http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=45419

 

Get used to it. It is going to be more common as time goes on.

 

From the article:
"WHAT’S THE PENALTY
Illegally using dyed diesel can result in severe penalties because it violates state and federal statutes. Both laws have provisions that amount to a potential civil penalty of $1,000 or $10 per gallon for the amount of diesel involved, whichever is greater."

Talk about a cash cow. I guess the only thing worse than getting stuck behind a slow truck on a narrow one lane road would be that driver using red fuel. Boy, that would heat up my EGT's.

 

Montana tried the same thing for a few months before they realized enforcement was taking more money from highway funds than it generated and cheating wasn't as widespread as believed. They gave up on it.
I'll bet AZ gives up also once the federal funds are used up.

250 violations over three years is a pathetic seven per month or about $7000 in fines, doubt if that even pays the salary of three inspectors... no cash cow here.
Now if it was 250 per month it would be worth it.
I'm sure there is grapevine communicating where the inspections are, people probably just drive around them if they are cheating.

 

What happens if one were to run dyed on the farm or off road, and then run regular diesel later, but some dye was left in the tank?

 

Some have reported it can take several tanks of On-Road fuel to remove all traces of the Red dye from the fuel system.

If they dip you, and find a trace of the red, you're toast.

 

What about another color fluid. Not sure what type of fluid the red dye, but for instance a food coloring??

 

The dye they use also has a specific chemical tracer.
Why would you want to put food coloring into your diesel fuel?

As has been posted here many times,
It comes down to a personal integrity issue.
When it comes to a point where the only way I can drive my truck is to cheat the tax man and run off-road, I'll sell the truck and ride a bicycle.

It's your conscience, your decision.

 

Not trying to cheat. I dont run dyed fuel. It was more of a what if thing. Like when FL put the dyed fuel out for sale due to the hurricanes, and then if you take off out of state (like some people that came down to help clean up, they finish and head home) and didn't run enough normal diesel and they get popped. Also I wasn't food coloring directly, just using that as a colored fluid example. They may cheat on charging us at the pump, that is another story, Actually if I wanted to go through a ton of trouble to save a few cents, I would rig up some way or even a dummy filler neck that when the dip, they would be dipping into a small tank of clean diesel, and have a hidden filler for the dyed stuff. But too much trouble for me. Some people will go through more trouble than that to save less money.

 

I've got too much in my truck to risk losing it to the impound yard and I like to spend my money on other things besides more state revenue than they already get from me several hundred times a year (fuel, registration, property tax in county, property tax in town, town stickers, sales tax every time I buy something, etc, etc).
I went to fill up in Pa one weekend and pumped about three gallons of off road in the tank before I discovered they had on and off road on the same pump with only a little tiny sticker denoting off road on one side of the pump. I was sitting on a hot seat (like a cat on a hot tin roof - no animals were injured in the writing of this thread) for about three months till that flushed out. I gave the owners of the station a severe verbal bashing as a result. The last time I went through there, I noticed they had made changes to the pump.
I work in nuclear power and I get enough dip testing (if you know what I mean), I don't need the hassle but know eventually it may happen. I got a 275 gallon tank of dyed diesel fuel sitting right near the driveway (heating oil) and the thought never even crosses my mind to chance it. Can't afford it. Plus, the oil company knows about how much I use every winter and I'm sure they would rat me out if the consumption went up knowing I have a diesel truck sitting 12 feet from the diesel tank.

 

We run the off-road in all of our diesel tractors.....(ag use). One spring we happened to run out of the dyed fuel.....and had a tank full of clear diesel. We used the clear fuel that year for spring tillage. Most of our JD tractors have a transparent fuel bulb on them just after the fuel filter. I kid you not, it probably took 8-10 tankfuls of "on-road" diesel before all traces of the off road were gone. I wouldnt even dream of trying it......not worth the $10 per tank you'd save. The fine here in south dakota is somewhere in the neighborhood of $1200. They typically do random checks at all of the stock yards.......where diesel farm pickups tend to end up. That $1200 fine would buy a fella a lot of on road diesel.

 

Just because there is residual red in a test doesn't mean you're automatically screwed.
Most every state has provisions that allow for residual red to show in a dip test, they can tell the percentage with a lab test. If it wasn't this way lots of farmers would bite it since many semis are used off road with red fuel during harvest then return to on road for the rest of the year.
Same goes for construction equipment like dump trucks that burn red on a project but then need to go on road to a new site.
Montana has a provision where you can run red onroad for these situations, you just pay the tax for the onroad gallons.

 

I ran into this same thing last year with an older Ford 7.3 Engine. I bought the truck from a farmer that only used it on the farm, with red fuel. He told me that, and I kept my fuel reciepts. On a trip to the fair after i bought it, they were dipping tanks. I was nice and explained the specifics, and showed him my last fuel reciept. He thanked me, and sent me on my way. So no...any trace of red is not gonna toast you, as long as you provide proof you didnt just fill up with it. Small trucks are still a minority for red fuel. Its mostly trucks that have a large supply of red fuel, such as Farm use, Grain, Bean, Logging, Mine, etc type trucks. I have never been dipped other than that.

The real problem comes from the slim chance that you are in a wreck, and a fuel tank starts leaking....(unless you have proof)

 

Ok so at least most of them are understanding. AZ should crack down on the uninsured motorists down there instead.

 

My father in law is scared to chance on the farm. One day he ran out of road fuel in his older pickup and he made me drive 15 miles to town and fill up 2 cans and bring it back, even though he had 1000 gallons of off road fuel sitting 20 feet from his truck!