off road diesel

No road taxes on dyed fuel.
We have a separate pump for Reefer fuel at the yard and it's dyed/off road use.
I always thought it's more Pinkish than Red

 

Ok question. Has anybody themselves filed for highway tax refund on reefer fuel? You have to file in each state purchased?

 

I live in TN and 1-2 times a year they set up check points in my country and stick test EVERY DIESEL (car, pu, semi) going down the road

if they find off road fuel they write you a big ### ticket and SEIZE the vehicle.... they don't stick test the reefer tank

 

most fuel pumps (truck stops) are setup for this.... "truck, REEFER," truck is taxed...... reefer isn't

 

What happens with that compartment on the trailer then? I heard the dye sticks around in vehicle fuel tanks for awhile. So how do you know your not contaminating loads after you haul off road diesel?

 

Where would you be buying off road fuel with the tax on it in multiple states?

 

Yes. OTR deal. If I remember right it's still taxed even if select reefer fuel just goes on receipt separate for record keeping.

 

Well, at places like Chevron, they will have us 'drain dry' the compartments before loading. That is to say, open the internal valves, and open the butterfly valves, and drain out the plumbing in the system. Then we dispose of it in a flush pot, using like a 5 gallon bucket. Theres probably like 1/2 gallon MAX that you will collect from all loading headers--4 compartments on a truck/trailer setup. 1/2 gallon of retained liquid from an original load of 8,600 gallons. You can see where I'm going with this.

In all practicality, there's not going to be enough red dye residue left over in that compartment to contaminate the next load in any way. Consider that maybe 5 gallons of fuel (a relatively high number if you didn't accidentally retain) remain in that compartment. Then you dump 2,000 gallons of 87 grade into that compartment. The amount of red dye is so minuscule compared to the vast amount of gasoline, that it gets diluted down to the point that it is undetectable.

We do this all the time. I'll load diesel on my first load, then load 91 (premium) in that compartment on the next load. The gasoline actually completely washes out the diesel and there is such a small amount of diesel left over that it doesn't even contaminate the load. It gets more complicated if you're trying to load ethanol on top of diesel, which is a no-no . . . since ethanol needs to be absolutely pure in every sense, because it is an 'additive', you can't load it on a compartment that had diesel (fuel oils) before. The prescribed remedy then, is loading gasoline on the compartment that had diesel, to wash it all out; then we progress to the ethanol.

It also gets more tricky depending on other specialty products we're loading, like aviation fuel; it can't be contaminated with the slightest drop of diesel or anything else... but in answer to your question, the red dye diesel retained isn't enough to contaminate a future load of clear diesel unless you were highly negligent and retained like 100 gallons--then you'd be sitting down with the safety manager probably.

 

I like that last part. We used too load Jp-8/Jp-5 one on top of the other in the service. They go like this. Jp-8 is diesel. Used in all heavy on road/off road vehicles. Jp-5 is aviation fuel. Obviously used in the aircraft. Marines will do what marines want to do.
Thanks for your reply