Oil & Fuel farm or road diesel?

[RickB]

Not trying to start a war here but the two fuels are not the same.....they have similar specs as far as distillation curves, gel temps. and the like but, on road diesel is distilled as a product, cleaned of water and filtered down to less than 25 micron particulates. Off road diesel is a blend of on road diesel that did not make spec. and whatever distilled product it will take to get it on spec., it is then filtered down to less than 70 micron particulates and of course red die is added. Now...these products will do very similar jobs in a tractor, older tractors will benefit from the higher sulfur content of off road diesel while newer tractors have mostly viton seals in the fuel system and they really don't care what type fuel they drink. With the filtering systems on todays machines, I would not be afraid to run off road fuel in one but would not travel too far out of my way to get it either. If it is readily available in your area I say go for it but be sure and change your fuel filters on schedule.

I can't say with any degree of certainty that this info is accurate for your part of the country, but here off road fuel HAS to be refined and blended to be used in all modern Diesels; ie Tier IV compliant engines. Anyone selling fuel that is filtered to 70 microns to a market that has final filtration requirements as low as 5 microns won't be in the market for long.

 

[PhilY]

Save your receipts on the fuel from the local pump and turn them in to the tax man in April. You will get the road tax on it refunded.

 

[radioman]

Save your receipts on the fuel from the local pump and turn them in to the tax man in April. You will get the road tax on it refunded.

exactly how ? form to fill? do we need ag exception or something like that?

 

[Rock knocker]

Not trying to start a war here but the two fuels are not the same.....they have similar specs as far as distillation curves, gel temps. and the like but, on road diesel is distilled as a product, cleaned of water and filtered down to less than 25 micron particulates. Off road diesel is a blend of on road diesel that did not make spec. and whatever distilled product it will take to get it on spec., it is then filtered down to less than 70 micron particulates and of course red die is added

Source?

 

[KubotaToy]

Nonroad Diesel Fuel. At the Tier 1-3 stage, the sulfur content in nonroad diesel fuels was not limited by environmental regulations. The oil industry specification was 0.5% (wt., max), with the average in-use sulfur level of about 0.3% = 3,000 ppm. To enable sulfur-sensitive control technologies in Tier 4 engines—such as catalytic particulate filters and NOx adsorbers—the EPA mandated reductions in sulfur content in nonroad diesel fuels, as follows:
•500 ppm effective June 2007 for nonroad, locomotive and marine (NRLM) diesel fuels
•15 ppm (ultra-low sulfur diesel) effective June 2010 for nonroad fuel, and June 2012 for locomotive and marine fuels

Pulled this off a letter sent to me from the state ag office, for what it is worth.

 

[Rock knocker]

I knew there was a difference in that off-road diesel is not required to be ultra-low sulfur. I maily wonder if Mud has a source for his filtering specs?

 

[Bluegill2]

My bx2360 has a decal that says ULSD only. The owners manual says if you run offroad diesel you have to change the oil twice as often, once every 50hrs.

Your owner's manual is out dated, all off road diesel today is supposed to be ULSD.

The store I get my fuel from sells more off road diesel than gas, they have a huge farming operation and also sell to all the farmers around here. The lady there told me the other day "nobody around here runs on-road fuel in tractors"...

 

[smstonypoint]

Pulled this off a letter sent to me from the state ag office, for what it is worth.

Here's a source for ULSD requirements: Locomotive, marine and non-road diesel fuel standards begin at later dates. - Clean Diesel Fuel Alliance.

But I'm not sure this is what Mud Mechanik is referencing. I second the need for him to provide sources that back up his statement.

Steve

 

[aczlan]

Not trying to start a war here but the two fuels are not the same.....they have similar specs as far as distillation curves, gel temps. and the like but, on road diesel is distilled as a product, cleaned of water and filtered down to less than 25 micron particulates. Off road diesel is a blend of on road diesel that did not make spec. and whatever distilled product it will take to get it on spec., it is then filtered down to less than 70 micron particulates and of course red die is added. Now...these products will do very similar jobs in a tractor, older tractors will benefit from the higher sulfur content of off road diesel while newer tractors have mostly viton seals in the fuel system and they really don't care what type fuel they drink. With the filtering systems on todays machines, I would not be afraid to run off road fuel in one but would not travel too far out of my way to get it either. If it is readily available in your area I say go for it but be sure and change your fuel filters on schedule.

I don't know about you, but our supplier sells us "Offroad ULSD". With the number of tractors requiring ULSD and the EPA regs requiring all non-locomotive/marine engines to run ULSD (as has been the case since 2010) a supplier would be foolish to sell anything but ULSD for engine use.

Aaron Z

 

[suzy]

Here in Canada, farm diesel is legal in all farm licensed vehicles-including diesel pick-ups, silage hauling trucks, and all farm machinery. If this fuel was different from road diesel, there would an incredible number of outraged truck drivers crying the blues...