I just wondered how many of you use this fuel with dye in it vs. regular road fuel. I am told the only difference is the dye they add and it's cheaper because you pay no road tax. Yet I am not so sure. Local mechanics say to buy fuel at a busy truck stop because the fuel is "fresher" because of the high usage. So how many think diesel fuel can degrade with age like gas and have an opinion on the off road fuel. My hoe and tractors are used on a farm so I think I could legally use the cheaper fuel, but I wonder if this fuel ever causes problems. Smells, smoking or injector issues??
I don't burn anything else. I only have a 100 gal tank, trailer mounted, and the local boys don't like to deliver that small amt. I have a buddy with a 300 gal, so when he orders, I pull my trailer down to his place and have it filled at the same time. If I need fuel in the meantime, I pull to the local station that sells off road and fill it there. It is a lot cheaper when he fills, and i think I get better fuel econmy out of that fuel, so would have to say freshness has something to do with it.
oldman it is the same fuel just has dye added dont worry the dye is just so they can tell if your running farm fuel in p/u truck's and h/way trucks tb
I use off-road most of the time but if we're out on a job and need fuel, I will buy on-road for the equipment. Off-road fuel is no different than on-road, only difference is the dye added. When Hurricane Ivan came through the south, the State allowed off-road fuel to be used in on-road trucks and we were buying dyed fuel at the regular pumps. The reason why they allowed this was the distribution network had been disrupted and the local distributors already had plenty of off-road fuel but couldn't get enough new on-road. If you are storing your fuel for long periods of time, then you need to be concerned about what might contaminate the fuel rather than the fuel itself degrading. Algae and water contamination being the two biggest issues. Make sure you have a filter on your fuel tank and use an additive/fuel stabilizer. I like the Lucas brand products but there are many out there available. IMO, stay away from bio-fuel, especially if you are storing it. Bio-fuel will grow sludge and algae quicker than straight petro fuel. I ran bio in a few pieces of equipment back in '08 during the last fuel price run-up. The equipment ran very little for two years and now that they are being worked more frequently, I am having fuel issues - mainly clogged fuel filters. My Bobcat T250 has had the worst issues. I have drained and washed the tank once already and I am still changing fuel filters on occasion. The problem is a brown sludge/algae that clogs the fuel system. Also only buy your fuel at stations that sell a lot of it. My pickup is a 6.0 powerstroke that is very picky with fuel, the slightest amount of water or other contaminate in the fuel and the sensor goes off. About two weeks ago, I stopped to fill up at a station that sells diesel but is not in a location that sells a lot of it. Sure enough I purchased bad fuel. After draining the fuel water separator many, many times and changing the fuel filters last week, there is still trace amounts of water in the fuel. If anyone has a 6.0, then you know how aggravating it is to change the primary fuel filter that is located in the frame rail - it's even worse on a 4x4 due to the front drive shaft being in the way. You can't drain the fuel/water separator or change fuel filters without getting a bath in diesel. ointhead:bash:Banghead The joke is that a Ford engineers wife must have run off with a mechanic when he was designing the 6.0's fuel filter location and he decided to get the last laugh. A couple of simple steps to insure clean fuel: Start with a clean tank Only buy fuel from a reputable place that moves a lot of it Add fuel stabilizers, algaecides Install a good fuel filter on the nozzle end Keep you tank full, if you only use the fuel occasionally, then use a tank that is sized appropriately to the amount of fuel you will use in say a month. In other words, don't fill up a 500 gal tank with 100 gals and use that over several months. On edit, here is a picture of the filter base and filter I use on all my slip tanks. You can buy the filter base at NAPA for around $30 and the Baldwin filter for around $6. Cheap insurance. Hope this helps.
CM you need to start an equipment FAQ with your post as the 1st ,Good info there .
Thanks Tiny. That is "expensive, bought and paid for, with the skinned knuckles to prove it" experience.
I use only coloured fuel have used Bio diesel no problems its very important to use a diesel fuel conditioner Low sulphur fuel and lost of lubrication is deadly on pumps and injectors I use kleen-flo and avoid the jobber filters
Wow, that was a super information filled post.:notworthy I don't use that much fuel but now you guys have me wondering if I need to add some additive to every tank whatever kind of fuel I buy. With the price of fuel so high it looks like all you big operators would have a tank for the off road fuel. So far here no one has noted that the "Off Road" fuel is inferior. I have to replace my fuel level sender, drain and shutoff valves on my tank so I plan to remove the tank and clean it good inside. I don't know what I will do if there is some rust inside. I know the old fuel sender had some rust mostly on the upper part where it was not sitting in fuel. I have to paint the outside of the tank also. I plan to start with fresh off road fuel and keep the tank full after that. Thanks!
The coloured fuel or the fuel with dye in it has no road tax built into the price .If you got caught driving you diesel pickup down the road with pink fuel you can be charged . The fuel is no differant and no better . Most constuction companies or farmers will run pink or dyed fuel in most of there equipment / backhoes , excavators , skid steers , ,. Not dump trucks or tractor trailers . For a large company with a lot of equipment the dyed fuel can be a hell of a savings
Don't forget to add a filter base and filter to your tank. I do have a 500 gal off-road tank that is currently empty. With off-road fuel around $3.70 per gal, I don't want to invest nearly $2K to fill it up.:cool2 I can buy off-road at a little station about 5 miles from the shop so that is what I have been doing with work being slow. Buy what you need, when you need it. However when I do fill up my off-road tank, their is a filter on the 500 gal tank and a filter on my slip tank in my pickup - so my off-road fuel is filtered twice before it is put into any machines.
A few years ago, it was more likely that the dyed fuel had more sulfer in it, as regulations allowed off-road and heating fuels to be of a higher sulfer content than on-road fuel. From what I've read, these days most of what's available is the ultra-low sulfer variety, whether it has dye in it or not. You can run the non-dyed fuel in your off-road equipment legally, but don't get caught with dyed fuel in your tank if you're on the highway. BIG fines...
These fuel prices has everything screwed up. Now your 500 gal tank could develop rust with no fuel in it. I seen this just this morning on the internet...:crazy
I am sure it does.:bash When the time comes, I will flush it out and keep a few extra filters handy. I will probably get some higher efficiency filters when the 500 gallon tank goes into service. I think the fines here are in the $10K range, per incident. With only a $.20 difference per gallon in dyed and highway fuel, there was never enough incentive for me to run it in my pickup...although the thought has crossed my mind.
A lot of people believe that both colored and clear fuel are the same, to a certain extent this is true, the other part of the story is this, clear fuel is taxed, usually dispensed out of public pumps for vehicles, colored out to off road machines, the thing people forget is the inspection or sampling of the fuel, all fuel can be tested at any time by inspectors to insure its within limits for water and other contaminates, at a pump all that is required it to shoot some out, at any time of day or night, at off road locations its only during business hours and usually by appointment since most times the barrels are locked and nobody's around for the inspectors to do their job, a catch 22 for the industry. Any fuel supplier with fuel that might not pass an inspection will get dyed and go for off road use, there's no way they will take a chance of being tested and having it coming back bad, just sell it to someone using it off road, there are plenty of ways to blame someone else for fuel related problems other than take the blame themselves. Any time its put through several storage tanks and into a machine and over a span of months or longer before being used, there are a lot of loopholes the fuel guy can claim if problems arise. The fuel industry has taken many poles of fuel related problems and always the incidence of problems in off road fuel is higher than on road vehicles, just due to this inspection possibility. This is a common knowledge problem where the end user of off road fuel is most times not as good of quality as about any on road fuel. The fuel industry has put on many seminars around the country about this very topic, its not just the fuel supplier that sells the fuel, its also the refineries that do it for the exact same reason of bypassing any inspectors inspections, so its a whole fuel industry related problem. Does it help to buy fuel from someone that handles a lot of fuel, yes to a certain extent, but if its dyed, you can about guarantee if you go to any public pump site selling on road fuel, it'll be a better quality fuel every time. We use both types of fuel in off road machines, we keep track of the gallons of on road fuel used in off road use and then apply for a tax refund on the road tax I paid on fuel not used on the road, we've done it for years and is allowed in our state, not sure if its allowed in other states or not, same goes for off road gas used, I apply for a refund of gas tax paid on fuel I didn't use in a on road vehicle. I try not to carry a lot of fuel over during the winter months, I want fresher fuel for the coming season and don't keep a lot of fuel in storage during the season either, I want turn over of fuel, otherwise condensation becomes a problem as well. As for biodiesel I use a lot of that as well but always use it up and never store it long term, I've never had an issue with it in all the gallons I've ever used, others haven't been so lucky, same goes for ethanol based gas. As for saving the dollars by using off road fuel in on road vehicles, I'll pass on that one, one idiot did in his semi fleet, cost him 5k per truck x's 6 trucks in one day and yes he paid the fine, he has to be a prime example of the "perfect idiot", there is a loophole you can use if you need to pump off road fuel into an on road truck, document the gallons, date, time and reason in writing and keep it in the truck till the color is back to clear. I've used that loophole several times to get a truck with fuel related problems to the shop to get fixed or off the road to avoid an accident when no clear fuel was available to put into it.