DEF Fuel

Its a DPF filter, I have worked on a few trucks for a companies California fleet that had them installed. They use fuel to burn the particulate out of the filter. No idea how much they are, but it aint cheap. A friend of mine in CA owns an older Pete heavy duty wrecker and they are making him get rid of the rig or install one.

 

DPF retrofits will run from $10,000 to $15,000. YMMV may work, may not.

http://www.ttnews.com/articles/printopt.aspx?storyid=32092

 

Ok, you need to know how it works... There is more than one type of emissions that they are trying to control with aftertreatment systems. There is basically two, particulate matter, (soot) and nitrous oxides, (green house gas). The DPF, (diesel particulate filter), is just to collect the soot particles that engines emit. The collected soot is burnt out of the DPF through regens. The DPF does nothing to reduce nitrous oxides. This has absolutely nothing do DEF. DEF is diesel exhaust fluid. This is a special fluid that is added to the exhaust after the typical DPF section. It mixes with the exhaust stream and chemically reacts with the nitrous oxides in the exhaust to break it down into basically water and carbon dioxide. This is a separate section in addition to the DPF. Engines that need DPFs are at a certain tier for emission compliance. Engines that need to meet stricter compliance need both DPF and SCR technolgies. DEF isn't some sort of special fuel you add to your tank to make it emission compliant.

 

It'd be cheaper to stay the hell out of California. Why comply with their laws when the freight rates suck? Putting dpf, or pisswater on a truck that didn't have it in the first place should be a sin.

 

As far as I know there is no DEF retrofit kit, only DPF kits. Adding it to your truck depends on if it makes financial sense for you, it doesn't exempt you from all future emission regulations, after a certain number of years you will be facing another change. (I can't remember offhand what that limit is since we don't keep trucks that long.)

I can't predict the future but I imagine that eventually this will be the norm everywhere.

 

http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/truckstop/truckstop.htm

There is a lot of information on this site. There is a requirement for particulate matter reduction and NOx reduction. You would need a DPF system first, then SCR depending on the year of the truck, but eventually you would need both. I would say you are looking at around $20,000 for a retro fit.

 

Old trucks will be grandfathered. I don't ever see this going nationwide. It would kill the economy. I'll cross that bridge when it comes, if it ever comes. My solution? I'll have a 22000lb lawn orniment.

Problem is the EPA needs to pull their heads out of their #####. 90% of what comes out of my stacks on my 99 year model motor is soot and ash. Falls right back down to earth. What comes out of the exhaust on a gas burner is much worse.

Another issue is the morons that drive around diesel pickups. They crank them #### things to 500 horses at the wheels and then go rolling a cloud of black down the road. Gives truck drivers a bad name too. And then all the tree huggers and green freaks start pushing panic button over how we pollute the environment. I used to live next to a tree hugger. Moron bought a Chevy volt. I drive an 01 ram with a Cummins. I had that thing parked for about a month. Never cranked it. Fired it up one day to go to the store, she was out with her push mower (non gas old school with the cutter that twisted ya know what I'm talking about?) Coal came rolling out of my exhaust for a good 15 seconds.

Needless to say I got a 20 minute lecture (she was on the sidewalk) about how horrible my truck was to the environment. After her 20 minutes of ######## I calmly looked at her and said "your old tires will wind up in a land fill, the batteries for that car will NEVER break down and will go to a land fill, the energy you use to charge your batteries comes from coal mined from the ground, your car parts were hauled by a truck, who in turn got all of about 5mpg when hauled that to the plant where your car was built, the parts were made in mexico and they don't give to ##### one way or the other how much pollution goes on, and you're sitting here ridiculing me when what just came out of my exhaust is going to fall right back down to earth?"

She shut up and never said another word to me. Maybe that's what we need to tell commiefornia and the EPA.