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Diesel Dipping - Testing VOSA


Big.Mike

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I've never been stopped and tested. I ran out of fuel once and a passing farmer stopped and gave me a litre of fuel to get to the nearest petrol station. I was so paranoid the whole way but I was driving through country lanes in a hardtop and in hindsight, if a policeman had seen me driving past they would most likely have thought I was a farmer anyway!

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Recently, a friends' fathers' fairly new small john deer tractor (Like a giant lawn tractor, with a mower deck and all, but with a proper 3-point linkage) packed up. when the service engineer turned up, the fist thing he said was "Do you run it on red?".

This thing's not registered, so it's always on red, and we told him as much. His reply to this was that the filter will be blocked, and he'll fit an easily changed cheap after-market one before the proper one. This, he said, was due to the quality of red diesel getting lower and lower, as the government was planning to phase it out in favour of a "Vat-back" type system. He said that he was seeing more and more of this blocked-filter business, and that in some places the red stuff was barely more than heating oil...

Obviously I can't comment on the veracity of any of this, but I thought it would bear passing on. He fitted the new filter, and the cheap in-line one, and all was good, and smelled of new-mown grass. It's stopped once since then, and changing the in-line jobby sorted it out pronto, so there may be something to what he said.

I'll say nothing of the fact that this is His punishment for using the Devil's micturations...

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Yes, we've noticed at work that a lot of "red" is now more "brown" and agree most of it seems to contain more carp than diesel. I just thought it was a local thing but it seems not. I can't see that the fuel companies would start making it dirty just because it was being phased out though, and have heard nothing about that happening.

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I THINK red diesel blocking filters quicker is due to them trying to make it environmentally friendly-er..

They've reduced the sulphur levels, in favour of some living bacteria type thing that is less polluting. This, when not used for a period of time, will settle leaving water at the bottom of the tank, where carp will grow, blocking the filters quicker.

...So why doesn't it happen with white diesel aswell..?

White diesel has a higher level of sulphur than red - Reason for this being (again, I think) that the majority of things that run red diesel are generators / tractors, whose engines are not as fussy as a modern car engines about a little bit of impurities.

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I THINK red diesel blocking filters quicker is due to them trying to make it environmentally friendly-er..

They've reduced the sulphur levels, in favour of some living bacteria type thing that is less polluting. This, when not used for a period of time, will settle leaving water at the bottom of the tank, where carp will grow, blocking the filters quicker.

...So why doesn't it happen with white diesel aswell..?

White diesel has a higher level of sulphur than red - Reason for this being (again, I think) that the majority of things that run red diesel are generators / tractors, whose engines are not as fussy as a modern car engines about a little bit of impurities.

Red diesel has always been of a lower grade than road fuel. I personally don't think the red will ever die out due to it being of a lower grade, where will they send all the crappy dregs off to if we have to run road diesel in our plant and machinery? There has been talk of this rebate and a single fuel ie, white for as long as I have been in heavy plant and agriculture, probably will never happen but you never know? it would be almost impossible to police and what the hell would they test you for on the road side? I did see mentioned the exhaust soots burned different and left a residue but I was told by my copper friend that is just a story and it worked as a lot less vehicles that were pulled after it were running red.

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^_^ we dont have dyed diesel in Oz, it comes from the same tanker regardless of end use, be that heating fuel, farm implements or power generation. I have a 200 litre home oil fired tank outside our place which I get filled up every year, despite having pulled out the heater years ago, if ever the tax man catches me no doubt he will have some firm words to say :hysterical: but then hes got to prove it didnt simply evaporate
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  • 2 weeks later...

Guess it's the same over Europe I can tell you it is here in holland and when we have had our trucks in France we had the diesel stolen from the truck tanks but never touched the 1000 litres of red in the trailer even after slicing the curtain for a look

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Does anyone know what the rules are regarding running on veg in Europe? My last trip I went over there with a tank full of veg, it then occurred to me that perhaps this wasn't allowed?

I have wondered the same myself, im told its not allowed here but i have not found out for sure, it might vary from country to country but im not sure

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  • 4 months later...

This topic always amuses me, here in good old Oz we dont have any such problems, if you're on the land you get fuel tax free from your main supplier for bulk deliveries to your farm however getting it from your local service station for bowser fuel in your truck is apparently a hassle and you have to horde your reciepts and claim it back every four months.

For my part I have an oil fired ducted heater that uses around 200 litres a month even in 40 degree hot summer weather ---- odd that :hysterical: if the tax man ever figures it out I'm a gonner

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  • 4 weeks later...

Marginally on topic (use of Red) caught a bit of that carp Police program where they add stupid propaganda as we are all too thick.

Last nights was Police following a Rangie belching white smoke. Police reasons for it:

May have put wrong fuel in.

May be knackered

Might be running on Red?????

If it was that obvious you would not need to dip!

Marc.

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