Off Road Diesel in Farm Truck.

[Skyco]

I'm suspicious of the red fuel dying the filter anyway...I've run off road red and on road diesel in my Kubota. The filter has never looked red, so it must wash out fairly quickly anyway. Same thing with diesel genset that also has a paper pleated filter..
I've about quit fooling with the off road...few places sell it near me and the savings isn't as great as the 40 cents per gallon or so it should be...more like 20 cents a gallon since the places with the lowest on road price don't carry the off road.
Saving a dollar per 5 gallon can just hasn't been worth the hassle, for me, but I don't use 100 gallons a year off road.
The big savings for me would be if I ran it on road, but I'm not a gambler

 

[MikeD74T]

I buy my offroad fuel from an unattended self serve station that used to be for account holders only. To get an off road account you'd have to list eligable equipment owned. A couple of years ago it changed to also accepting credit cards & accounts for small users were closed, mostly to minimize biweekly billing. The receipt printer almost never works. When only account accessable you'd get an end of year statement listing total gas, on road diesel, & off road diesel gallons purchases & the tax* (state & federal) charged for each. Now with credit card I get no statement but there's still a record of what I purchased via my credit card number & no eligable equipment list required. Price difference between on - off road is about $.40 per gallon.

The station is heavily frequented by loggers for both diesel types. I've seen several loggers fill their fueling tanks with off road & then top off their pickup truck as well. Many figure that they travel the majority of miles off road & cycle between on -off road in their pickups. I only know of one that got caught (at Canadian border crossing) & talked his way out of a fine/towing because he'd bought the truck that day & claimed the tank was filled by the seller. He's a pretty smooth talker, can make you think he's pretty dumb which he isn't. New Hampshire doesn't have a road tax* on fuel it has a toll, not sure what the difference is in relation to federal statutes. Feds may not have jurisdiction in NH ??? especially now that all diesel is low sulfur. I don't remember if fed tax used to be paid on off road, probably was/still is. MikeD74T

 

[Dargo]

WOW!!! The last time I bought off-road in NC, it was only 20 cents or so lower than on road.

Steve

In my state I'm told that something like $0.45 per gallon is road tax. So, it seems that dyed fuel would be that much less expensive. Not! Like you have found, lately it's only been $0.10 to $0.20 per gallon less. Sometimes it isn't any less. How does that work?

 

[Dargo]

It is my understanding that if you want the tax back for off road use then you can keep track of your off road use and get the tax back but still are not supposed to run off road fuel unless the truck is used exclusively off road.

Again, I want to make it clear that I am not trying to even appear that I'm any expert; I'm not. I do live in farm country, big time. Also, several rather wealthy friends are really big into horse showing, as I mentioned. In my state, I've never seen any station where you can buy dyed fuel at any pump. I'm fairly confident you have to have it delivered to you in bulk.

Perhaps that's why I know of nobody who keeps a truck, except a complete junker, for off road only use. Almost all have nice trucks that double for on farm use and on road use. Being that there's no possible way to document any off road use miles short of running a camcorder each second it's running off road, I don't see how you could get the tax back here. Especially when the road tax is around $0.45 per gallon and the dyed fuel doesn't even give you half that much as a break.

It seems to me that if a fella could recoup road tax paid that way, nobody would ever buy dyed diesel here since he'd save twice as much that way. I go through a couple thousand gallons of off road a year, which is nothing compared to most around me. Knowing that they can pinch a penny until it screams, I'd think they all would have their tanks filled with non-dyed fuel and claim the $0.45 road tax credit and come out thousands of dollars ahead.

 

[LD1]

This whole law drives me nuts anyway and I dont even own a diesel pickup.

There are only a few stations around here that have ORD and it is usually only the typical 10-20 cents cheaper. Filling a few 5 gal can, it is not worth the fuel usage to go after the minimal savings and I usually just fill up with on-road. I think that is partly why the savings isnt the full .45 that it should be because there isnt as much demand for it and they arent competing with the other filling stations across the street and everywhere. And when you pull up, the price on the pump looks great, but unlike on-road and gasoline, the sales tax isn't figured in. So when done, we still have to pay the additional 7% or so. So what looked like a .40-50 cent savings is only ~20.

But what I think is crazy about the law is exactally like what the OP posted about. If the guy has a farm truck, that is used 99% on the farm, why shouldn't he be able to use ORD??? If he is a bigtime farmer like some around here, he probabally drives some of his tractors down the highway a lot more than that truck. So why cant tractors be fined the same if they are driving on the road??? Not that I am suggestion that I want this to happen, but be fair about it. Someone driving a 30,000 lb+ big tractor with equipment behind and taking up both lanes causing everyone to pull over does more damage to the road than someone running to town a couple of times a week in a 7000lb truck with tires made for pavement.

 

[catfishdaddyengineering]

It is my understanding here in AL that you can run the red-dyed in your farm truck as long as you pay road taxes on the mileage that you use the vehicle on the road. But like others have said, there are not that many carrying off-road and the one that I found was only 30 cents difference.

 

[blueriver]

I filled again today ... different station ... Diesel for my truck $2.559 and off road was $2.359 ... only 20 cents a gallon cheaper ... HOWEVER with the amount I use a month that does add up. NOT enough though to risk putting it in the truck!!!! Here we have to have our farm tax number on file to buy ORD.

 

[clemsonfor]

It is my understanding that if you want the tax back for off road use then you can keep track of your off road use and get the tax back but still are not supposed to run off road fuel unless the truck is used exclusively off road.

Yep if you use a half a tank haying or so forth using taxed fuel on your taxes you can file for your road tax $$ back, you prove that you purchased fuel and then say that x gallons were for off-road use, like putting hay up on your own land.

You can also do this for boat gas. You save receipts and file the form for the fuel u use in your boats and really your lawnmowers as you paid a ROAD TAX and did not drive these vehicles on the road. In the mowers case, in the lawn and the boats case in the lake.

 

[clemsonfor]

In my state I'm told that something like $0.45 per gallon is road tax. So, it seems that dyed fuel would be that much less expensive. Not! Like you have found, lately it's only been $0.10 to $0.20 per gallon less. Sometimes it isn't any less. How does that work?

Cause they may sell less offroad and bought when the price was high, the next back of onroad comes and price falls so that onroad was bought at a similar price to the off road hence the little difference.
Around here its about .30 gallon cheaper. I pass one in town that sells it so i buy there to give him my business and the fact that its cheaper to buy offroad.

 

[clemsonfor]

I buy my offroad fuel from an unattended self serve station that used to be for account holders only. To get an off road account you'd have to list eligable equipment owned. A couple of years ago it changed to also accepting credit cards & accounts for small users were closed, mostly to minimize biweekly billing. The receipt printer almost never works. When only account accessable you'd get an end of year statement listing total gas, on road diesel, & off road diesel gallons purchases & the tax* (state & federal) charged for each. Now with credit card I get no statement but there's still a record of what I purchased via my credit card number & no eligable equipment list required. Price difference between on - off road is about $.40 per gallon.

The station is heavily frequented by loggers for both diesel types. I've seen several loggers fill their fueling tanks with off road & then top off their pickup truck as well. Many figure that they travel the majority of miles off road & cycle between on -off road in their pickups. I only know of one that got caught (at Canadian border crossing) & talked his way out of a fine/towing because he'd bought the truck that day & claimed the tank was filled by the seller. He's a pretty smooth talker, can make you think he's pretty dumb which he isn't. New Hampshire doesn't have a road tax* on fuel it has a toll, not sure what the difference is in relation to federal statutes. Feds may not have jurisdiction in NH ??? especially now that all diesel is low sulfur. I don't remember if fed tax used to be paid on off road, probably was/still is. MikeD74T

Talked to the fuel distributer and he said that they still have LSD for offroad, and something about changes soon but they still get LSD out of the main distributer in Belton, SC.

I thought LSD was now illegal and all there is is ULSD. Unless he misspoke which i dont think as he is the owners son, and this guy was in his 40's. anyway sorry for the hijack.