Yawn Red diesel (for heating)

Colin K

Colin K

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Hello,
I have a Kingfisher with 2 fuel tanks 30 gallons in each Bilge keel. Both have had red in them and at the moment I run the engine off 1 and the thirsty Eberspacher off the other. The Eber emptied its tank last weekend and so I have an oportunity to fuel up one tank with white diesel if I wanted. We were hoping to go to Belgium this summer but have been put off by the red diesel debate. I can swap which feed goes where quite easy but I am not sure if it is allowed to run your heater off red as long as your propulsion is done with white ?? Or is red diesel on board a plain no no ?

Thanks Colin.
 
Colin K said:
Hello,
I have a Kingfisher with 2 fuel tanks 30 gallons in each Bilge keel. Both have had red in them and at the moment I run the engine off 1 and the thirsty Eberspacher off the other. The Eber emptied its tank last weekend and so I have an oportunity to fuel up one tank with white diesel if I wanted. We were hoping to go to Belgium this summer but have been put off by the red diesel debate. I can swap which feed goes where quite easy but I am not sure if it is allowed to run your heater off red as long as your propulsion is done with white ?? Or is red diesel on board a plain no no ?

Thanks Colin.
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do it as you have 2 large bunkers
 
Red

Thanks, Yes its a good point at which to have some white on board especially as the old plodder only uses 1/4 gal an hour.
Is is ok to carry red for heating purposes if the tank is clearly fed to just the heater ?
All the best, Colin.
 
Colin K said:
Thanks, Yes its a good point at which to have some white on board especially as the old plodder only uses 1/4 gal an hour.
Is is ok to carry red for heating purposes if the tank is clearly fed to just the heater ?
All the best, Colin.
Click to expand...

perfectly ok.
red in loose cans is defo a no no, in-case you are tempted to sell it on to Jonny Foreigner whilst Foreign
 
Thanks chaps,
Ok I will swap the red fuel to the Eberspacher and fill the empty one with white. I should imagine that if I change the filter the amount of dye will be minimal.
Cheers, Col.
 
Colin K said:
Thanks chaps,
Ok I will swap the red fuel to the Eberspacher and fill the empty one with white. I should imagine that if I change the filter the amount of dye will be minimal.
Cheers, Col.
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Make sure there is no interconnection between red tank and engine even if closed, or the Belgies will still have you.
 
Stork_III said:
Make sure there is no interconnection between red tank and engine even if closed, or the Belgies will still have you.
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Indeed - there must be no way to reroute the red to the engine - no three-way tap or anything like that.
 
Fuel feed is easy to swap, but note that the injector fuel return can return quite a high volume of fuel if your engine is set up in this way. If so you can end up recirculating the white diesel back into the red tank (or vice versa) via the injector return.
 
corinthmistral said:
Fuel feed is easy to swap, but note that the injector fuel return can return quite a high volume of fuel if your engine is set up in this way. If so you can end up recirculating the white diesel back into the red tank (or vice versa) via the injector return.
Click to expand...

It is, of course, feasible to disconnect and move pipes, as it is to pump fuel from one tank to the other. If there is some form of diverter installed to permit the tanks to be rerouted quickly, you are likely to get into trouble. Ultimately, if you have gone to the trouble to source legal fuel, you may as well use it!
 
I would put a few litres of white into the tank and run it through the heater to get rid of as much dormant dye as possible before filling with white or it will be pink! Apparently Ebers like to be flushed with white occasionally!
 
Niander said:
This Belgium red diesel job seems like alot of hard work to me...I wouldnt even bother going there fullstop...yawn...:)
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I think most of us would be pretty relaxed about not going to Belgium if we could be sure that the contagion is not going to spread to France. Our only interest in going to Belgium was as a convenient stopping off point en-route to Holland.
 
My K30 had the ability to draw diesel from either tank, with a series of off/on taps. Should be dead easy to dedicate one tank to white and the other to red.
As each keel tank is 40 gallons, that should be enough to go to Med and back
 
Hello,
Thanks chaps for the replies. Some good points. Fair comment about the returns from the injectors could send the white pink very quickly! And yes my K30 is as original and has 30 gals ?? in each keel which at 1/4 gals an hour goes a long way. And I have that ingenious two way valve on the feed and returns which I have used to keep each keel evenly weighted.
What I did was to take off the flexible feed pipe from the two way valve and run it to the locker where my Eberspacher is and blanked off the valve stub. I guess that if for example my younger wife told me she was pregnant me being 50 then I still have the option of re routing the pipe to the engine to allow me to escape to the New world !!!!! Ha Ha
I kind of hope they would not be so picky. I must however be honest we have been looking at the charts and think that we will probally head for Gravelines in France and not risk the Belgians . Trouble is with the quality of my navigation I have had to ask the daughter to revise at least three languages !
Once again chaps thanks for your opinions.

Col.
 
maby said:
I think most of us would be pretty relaxed about not going to Belgium if we could be sure that the contagion is not going to spread to France. Our only interest in going to Belgium was as a convenient stopping off point en-route to Holland.
Click to expand...

Ah.. ok
 
st599 said:
Is there a limit to the amount you can transport in cans by road?
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No but many garages limit your filling to £100

A friend hasmilitary vehicles and fills a barrel on the back of his pickup.

The only reason diesel comes under Dangerous goods in the UK is so that the government can control it's transport. Any private individual is exempt from the Dangerous Goods Regulations. Be aware though before people howl that Petrol does come under the Petroleum Spirit Regs.
 
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