Mr Brew-Ski
Southern California
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Joined: 06/01/2007
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CASADT,
Seriously doubt any of these diesels have been altered aside for maybe an auxiliary fuel tank addition. Not aware of anyone whose had serious problems running LSD. I'd never remove the DPF & or catalytic converter as they are doing in Canada. Aside from trashing your warranty I don't think the State of California, The EPA & who knows how many more govt. agencies laws one would be breaking. I concur on leaving a vehicle stock, why try & fix what's not broken.
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moisheh
North America
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Joined: 05/04/2002
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The trucks that are sold in Mexico are not " altered" . They were never equiped with DPF's and do not require ULSD. Personally I think that anyone who alters a $50,000 vehicle is nuts. That includes chipping. I am an old Hot Rodder but my daily driver remains untouched!!
Moisheh
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CASADT
Penticton, BC
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Joined: 06/14/2008
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Thanks for the input about the Mexican trucks Moisheh.
My first gut is not to modify my vehicle for sure if I do not have to. But I am also not going to sit at home too afraid to travel where I want to because I am not prepared to modify my truck to make it work. If the Mexican trucks don't have DPF then there is probably not a lot of risk.
At the end of the day I own an RV in order to travel and travel I will. Not excited about voiding warranty, but if I have to modify, I simply view this as a cost of the travel along with all the other money spent on trailer, equipment, insurance, hensley arrow, etc.
Voiding warranties is about managing risk. What are the real chances that a whole ton of stuff goes wrong. The whole $50000 dollars worth is not all going to fail. Some parts will fail and perhaps some pretty expensive parts might fail like the engine. I think life is full of compromise this is just another one. But at the end of the day the truck is just a tool and tools are supposed to be used.
CASADT
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moisheh
North America
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CASADT: Do you have a 5th wheel? Do you have an extra tank? How many miles will you be travelling in Mexico? Others have posted that running the Mexican fuel will do no harm. Of course this has not been verified but it makes snese. The worst that can happen is you will plug your DPF. They can be removed and cleaned. We have a new MH that requires ULSD but only have to travel500 miles round trip in Mexico. I can do that on USA fuel. It will kill me to not fill up with Mexican diesel at just over $2.00 a gallon!!!
Moisheh
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CASADT
Penticton, BC
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Moisheh: We have a 32' trailer trailer (tag along) 8600lbs dry weight a bit over 10000lbs loaded. We want to travel to Cabo San Lucas area in the winter. I have heard that the northern half of Baja is already ULSD compliant in order to meet NAFTA. But the rest of Mexico is LSD only. This pretty hard to verify and Pemex might say one thing and then do something entirely different.
Apparently the southern half of Baja is still LSD as southern Baja is fed by a different distibution channel that comes from the mainland by ferry. We had also planned to travel on from Cabo to Zihautenejo but that just may not be a reality with the LSD. The problem I see is that when the DPF plugs the truck goes into "limp" mode which is suppossed to only allow 20mph without a trailer. This is supposed to prevent the engine from overheating if the air flow is restricted by the DPF being plugged. Big time problem if you are in the boonies.
Mexico is suppossed to be moving to ULSD but they have already missed the deadline (not surprising), as Pemex is considered to be the worst run nationalized oil company in the world.
I have spoken with RV caravan companies who run San Diego to Cabo and they say it takes about 5 tanks of diesel for the round trip. With towing, the higher exhaust gas produced seems to reduce regen cycles so the DPF seems to not need as many regens. We thought we would make the Cabo run with everything stock and see how we make out this year and simply abandon the Zihuatenejo portion this year. Perhaps by next winter there will be more ULSD in Mexico and a larger portion of the Pacific coast will be covered as well.
You mention that the DPF can be cleaned what is the process for cleaning?
Cheers,
CASADT
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almcc
Ontario, Canada
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CASADT, my understanding is that some of the larger trucking outfits have an arrangement with the manufacturers whereby they remove and send the DPF's back to the manufacturer for cleaning on an exchange basis. Penske does this.
Obviously not applicable for us small folks.
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The Texan
Summer: A Cool Climate Winter: A Warm Climate
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Also CSADT I would not take to much stock in what a Caravan person tells you, as they are in the market to sell their product, a trip to Mexico. I have not heard any information on the Baja being ULSD compliant for NAFTA when most of the produce and manufacturing is from the mainland and they are NOT ULSD compliant by any stretch of the imagination. Like I said, I talked to several PEMEX managers/owners this past winter and they say, "NO ULSD is sold in Mexico, at this time". They thought it might be available on the border by 2010 but inland they said, "who knows?". rocmoc is buying his diesel fuel in Mexico at the border and has said it is not ULSD.
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CASADT
Penticton, BC
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Texan: I wondered about the caravan guys on this issue. You make a good point.
I read a long protracted exchange in a forum, can't remeber where, where a Pemex station owner was giving info as provided to him by Pememx but of course there was no documentation to backup his statements. He claimed that Pemex trucks were around northern Baja testing the diesel and claimed they said it was 98% USLD. As the tanks were used and more USLD was pumped in the LSD would be diluted as time went on. I have to agree what Pemex says and what they do could also be 2 different things.
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CASADT
Penticton, BC
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Texan: Here is a link that I read dealing with NAFTA and USLD fuel. It appears to not be about meeting a NAFTA standard for fuel but meeting a NAFTA standard for deregulated trucking from Mexico into the USA. It was written a long time ago but it starts to address the very problem we have today with Mexico being behind the curve. It would also speak toward perhaps there being some credibility to northern areas having USLD in order to cross the border and meet emmission standards north of the border.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CYH/is_9_5/ai_74493458
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CASADT
Penticton, BC
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Here is a link to the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute's FAQ regarding ULSD and when Mexico is suppossed to transition.
http://www.cppi.ca/ULSD_Q_A_s.html
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