No it won't hurt your truck. It will hurt your pocket book. If/when you get caught.

Red dye is like $0.45 per gallon cheaper. Say 20,000mi per year. Say roughly 1,300 gallons of fuel a year. So say $5300 per year in fuel costs. So say $4500-$4,600 for those same gallons running red dye.
5300-4,500= $700-$800 per year cost savings.

Typical ticket is like $1k, or $10 per gallon (whichever is larger) first offense here in Oregon.

Then it increases from there, with each additional violation. So first fine actually costs you money.

Point is I don't see why people run red dye.Its foolish and on a cost saving basis its not worth it.

Here locally a while back at a local CC, the police got tired of getting complaints about the diesel truck crowd at the local votech. The dudes were warned and kept rolling coal, running with too wide of tires, no mud flaps etc.

So the police went down there and dipped each truck's tanked, and wrote the dudes up for no mud flaps,and for having too wide of tires with no flares.

Oregon DOT frequently stages checkpoints where all diesel vehicles must stop ( Yes, TDI Jettas are included). They scale the trucks and dip them, they dip the cars.

Actually to be honest I think the process of dipping the tanks is not as prevalent anymore. I think they utilize some type of analyzer in the exhaust of a rig and it can tell if any red dye has ever been ran. (According to what I have heard).

 

Here in Indiana, I've never really even ever heard of a passenger car or light truck getting checked for offroad fuel. Then again, our laws for what makes a vehicle road-legal or not are really more like suggestions, lol.

 

They'd have to follow that up with an actual dipping if the exhaust analysis came up positive. Any bloke could argue in court that the truck has once run dyed fuel, which is perfectly legal. Our IDI is a former farm truck, most likely run on dyed fuel in the past.

 

that would be 10 gallons in the tank.

 

that is just an old sticker on the pump. as of around 10 years ago, the only diesel fuel made has been ulsd

 

By 'high sulfur,' all that is meant is that it is exactly like Diesel fuel used to be 10 years ago. Current on-road diesel is called ULSD (ultra low sulfur diesel). before this became mandatory, the old stuf was known as LSD (low sulfur diesel, not the halucinogenic drug), which is just to say that some sulfur has been removed, but not all.

before LSD it was called Diesel Oil, or #2 Oil, or #2 Diesel, or #2 light Oil, or some combination of that. If you heat your home with oil and look at the reciept you get, it'll say something like #2 Oil, or #2 Distillate. plus it has red dye in it, so that you don't use it as on-road vehicle fuel. And, i believe even home heating oil is required to be Low Sulfur, and soon will have to be Ultra-Low Sulfur.

Furthermore, the sulfur in diesel oil was exactly what made the old stuff more lubricating than the new stuff.

so, moral of the story - today's off-road/red dyed stuff is actually what your truck was designed to run on, and is better for it than the new ULSD. it just also happens to be illegal to use now. thanks government.

as an aside, i run my old 1980 yanmar diesel tractor on straight heating oil. it actually says 'use #2 or #1 light oil' right next to the fuel tank. it runs much better on this than new diesel fuel. and while i haven't run heating oil in my truck, you better believe that the 500 gallons of oil in my basement will be going into my home heater and my truck should some sort of fuel crisis hit.

...and for those who are curious - #1 oil is kerosene, #3 doesn't exist any more and higher numbers range from marine diesel to tar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_oil)

 

incorrect. there is no such thing as low sulfur or high sulfur diesel fuel sold anywhere in the united states. it is all ULSD. on road or dyed off road. makes no difference, it is all ULSD the only difference is the dye

 

interesting. well, i stand corrected. so the only difference between off-road and on-road diesel is whether its taxed for highway use or not...

but almost all heating oil is for sure not ULSD yet. probably will be soon, but i don't know of any states that require it just yet.

i guess this would explain why my heating oil company offered to sell me off-road diesel when i asked if they carried low sulfur heating oil. ...it was much pricier than heating oil.

 

That's why people go over the boarder to Mexico and fill their trucks up for a fraction of the price because they still use LSD

 

Didn't see a date on the sticker, but if it were 10 years old, it would be pretty faded; it looked just as fresh as the ULSD sticker on the other half of that pump (other nozzle). I'll try and remember to check it for a date next time.

 

I doubt any law enforcemnt agency wold attempt to "dip" your tank. first of all its not a big rig where you open the cap on the tank and theres the fuel to check. my trucks tanks have things in them to prevent fuel theft. not exactly ideal for "dipping" so I doubt the whole tank dipping theory. and what kind of piece of crap do you have to be to try to get out of paying your fair share of highway taxes? they should make you watch while they run your truck through a shredder.

 

Its very very easy to dip a pickup tank. They do it all the time here in the Red River Valley. Every farm truck has a service tank in the back and the dot stop them quite often.

Home heating oil is just plane old ULSD with red die. You can call and get your off road tank filled and you house tank filled from the same truck. FWIW every off road diesel engine built after 2007 had to use ulsd, it would be a giant cluster F if everything on road used ULSD and the off road stuff could still use LSD.

Diesel Rod

 

HA. that is why when I need fuel, I go to NJ. it is typically $0.50 a gallon cheaper than PA. That is gas and diesel

 

Virginia is a lot cheaper then most places too

 

To clarify:
Off road equipment (tractors, farm implements, etc) is exempt from federal and state highway taxes, which is a break for farmers. This fuel can be used in trailer refrigeration units, which is why you can get it a truck stops (from a different pump). Home heating oil is taxed differently as well. To keep them from using those fuels (even if they are the same) in highway rigs, it is dyed red.

Highway fuel, which is taxed, is not dyed at all. It has a green tint to it.

BOTH highway and non-highway fuels are the same ULSD fuel, one of them has red dye. Home heating fuel may be ULSD, but it is taxed differently (if at all) and is dyed red. The red dye essentially separates the state and federal highway tax income from state tax or non-tax income.

It Idaho, the DOT will sit on public roads outside of farm auctions, truck stops, rest areas they enter, weigh stations etc. to dip tanks of pickups and tractor trailer rigs and check for fuel dye. If they find red where it shouldn't be, every piece of equipment at the owners farm is checked under probable cause. Idaho has a first time fine that is very expensive though I'm not sure what it is. I know of a farmer who was forced to sell half his equipment or lose his farm to pay a fine for this. BS, but he was doing something illegal and got caught.