Off road/ hi-sulphur Diesel in tractor

Is there any downside to using off-road diesel fuel in my JD 5420 tractor? Do I need to change oil more frequently?

There was a discussion a couple of weeks back about tractor and road diesel.

As a result I called and asked two supplies and was told the only difference is in the coloration, no actual difference in sulphur content or otherwise.

I may be wrong but I think true "high sulfur" diesel is a thing of the past in the USA. You may still find low sulfur diesel but most is ultra low sulfur diesel. Running either in you tractor will be fine. Your John Deere owners manual has a section describing what fuels to use and at what sulfur levels oil change intervals have to be changed.

Here in far South Texas, there is one kind of diesel and that is the Ultra Low. It all comes in at the Port Of Brownsville to be distributed into Mexico and Texas. The color is added before delivery for no tax off road use.

In North Central Texas, there is only one diesel fuel, whether it home heating oil, On-road ULSD, or red-dyed off road, or farm diesel. The local wholesale distributor (Chevron) adds red dye, and that is the ONLY difference; it is all ULSD fuel. Tom

Is all the same in Eastern KY. I live in WV and buy my off road in KY .

your are right there is no chemical difference at all the red dye denotes fuel for off road use that fuel when sold has not had the federal road use tax added to the price, around here when the dot does a roadside inpsection and they snag a dump truck, cement truck or other vocational truck, one of the first things they do is pop the fuel caps to see what color of fuel your running since the owners of these trucks usually have easy access to cheaper off road diesel,' if its red, your dead' and it seems when one runs a tank of red dyed fuel the red dye stays on the componets for quite some time afterward , just a word to the wise

I bought high sulfur diesel last spring it cost about 60 cents less per gallon. Ran it all summer our equipment with no problems. I live in Oregon.
Walt

Walt, where in heaven's sake did you find high sulpher diesel, in of all places, Oregon? Tom

Hi Edd,

On older equipment you don't have a worry about using new diesel other it needing extra lube. I would suggest a 10% mix with ATF type F, SVO, NMO, WMO or bio-diesel, too add the extra lubrication.

I don't think even low sulfur is available any longer(LSD). ULSD is what we have now.

Here in AZ, we don't have died fuel. State tax is collected at the pump/delivery then they make you file state income tax too get back your tax on off-road ULSD.

T_Bone

The local FS fuel delivery man claims he still can deliver standard high sulfur fuel for off-road use and home heating. Comes from the river terminal which gets it via barges. At this time he has all three: standard, low sulfur and ultra low sulfur. As more new machines are sold, he may drop low and just offer standard and ultra low.

There is supposed to only be ULSD used on the road except in Alaska.Looks like from what I read on Wikipedia that there is still a small amout of 500ppm(which is low sulphur diesel) being made and can be used in Alaska until 2010.I think you can use 500ppm diesel in a farm tractor in some places if you could buy it somewhere,and it should be dyed red for farm use if its still around.Most being made now is 15 ppm ULSD which is a lot less than 500ppm low sulphur diesel.
This seems like one of the worst scams ever to come out.The ULSD doesnt lubricate as well,is thinner,and lowers fuel economy.If you had the old type of diesel,and burned it in anything road or anywhere,if it got up in the air 50 ft would probably be conditions just right,wind blowing it or something,then it would fall back down somewhere,and what?So sulphur is an ingredient to acid rain,does not mean diesels were causing acid rain,or how do they prove they were?It looks like a way to put more pollution controls on a truck engine and has nothing to do with pollution at all.Also trains didnt have to burn ULSD yet.Supposedly they do,yeah right!It looks like people that make pollution devices for diesel engines,which suck,got the EPA to do this to justify hanging a bunch of this junk on a diesel engine.I bet if a Railroad had to put that junk on a locomotive it would never have happened.

The only difference is the dye that is added.

Jim