Diesel emissions warning

[EDankievitch]

Evening everyone! I wanted to pass along a warning about the EPA and mobile Emissions Testing.
Down here in Southern Nj we currently don’t have mandatory emissions testing on our trucks. A fair amount of trucks are deleted. No problem right? Not so. Family of some friends a few weeks back were coming back from a weekend trip by Philadelphia. They came upon a mobile EPA testing stop. The EPA was stopping all Diesel Trucks both large and small. Every truck stopped was tested and inspected. Those found deleted got fined for each item that was removed and fined for failure.
No BS here!
One of friends family, the truck owners got hit with over $50k in fines. The truck had to be towed away from the inspection location. They would not allow failing trucks to be driven.
The party is over.
Rolling Coal can seriously cost you.
Think long and hard about removing emissions items from your trucks. Just because your state does not have mandatory testing does not mean that you are safe from getting busted by the EPA.

 

[AKDoug]

I am a member of over a dozen light duty and heavy duty diesel FB pages and a half dozen forums like this. This is the first I have heard of the U.S. EPA having any sort of mobile enforcement. In fact, the environmentalists are all in a twist because under the current administration is placing much enforcement in the hands of the states again. All these trucks getting busted and nobody took a picture?

 

[EDankievitch]

I just heard this from a friend at work who was with his family when it went down. When I learn more I’ll share it here. I know the EPA has mobile units. There was a thread on heat a year or two back of a fuel tanker in Ny that got busted by the EPA for excessive smoking and they brought in the mobile unit to test the truck. There was in fact a pic posted on here of the truck and the incident when it happened.
So having seen that pic and thread an EPA diesel truck inspection stop does not sound all that far fetched.

 

[JohnM45]

So that means they would have been either randomly pulling over vehicles (curious what authority they have to pull you over - working with local or state police maybe?) or they were pulling over ALL trucks. How do they know which trucks are diesel? Other than a "C" badge or powerstroke or duramax, etc., how would you know? And, now that diesels extend well into the 1/2 ton pickup truck the field of vehicles is even larger. And then that gets into the whole justification to pull someone over. Even sobriety checkpoints are questionable - I don't know all the rules and regs, but I always thought there had to be a justifiable reason to pull someone over....probable cause or something. I don't know.....seems sketchy to me. But, I'll get the pop-corn out and wait for more information.

 

[KATOOM]

Soon we'll be just like Venezuela and Cuba. Fun...

 

[HPSimpson]

Recently I was stopped by CHP, they told me to drive 10 miles to there regular semi-truck scales, I was towing my 28' by 9' boat on goose-neck hitch and three axle trailer, I was to to area at the scales DOT and EPA were inspecting all trucks. This is normal truck inspection truck stop, so one of inspection area was reserve for small trucks , three others for semi-trucks. Told just sit in truck unlock hood, EPA and DOT were doing this with CHP, check truck out, DOT person said was going to test trailer brake away, would like me, to disconnect for there test, ask which axle is, I said front, ask were battery is located up on top off goose neck in plastic box, DOT climb up to look at battery, said there area two battery's up here one on left is trailer for brakes. This inspection took about twenty to thirty minutes.

 

[Wiredawg]

Friends,

I completely believe the OP and believe we'll be seeing/hearing more of this. I just visited EPA website and found they are busting diesel performance companies and levying heavy fines. Here is a link:

https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/nat...termarket-defeat-devices-vehicles-and-engines

Other countries are much tougher on inspections and enforcement of vehicle emissions. Fines, vehicle confiscation, and and vehicle restoration costs are going to be a reality one day. EPA is getting the big fish, the companies that manufacture, sell, install defeat devices that remove or bypass emissions hardware and chips, tuners, programmers that changes the production configuration of the vehicle.

I imagine the states that have vehicle state safety and compliance inspections are the first to be doing this and as Federal government uses highway funds as a leverage to make states enforce emissions, there could be uniform emissions testing and enforcement across the entire US.

Just saying...

Cheers, Ron

 

[JohnM45]

....paperz please....zis is not zee correkt dokument...NO TRUCK FOR YOU!!!

ugh... where are the lines drawn? If the rules are there, then it is what it is. But, enforce it at the required yearly (or whatever interval) inspection. Gestapo-style checkpoints...and that's exactly what they are...are not right. Weight scales and that sort of thing can be justified because it comes down to a possible safety issue. But emissions?

 

[Wayne M.]

I was the one who made the roadside smoke test thread mentioned above, and here it is.

https://www.turbodieselregister.com/threads/traffic-stop-smoke-test.257068/#post-2491584

 

[Tractorat]

If it wasnt a cop, Im not sure I would stop for an epa inspection. Could get pretty nasty.

 

[Wayne M.]

I also posted about a 6.4 style Ford pulled over by NYS DEC on the highway, opposite direction very recently. I’ll never know the reason for being pulled over- could have been taking a deer, fishing, or rolling coal- who knows. I also was traveling behind a box truck that was smoking soot real bad, and out of nowhere a DEC cop gets behind him and tails him until I had to get off- probably getting evidence on a dash cam.
You HAVE to pull over for those guys.

 

[Regcabguy]

So that means they would have been either randomly pulling over vehicles (curious what authority they have to pull you over - working with local or state police maybe?) or they were pulling over ALL trucks. How do they know which trucks are diesel? Other than a "C" badge or powerstroke or duramax, etc., how would you know? And, now that diesels extend well into the 1/2 ton pickup truck the field of vehicles is even larger. And then that gets into the whole justification to pull someone over. Even sobriety checkpoints are questionable - I don't know all the rules and regs, but I always thought there had to be a justifiable reason to pull someone over....probable cause or something. I don't know.....seems sketchy to me. But, I'll get the pop-corn out and wait for more information.

All they need to do is smell the exhaust to determine a delete. Visual inspection of the tailpipe is the final blow.

 

[Wayne M.]

Last week I did a PM on a 2008 Sterling Acterra with a MB 906 engine and a full OEM DPF package. It's a low mileage/ low use backup vehicle and showed no check engine light or any issues BUT it is sooty at the stack and is actually wet stacking due to excessive idling. If I were an unassuming driver, I might be in for huge pain if I were pulled over by one of these dudes. It obviously has a cracked filter.

 

[Wiredawg]

Most of the deleted trucks down here in Texas sound way different... most are LOUD. Friend just bought a 2016 Ford F250 6.7L PS, immediately deleted it, and NOW it sounds like a loud, obnoxious, crackling SCHOOL BUS. The Rams sound COOL, but are also much louder, often deleting the muffler as well AND make smoke. Even see quite a few deleted and strait piped dumptrucks... they also sound COOL.

When I get my annual state inspection (due in March) each year, I'm actually not sure that they really look at anything. My truck is clean, quite, emissions intact, so I don't think it draws much additional attention. But, there's Lots of Bandidos down here.

Cheers, Ron

 

[BigPapa]

NOW it sounds like a loud, obnoxious, crackling SCHOOL BUS.

Now, that’s just mean. What do you have against school buses, Ron?

 

[Wiredawg]

Now, that’s just mean. What do you have against school buses, Ron?

I was psychologically damaged when I was a kid : I rode an International school bus two hours in the morning and two hours evening; It was dark when I got on (2nd one to get on) and was getting dark when I got home (2nd to the last off the bus). AND, ALL my in-laws have Fords, cept'n my niece, who has my old 2003 Ram 2500...she has CLASS!

Bottom Line: The only way a Ford sounds good is NEVER.

Cheers, Ron

 

[Wayne M.]

Oh the V8’s sound hysterical uncorked. Guy here has a Duradud uncorked with a mild tune. Not only does it sound like the old 9 liter V8 cornbinder mosquito killer with it’s fence pipe exhaust, but it makes a swoosh where you can’t tell if it’s tire spin or turbine.

 

[Wayne M.]

I have a soft spot for ‘70’s Wayne buses

 

[Wiredawg]

I have a soft spot for ‘70’s Wayne buses

Yep, them Wayne busses were BAD. I rarely felt comfortable on the bus ... either way hot or way cold . The plastic seats sucked too. So was the school too. No A/C and heat not very good. That's why our generation was the last one to ROUGH it. Was SOOO sweet when I bought my 1967 Dodge Polara 4Dr w/318 2bl.

Cheers, Ron

 

[Regcabguy]

We had to wear long pants with double knee jeans through high school. When you blew through the doubles mom ironed on another layer. We had to wear long pants through 1968. Pants in San Diego were hardly needed 10 months of the year.