Would there be any damage to a tractor unit if, by mistake, you happened to have put 115lts of red diesel in the tank by mistake. Beside the obvious legality of using red diesel, would it affect the engine or make it smoke more. May divulge more if I get some positive answers… 
no damage but a phonecall to vosa asap would be the right thing to do. think they send a form so you can pay the duty on the red .
ps dont know how long the dye stays in the system, but you will have a cover note 
so maybe you could accidentally do it again 
Wayne:
Would there be any damage to a tractor unit if, by mistake, you happened to have put 115lts of red diesel in the tank by mistake.
No. 
Wayne:
Would there be any damage to a tractor unit if, by mistake, you happened to have put 115lts of red diesel in the tank by mistake. Beside the obvious legality of using red diesel, would it affect the engine or make it smoke more. May divulge more if I get some positive answers…
It’s all the same stuff but they put the red dye in it to stop road transport getting the fair deal which all the other types of transport,which uses diesel fuel,gets.
no but after 6 months of everyday use it starts smoking like mad then it has trouble starting in the mornings 
and before anyone moans about dodgeing duty ect
i use to put red in a van that stayed in the yard and didnt go out on the road as it was used to move caravans about 
chris_g:
no but after 6 months of everyday use it starts smoking like mad then it has trouble starting in the morningsand before anyone moans about dodgeing duty ect
i use to put red in a van that stayed in the yard and didnt go out on the road as it was used to move caravans about
Rubbish. More like it smoked because it was a ■■■■■■■■■■■■■ shunter
Carryfast:
Wayne:
Would there be any damage to a tractor unit if, by mistake, you happened to have put 115lts of red diesel in the tank by mistake. Beside the obvious legality of using red diesel, would it affect the engine or make it smoke more. May divulge more if I get some positive answers…It’s all the same stuff but they put the red dye in it to stop road transport getting the fair deal which all the other types of transport,which uses diesel fuel,gets.
It might or might not be the exactly same stuff (except the red dye). Officially I don’t know nothing, but lets pretend I know imaginary OD who was talking to a phone while filling up half the tank with the red stuff few years ago. After that the lorry seemed to be missing something as it was very gutless and speed in hills was only about half of what would’ve been expectable in this imaginary situation. We can also assume symptoms cleared when tank was again filled up with proper stuff.
So one shouldn’t take it for granted they are still some stuff. They might very well be so. According to a Finnish nationwide fuel distributor the amount of red dye in such case might stay at high enough levels to be noticed in a control by the power that be for several months.
Get the vosa form asap and keep the completed copy in the truck.Red diesel won’t harm the motor but will show in the filters,unless you change them !!!
Wayne:
Would there be any damage to a tractor unit if, by mistake, you happened to have put 115lts of red diesel in the tank by mistake. Beside the obvious legality of using red diesel, would it affect the engine or make it smoke more. May divulge more if I get some positive answers…
OOPS!
Don’t know about damage to the motor but it could damage the wallet!
Just run as usual, get the fuel level as low as possible before re-fuelling for maximum dilution of the dye, avoid known VOSA hotspots for a week or two, and don’t go telling everybody all about it on a public forum
It’s the same stuff. Just with dye added. What you do about your situation depends your attitude, if it worries you contact VOSA and explain what’s gone on. If it doesn’t particularly bother you, as someone says just run the tank down and fill up. Can the tank be drained? If you think you’ll have trouble doing that I’m sure a nearby Caravan Utilising Nomadic Traveller would be pleased to offer their services. They’re quite helpful when it comes to things like that. I suppose if you get pulled and they dip the tank you could say that it’s the tank for your night heater and you do lots of nights out.
Red diesel or green diesel (roi) is just the same as derv only for the die and it actually acts as an added lubricant to help the engine and duel system. A useless bit of info I picked up 10 yrs ago while serving my apprenticeship as an agricultural engineer ( tractor mechanic) lol
Hiya …I’ve worked at shell stanlow for the last 6 years and the red and the white are in the same storage tank its just a die mixed as the tankers load. in shell everything internal is run on duty free diesel and shell pay the duty seperate… Performance wise all plant can run on
red the large cranes do and i think they run at 68 tons legal so would need plenty of power.so i would’nt worry its perhaps just in your
mind thinking a engine rebuild is on the way…why not sak the middle east lads they run on red/gas oil anything what was cheep.
John
When I was on bulk tippers, Customs & Excise dipped my hydraulic oil tank once… The bloke was so disappointed at how short-lived his glee was!
Went to a night out with customs & excise, shown all the ways folk try to cover up the dye.
Bloke said if a genuine mistake was made to contact customs and excise and explain the situation.
They simply logged your details including reg etc in case you got dipped later.
He reckoned six refills before tank was clear and they could not pickup the dye.
From what i’ve been told , RED diesel is not always just ordinary diesel with red colouring added.
Red Diesel is generally available with a cetane rating of 45, where as road diesel is 51. The higher the cetane reading, the better combustion.
Some diesel fired heaters have been known to clog up when using red diesel.
I once collected an old bus from a farm. The owner had thoughtfully filled it up using the diesel he ran his tractor on, RED of course!
I suppose if you did get checked you could claim that you had caught a ■■■■■ draining your tank and you made him put it back. Obviously ■■■■■ had previously nicked diesel from the farm you were parked outside, and that ended up in your tank as well.
waddy640:
I suppose if you did get checked you could claim that you had caught a ■■■■■ draining your tank and you made him put it back. Obviously ■■■■■ had previously nicked diesel from the farm you were parked outside, and that ended up in your tank as well.
Fantastic, your talents are wasted as a truck driver!
We used to buy lorries in to use off the road on the farm & they were run on nothing but red. If you only put 115 litres in it, I assume you filled it right up with Derv thereby diluting the red straight away. If I were you, taking the time lapsed since you filled with red, I’d think seriously about declaring the mistake to Customs & Excise & pay the duty on the 115 litres. Obviously if this mistake took place weeks ago & you’ve filled the tank with thousands of litres of Derv since, I’d forget about it. I haven’t had my tank dipped for (2 lorries) 11 years at least so there’s no reason to worry your’s are going to be dipped tomorrow.
I’ve seen lorries on the red pump in a truck stop near me & they’ve filled up & driven off as though they do it every day. People do make worse mistakes, my BIL was abroad with his luxury coach, strutting about posing to the fillies on board with his dark glasses on, the muppet put near on £100 worth of petrol in it before a passenger drew his attention to what he was doing.
I’ve read further through this thread that it’s a fleet unit & you might not get allocted it again for ages. If that’s the case, chances are it’s filled up more than once a day (24 Hrs) & the 115 litres of red you put in wil have been diluted out of existence by now, I’d forget about it if it were me.
BB
Fuelled up a Tebay yesterday and somebody obviously had a large donkey engine, there tank held 500ltr of red! No it wasn`t me either.