in WA a fair majority of the people pride themselves on being very "progressive" and very "green" - translation: we're awash in liberal treehuggers. For the most part this leads to a lot of ridiculous and wrong-headed laws and some of the highest taxes in the country.
HOWEVER, our esteemed Governor recently signed a piece of legislation that totally stunned me when I heard about it. As of last month, here in the great state of Washington, all WVO, SVO, and Home Brew Biodiesel are 100% EXEMPT from the state fuel tax!
I've paid hwy. tax on every drop of fuel I have ever burned. What ticks me off is the WASTE! Every Gov't agency probably WASTES at least a third of OUR money purely IN WASTE and the Hwy. Dept. is at least as bad as anyone else. If they were actually building/repairing the highways with the BAZILLIONS of dollars they get there wouldn't be a pothole anywhere.
One of my best friends from clear back in high school works for ODOT, he said "you would be infuriated by the WASTE! I am everyday."
Another of my friends I see at least three or four times a week has been driving tanker truck for 18 years so he has a rough idea of the fuel consumption of the state (Oregon) we sat down and roughed out the gas tax that is paid: IT IS HUGE!
Granted we don't know the exact numbers but it is an unbelievable amount and I know roads are expensive but no one will EVER convince me that we EVER get our MONEY'S WORTH from the gov't.
Also Oregon's gas tax goes for "TRANSPORTATION" anything that "TRANSPORTS" is/can be funded with the fuel tax: bike lanes, mass transit, foot paths etc. Portland voted down Light Rail I don't know how many times, the polititions got tired of "asking" so they just funded it anyway. It's been a huge DUD. It COSTS the taxpayers money everytime someone rides it. They think they are "going green" but there's so few people riding it it's WASTING energy.
Now almost, and soon to be, all gas sold in the state is 10% ethanol. We get worse mileage so we burn MORE. It is cleaning everyones dirty fuel systems out so we need MORE fuel filters. It all has to be hauled BY TRUCK because you can't run it through the pipelines which burns MORE diesel. Meanwhile the we will be paying MORE gas tax because we are burning MORE fuel.
If I sound bitter, I am! I am sick of gov't WASTE in every sector, not just roads.
I say again just so it's clear: I don't mind paying my dues but lining some lazy S.O.B.'s pocket for doing nothing pisses me off and there's nothing I can do about it but bitch to you guys!
Dodge/Cummins - not only the waste (every desk has to had to have a brand new 22" computer monitor, not that the 19" ones didn't work, but there was money and it had to be spent otherwise next year they might get less in their budget.) but the road tax that is supposed to go toward maintenance, (atleast here in Cali that is when the legislation states) less than 50% of it makes it to road maintenance. The road funds get diverted into other programs. Often pet projects, or welfare dept needs some more for the illegals that need food, housing, medical care etc... (it may not be that big of a deal in other states but here it costs tens of billions every year.) Just about every agency uses the road tax funds are their own personal slush fund (when the general fund is empty.. which happens in the first month of the fiscal year.)
Here is another related example... the school district is spending $900,000 a year on electricity. Being energy conservation minded they bought into a system where each classroom's energy usage can be monitored from a computer, cost was $2million. They hired a energy specialist as a part-time 1 yr contract position for $65,000 to implement and enforce the program. After getting the program in place over the course of a year they spent $400,000 on electricity. Reduction of Half a Million $ in a year. They did not renew the contract for the energy specialist. The next year they spent $950,000 in electricity. Thus they spent $2million on the program, kept it for a year and saved $500,000 and didn't want to pay $65,000 to keep the prgram going to save $500,000 for another year.... to be honest maybe they thought that I once I had everything in place that the teachers would be on board with the program and there would be no need to pay for me to police them. That was 4 yrs ago, and now they are saying how they will have to be firing teachers because they have to cut $200,000 from this years budget somehow....
Dave the price of blacktop has doubled in my area since last year and the supplier that I use (a major construction company here GOH inc.) has told me to expect more increases in cost towards the real startup of construction season here. As far as heavy equipment fuel usage my 375 hoe goes through about 125 gallons in 10 hours and my d9 about the same so I definately feel the pinch as jobs get completed and for some reason or another the agency or company that hired me to do the job decides to wait 90 or 120 days to pay for it. These people who hold the money are typically the state or some state funded agency so if anyone believes that they are not just sitting on the money and making a little interest off of it to help suplement the road tax well I say they are crazy. Anyway thats my part of this rant tired of being stiffed by the state lol.
I can see im not alone in the anger over high tax dollars coming out of our pockets.... Going back to road work and such isn't our registration fee supposed to have taken care of the highway maintainance? heck here in Pa it changes so often but im thinking im paying 185.00 yr for 1 ton tags where is this money going (new buildings and payroll for bureau of licenseing) I just really think if we saw the real dollars gathered we would puke!! if the state would run their household the many of our wives run ours we would be due refunds.
Vehicle registration fees here also go into the DOT budget.
If WV only had registration fees to draw from we would never get the first pot hole repaired.
Here are some facts about WV roads.
37,370 miles of public roads
34,610 miles of state highway
88 miles of the West Virginia Turnpike
549 miles of Interstate highway (out of the nation’s 46,068)
1,736 miles of the National Highway System (out of the nation's 158,920)
6,343 bridges, of which 32 percent are more than 100 feet in length
2 national and 8 state scenic byways
Over 37,000 miles of highway to maintain, and WV is a rather small state.
The Department of transportation employs 5,000 people here in round numbers.
Now go back up and look at 3 million dollars worth of blacktop to pave 50 miles of road at last years prices.
From there look at 37,370 miles of roads, so it would take 747 times 3 million dollars to buy enough blacktop to pave every road in WV with 1" of blacktop.
2,242,200,000 dollars.
And that is just buying the blacktop, not getting it hauled out and installed on the roads.
I am not saying there is not waste, but I am saying unless you stop and take a hard look at numbers you will not see that taking care of the highways takes a huge pile of money every year.
Also notice at the top, all numbers are in thousands, so multiply every number in the chart by 1000.
So it looks like the 2007 highway maintence budget was 1,788,277,000 dollars.
And it also looks like the road construction budget was 1,303,383,000 dollars.
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86 F250 HD 6.9 IDI ATS turbo "not exactly" stock 4x4 T19 BW1345 3.55LS both ends D60 front, 10.25" Sterling rear, ram air, dual stacks.
