I would imagine he is referring to the highway patrol as state police.

 

I have run red fuel a lot. Sometimes it's legal on the road in my situation.

Got into a heated discussion with a rental truck company once when I returned a rental truck with red fuel, at the time of fill up it was 100% legal to run red on the road.

As pointed out diesel fuel is diesel fuel just has a red dye.


​​​ been checked couple three times, in my situation they just cracked open the water separator and let the fuel drip into a container.

 

Back in the 90's when I was an oil jobber (had a home heating oil delivery company, plus sold gas and diesel at my station, and wholesaled to other retail places), it was the IRS that always came by and checked to make sure I had the right color fuel in my delivery trucks.

They told me I didn't have to comply with their request to check my truck fuel tanks, but it would be a $10,000.00 fine if I refused, and they would be back and check again later. No problem letting them check as I didn't use off road for on road anyway. All my fuel was bought wholesale off the pipeline, so it wasn't worth the risk for a small amount of money.

I drove one of the trucks myself, and one particularly busy day, I was halfway across the next county over running the last stops of the day. It was getting late, and my truck was really low on fuel. After my last stop, I may, or may not, have put 20 gallons of off road in the tank to get back to the shop before I ran out.

Before I got the fuel hose reeled in I could see the exhaust start puffing a little white, and there was definitely a different smell to the exhaust. It may not be noticeable on todays EPA engines, but on the DT-466B mechanical engines I had, it was oblivious the fuel was different.

Even if Ray Charles couldn't have seen it, he certainly could have smelled it.

I hit the interstate, ran straight to the shop, and filed up with on road before I went home.

 

I've been checked in my personal pickup truck, was pulled over for speeding in the winter, it was so cold both of my fuel guns were freezing up what I was refueling heavy equipment and I had taken the guns off and just stuck the hose directly in the tanks. The snow in the bed was covered with a red dye from the spilled fuel look like I had slaughtered a deer back there.

It was like -5 when they crawled under my truck thinking they had me, what I had left Chicago I topped off with regular fuel and I'll adjust it crossed into Iowa when I got pulled over. Between the dilution of clear fuel and cloud point of the fuel, I was good to go

 

Definitely state dependent, Fed tax is $0.24 per gallon, and my state tax is $0.44 per gallon. $0.68 per gallon is a nice savings if you can get away with running it.

Around here the State Police enforce all D.O.T. laws by the book so its tough to get away with it.

 

I'm not entirely wrong, but yeah I'm mostly wrong.

https://www.staroilco.net/every-ques...f-road-diesel/

 

Federal tax on diesel is $0.244/gal and on gasoline is $0.184/gal

 

Thank you, my bad I added a "0" after the decimal.

 

Yes they do that up here and in Wyoming. Depends where in the state too, but with cameras all over the place and that warning on the pump I wouldn't risk it.

 

Hell yes! Just is dyed red to show no road use tax has been paid. Get caught 10K fine.

 

If you think the red dye is persistent once mixed with the fuel, you should see it in its raw form before being added to the fuel! I was an operator in an oil refinery and ran 3 process units that made a total of about 5.5 million gallons of distillate (diesel, heating oil, jet) a day, back when the Heating oil was still higher sulfur than the lsd/ulsd we would inject the red dye into the heating oil product right on the units. A 400 gallon tote of the raw dye would last about 2 weeks on a 50,000 barrel (42 gallons per barrel) per day unit, so about 1 gallon of dye to 75,000 gallons of product. It wasn’t uncommon to develop a small drip leak around those injection pumps, if an operator got a drop or two of the dye on the sole of their boot the beige tile floors in our blockhouse would turn pink very quickly and stay pink for about a month even with high foot traffic and twice weekly moppings. Red dye is very persistent stuff!
And yes, currently heating oil and ULSD are both the same sulfur content, diesel evolved first to LSD then into ULSD with the heating oil lagging a few years behind each step up in sulfur removal. Thankfully once they were equal they took the dye injection away from our units and moved it to the blending stations at the tank farm, truck racks and pipeline, dealing with any problems at the red dye skid was one of the jobs that was universally hated. Get any dye on your tools, soak and wash them in product, get dye on your gloves, throw them away, get dye on your nomex coveralls, get them into the laundry immediately and hope for the best, get dye on your skin, scrub till you are raw a few times a day and it would fade within a few days. You really didn’t want to get it on your skin, besides the new vibrant color it wasn't exactly the healthiest thing to do.

 

OK, so you buy 100 gallons, save $68, but then get dipped and fined $1,000-$10,000. Was it worth the $68? Thats pennies saved compared to a possible fine. Also that red dye is persistent, it only takes a trace of it to get busted. Use it at your own risk, especially with the high price of fuel, you can bet they will be out in force to check this during the summer. Happened during the high fuel era back in the 00's, and yes my truck DID get dipped! Had a 99 Dually, they did a spot check, all diesels right lane only for inspection, including pickups. Good old Illinois!

 

Seems like having recent receipts for taxed diesel would get you off if you had previously used the truck off road?

 

Red fuel, or no fuel, what would be your choice? I know what mine would be........

 

They say, the dye will stain sensors and if the dealer wants to if they detect red diesel has been used they can flag it and void your warranty. this is from the service manager from a Ford dealer. now I'm not sure how much of this is true but I do know the fine is 10k so even though I have red diesel on the ranch I'm not running it.