Off Road Diesel in a C-Ranger?

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drjohn71a

New member
Seeing the "Tax rebate for boat fuel" thread leads me to ask this question that has been bugging me for many months now. "Can you use off road, red dyed, agricultural diesel fuel in a boat LEGALLY?

Someone on this site earlier this year said road taxes are intended on boats since to many are trailerable, but if some states actually refund the road taxes, maybe off-road diesel is legal for boating.

Anyone know anything about this? John
 
All I've got is an opinion. The only people who will probably want to stick your tank would be DOT.
If you transport your own fuel to the boat, I wouldn't worry about it.
 
Legality aside, you might want to check compatibility.

This is one of those issues it's hard to get accurate info on, but off-road diesel may have a higher sulfur content than pump diesel. For off-road equipment and older diesels, this isn't typically an issue. However, many modern diesles are being designed specifically with the ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) in mind, which is all that will be available at the pump in the near future.

This may or may not be an issue on the C-Ranger, but I'd check with C-Dory and/or Yanmar before using it. I'm also not sure if off-road diesel will be subject to the ULSD requirements in the future or not - if so, it may be a moot point.
 
Bill..... you are correct about the low=sulphur requirement on new diesels. I think it starts with 2007 models. I have already checked with Scott and he says the new C-Ranger 25's will have low sulphur, common rail engines. I don't know when low sulphur fuel will be available at the pump, but from the signs on pumps now, I think it will be pretty common.

I have a big diesel fuel tank for the farm equipment, but all of it so far is the old, hi sulphur content. I doubt one can use both on the same engine, but maybe they will eventually make an additive like they do for old gas engines designed to work on leaded fuel.

Thanks for your insight! John
 
One for our boating chemist friends here. Now, being raised in Nashville TN and our family having one of the 1st gas stations...that was converted from a black smith.... they had these stills (sp??) set up to make their booze....that was not taxed :mrgreen: :beer , ....so...

how hard is it to set up something to turn oil to diesel in small quantities....say...about 200 gallons a month for "home use".

Or...convert all that cooking oil from the french fry bens at public schools into vegi-bio-fuels???

Or...are they sticking it to us there too?
 
Pat.... there is a fun newspaper/magazine called "Farm Show" which shows the entreprenurial spirit in the farm community all the time. They make many Rube Goldberg contraptions out of old farm equipment, etc., BUT the last issue had several articles explaining how to make diesel out of used cooking oil in home made devices. Some mention some pretty caustic chemicals, so I don't know how much I'd want to get into it.

Anyway, you can scan the articles on the Internet, but you have to subscribe to read the entire articles. John
 
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