Diesel one off-road?

I guess my devious cops mind came up with this question for a reason. I'm just not sure what the reason is. Anyway, to the question:

Say that someone wants to screw over a driver, (or a company for that matter.) Just HOW MUCH dyed diesel would have to be introduced into the truck's fuel tank, for the dye to show up in a test? How about in a test that was done long after that tank of fuel is gone?

Are we talking gallons, or ounces here to create the problem?

Anybody have any knowledge of this? Or even a good guess?

 

I see where you are going Don. Some red dye pills into the tank, a "DMV is Lower than CRE" bumper sticker, a mannequin strapped to the top of the trailer tandems, and for good measure a realistic looking water pistol tied onto the catwalk. And this is what you would do to your buddy, now an enemy...........

 

Who, ME???? Nah, the question was posed strictly for research! And I'll NEVER admit to anything different!

 

I have a water truck I used down here at the ranch...2000 gallon tank on a Ford L9000 chassis. I used it to schlep water from a ditch about a mile away, no plates and red diesel from my farm tank.

I'm taking it to auction in the spring, and I'll just drain the dyed diesel and pour in a couple of cans of on-road fuel to get it down to the auction yard. No way I'm going to worry about trying to purge and scrub the whole fuel system to get rid of any trace of dye.

 

The dye is like food coloring and is red. I don't or should say have never heard of the dyed diesel turning the inside of the fuel tank black. What I would do about moving the vehicle is do just what you said and keep the receipt from when you bought on road diesel. It's all about taxes so if you show what you have done I'm sure the IRS or whom ever is inspecting will use some common sense and see you're not trying to use non-taxed fuel over the highways.

 

Yeah, I'm not really worried about someone poking around in my truck tanks, looking for red dye. I expect if they were to start doing that around these parts, there'd be a lot of 'splainin' to do.

Funny though, one time when I was getting my farm tank filled, I asked the guy to fill my equipment tanks while he was here too - dozer, loader, dump truck and water truck - 'cause those suckers would about empty that farm tank right out. He didn't even want to talk about me putting red diesel in those trucks, even when I showed him they weren't plated!

 

We have a flatbed truck with a Donkey forklift (piggy back style) on it, and the manager over that division forces the driver to put highway diesel in it, when red diesel is available at our yard. He does so since some of the drops require the lift to be on the road. Now I know that the fuel usage in this forklift is minimal, but to me I still think that lift should be able to run red diesel..

 

It's the taxes that are a problem and I don't think a forklift would require to pay road taxes for highway use.

 

we run red fuel in ours.

the forklift is not lisenced, so I do not think it is required.

we burn clear in the winter, since our dyed is summer fuel.