Anyone heard about mobile EPA Emissions Testing?

BigPapa

BigPapa

Truckless
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Jan 25, 2008
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Not to alarm anyone, but just had someone post this up over on TDR...

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.
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My thoughts as well. Figured if anyone had heard anything about it they’d be here.
 
Ive heard about this before. Almost the same exact story a couple years back.
 
VA down near DC had vans setup along the on and off ramps with testers in them. Somehow it would test as you drove by. It's been a while since I went that direction so I don't know if they still do it but I'm not surprised if it's all true.
 
The DOT guys up here used to make trucks do the "Snap Test" when they got stopped, and had a sniffer that went in the exhaust along with covers to block off the opposite stack if it had dual exhaust. That was years ago. Mostly seems like they're looking for common easy violations now like lights and driver credentials.
 
Like was said before, some states do it NJ is one of them, friend had a truck checked there and it wasn’t a snap test. They hold the truck at high RPM and measure opacity which is funny because it would have to be extremely dirty to smoke at max rpm with no load. Cali of course which is a snap test, and Ontario Canada does a more thorough check but no one give a chit what Canada thinks.
 
The OP isn’t catching any breaks over on TDR...

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?
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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.
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Who the phuck gets a $50k fine on the side of the road?!?! Seems more logical to issue a summons to court where your fine will be determined.
 
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Never seen emissions, but have seen fuel checks setup on state routes. All diesel vehicles must stop, and have the tank dipped. I've never put off road in my truck, but even so, I knew where they were, and took an alternate route that day!

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RascalMafia said:
Who the phuck gets a $50k fine on the side of the road?!?! Seems more logical to issue a summons to court where your fine will be determined.
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Even if it was a fine at the point of ticketing, it would be a flat rate, it either meets or doesn't meet the requirements.
 
$50k lol there's no way in Hell a bill like that would get passed.

In CO they have mobile emissions stations that park on on-ramps. They will log your plate number and what they pick up from your vehicle (which is questionable since you typically need a very controlled environment for testing). The only thing they're allowed to do is give you exemption from the yearly cert if you're continuously passing their test. Or they can send you a letter in the mail saying, "Hey, we think you have an emissions problem, here are some places that can help."

I may or may not have gotten a few of those for my 12V. And possibly found some shady cert places. Who knows. :lolly:
 
CorneliusRox said:
$50k lol there's no way in Hell a bill like that would get passed.

In CO they have mobile emissions stations that park on on-ramps. They will log your plate number and what they pick up from your vehicle (which is questionable since you typically need a very controlled environment for testing). The only thing they're allowed to do is give you exemption from the yearly cert if you're continuously passing their test. Or they can send you a letter in the mail saying, "Hey, we think you have an emissions problem, here are some places that can help."

I may or may not have gotten a few of those for my 12V. And possibly found some shady cert places. Who knows. :lolly:
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I have a little switch that may or may not cause a decent amount of black smoke. It's entirely possible that in conjunction with said switch enabled I also went WOT up an onramp with one of these vehicles parked on it and caused a decent amount of smoke. It's also plausible that I did NOT receive any sort of notice. However there's a chance my vehicle had Canadian plates on it so it's possible that played a factor.

Odds are likely that I dun give a chit about it.
 
Oh snap! Broke out the 'ol VP44 era smoke switch, regular rebel outlaw I say!

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allan5oh said:
I have a little switch that may or may not cause a decent amount of black smoke. It's entirely possible that in conjunction with said switch enabled I also went WOT up an onramp with one of these vehicles parked on it and caused a decent amount of smoke. It's also plausible that I did NOT receive any sort of notice. However there's a chance my vehicle had Canadian plates on it so it's possible that played a factor.

Odds are likely that I dun give a chit about it.
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Guy here got stopped by the Canadian window lickers. They informed him they were going to inspect all his emissions components and went through a long speech how the were going to do it and he had to follow them to a certain location for the inspection. Took the wind out of their sails when they found out it was a 1998 379 with a 2WS 3406E and didn’t have anything to look at. That part wasn’t in their training manual I guess.

They got one of his friends the week before. 870 ISX and the cop reached in and grabbed the EGR valve that’s attached to the exhaust manifold to “make sure it was functional”. Real geniuses in Ontario it seems.
 
jfaulkner said:
Guy here got stopped by the Canadian window lickers. They informed him they were going to inspect all his emissions components and went through a long speech how the were going to do it and he had to follow them to a certain location for the inspection. Took the wind out of their sails when they found out it was a 1998 379 with a 2WS 3406E and didn’t have anything to look at. That part wasn’t in their training manual I guess.

They got one of his friends the week before. 870 ISX and the cop reached in and grabbed the EGR valve that’s attached to the exhaust manifold to “make sure it was functional”. Real geniuses in Ontario it seems.
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That reminds me of the time a CBP officer "inspected" a radioactive sealed unit. It was sealed to keep the radiation out nothing more. Ended up missing a lot of work. Poor guy.

Did you guys know that friggin ROCKS will set off the radiation detectors at US customs? Raw granite rocks for tombstones for example. Those sensors are so sensitive that they will catch it from the next lane over!
 
jfaulkner said:
Guy here got stopped by the Canadian window lickers. They informed him they were going to inspect all his emissions components and went through a long speech how the were going to do it and he had to follow them to a certain location for the inspection. Took the wind out of their sails when they found out it was a 1998 379 with a 2WS 3406E and didn’t have anything to look at. That part wasn’t in their training manual I guess.

They got one of his friends the week before. 870 ISX and the cop reached in and grabbed the EGR valve that’s attached to the exhaust manifold to “make sure it was functional”. Real geniuses in Ontario it seems.
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Those guys are much more geared towards the pickup crowd. It's friggin brutal even pulling over pre 07 trucks and checking for cats.
 
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