Red Diesel. Is it worth it?

[Peppermint]

Us sailing men like to save a bit of tax same as the next guy But! I ended up in a kind of engineering brains trust yesterday and one of the things that came up was the benefits/disadvantages of our cherished red go juice.

On the plus side everyone agreed it's cheap.


On the down side everyone thought the following.

It's not as good for performance as the taxed car fuel.

It's not as good for the engine as the taxed car fuel.

It's not stored as well as the taxed car fuel.

Quite a lot of it is past its shelf life before you buy it.

Any thoughts?

 

[Mike_02]

Don't worry about it. In a few years you will not have the option as Mr Brown will get us all in the end...and then the solent will be a much quieter place to sail in.

But i'm not sure that will be a good thing..??

 

[duncan]

You could put it anohter way around and that would be that lowering the sulphur (the main action of further refinement for the forecourt) is bad for the engine, especially if it runs at high revs constantly and that at 18 to 20 p/ltr for clean fresh fuel is excellent value - compared with some of the prices shown on this forums fuel board.
The storage problems/issues are not going to change as a result of the tax status of the fuel in any way so that is irrelevent - although, on second thoughts, it will in fact decline as current facilities are based on current demand which will without doubt fall. It will therefore sit longer (not actually as much of a problem for diesel as petrol).

 

[Celena]

My non-boating friends are amazed that I can buy red diesel purely for pleasure purposes when they have to pay full price for fuel to get to work. I, for one, would be more than happy to pay full price for my few gallons a year. I bet it would reduce the wash problem in the Solent!

 

[halcyon]

But red diesel is for work use, i.e. fisherman, farmers etc.

It's funny we moan about dear petrol prices, then when we get cheap diesel for boats we moan that it's cheap.

Funny world.

Brian

 

[Cornishman]

Listen to Uncle Gordon's (contributions for his new dinner suit to No 11 Downing Street) speech this afternoon. He MIGHT say something about his proposed taxing regime for greener diesel (made from rape seed oil, used oil from fish fryers etc). Green diesel, red diesel, white diesel. What next?

 

[Twister_Ken]

I\'ve heard a rumour...

...that kindly Uncle Gordon keeps a motorboat in Brighton, so red diesel will be 'safe' - unless of course his boat runs on petrol.

 

[snowleopard]

where do you get it that cheap???

best i've found recently is 28p at dover. typical marina prices seem to be around 38p recently.

 

[claymore]

When the last fuel strike was on - September 2001? Hauliers were allowed to use Red - I didn't notice trucks going slower as a result. It used to be fairly common practice to get a tankful or red on a Friday from site tanks - something for the weekend - and the Land Rover I used to use seemed to run just fine. In 20 years of running diesel cars I've never been stopped by Customs and Circumcise to have my tank checked. There used to be all sorts of rumours that the red dye was indelibly etched into the injectors and fuel lines and that even a gallon would be detectable for ever.
The only deterioration I am sure of is that unleaded petrol stored over the winter in my mower made the mower run badly until I replaced the fuel.

regards
Claymore

 

[mike_kolling]

Re: Wash - not necessarily

May not reduce the wash, if there is no incentive to use diesel, maybe a resurgence of interest in Petrol.
After all get more power for less weight and cheaper to reengine to petrol than diesel. Also able to use LPG on a Petrol engine at similar prices to diesel.
I dont think the motorboaters are going to disappear quite yet.

 

[bedouin]

Just for the record I would like to remind people that we are still taxed on Red Diesel, but only at 17.5%

The rest of the duty on road diesel is supposed to go on upkeep of our roads. I wonder if we can sue GBrown for fraud?

 

[Miker]

John

When I first moved up North I was told that Over Wyre was bandit country. Now I know why.

Regards
Mike

 

[Cornishman]

Re: I\'ve heard a rumour...

Could be that duty on petrol might come down, then?
Is he qualified to drive it?

 

[duncan]

Re: where do you get it that cheap???

Raybar - Weymouth

 

[duncan]

Re: I\'ve heard a rumour...

in theory that would be the corollary to the argument that red has to go up ie EU harmonisation of taxation. Impact on Gov income of removing red's availability to pleaseure craft wouldn't even cover the cost of implementation let alone any impact of any other harmonisation(down).

 

[bigmart]

Has anyone been brave enough to try running on old chip fat yet.

I heard that Top Gear ran a report on it & that certain branches of ASDA have had to restrict sales of veg oil because of people filling cars with Spry Crisp & Dry.

 

[Robin2]

I am not aware that there is any difference between red diesel and automotive diesel apart from the colour added for tax reasons (by the way ours is green!).

There are some pretty expensive commercial engines running on red diesel, I doubt if the owners would be happier with inferior quality.

Is none of our contributors an employee of the end-user side of the petroleum industry?

 

[Celena]

Actually, as I said, it's non-boating people that complain about us having the luxury of cheap diesel - who cares if we have to pay full price; the engine is an auxilliary, we're supposed to use our sails mainly.

And I've never grumbled about the price of petrol...

 

[toad]

C&E seem to check lorrys about two or three times a year in essex,plod pulls them over and men in white coats dip the tank.Never seen cars stopped .

 

[Guest]

Veg oil etc.

It is proved that Veg oil with additive will run a diesel ... at a fraction of pump cost.

But the original post was about quality of red ...... it is standard gasoil / diesel and no problem for mrine engines ...... I own and run a Petro/chem lab and found no problems so far ....... QED ?

Nigel ...
Bilge Keelers get up further ! I only came - cos they said there was FREE Guinness !