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Serious question, did a fleet truck with 14 gallons of DEF in the cab ever save your week?
Last Tuesday I was the only guy on shift at the shop in Waco when a guy rolled in at 5:40 with a check engine light and a derate on his 2019 Ram 2500. I pulled codes and it was all SCR related, and he had a load of cattle waiting on him in Abilene. I was ready to start pulling the pump apart when he pops the back door and shows me four 2.5 gallon jugs of DEF he keeps behind the seat. He had let the tank run down to almost nothing on a long haul and it went into limp mode. We dumped all 14 gallons in, cleared the codes, and did a manual regen, and he pulled out at 7:15 with the light off. Cost him $175 for the visit instead of the $2,400 pump job I had already quoted in my head. I felt dumb and relieved at the same time. Any of you keep spare DEF in your own truck, or is that just asking for a freeze and a cracked jug in January?
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ninaw8826d ago
Four 2.5 gallon jugs behind the seat is 10 gallons, not 14, so either he had more than four or the math got loose somewhere in the retelling. That said the freeze thing is real and it is why I stopped keeping jugs in the cab. I ran DEF in the bed of my F-250 through two winters here in Ohio and every single jug I left back there froze solid and bulged out at the corners. What saved me was moving to the sealed 2.5 gallon boxes and keeping them in the shop, then tossing one in the truck only when I know I have a long run coming. If you want to carry it full time, get the plastic jugs with the good caps and check them every few weeks, because a cracked jug in your carpet is a smell you will not get out.
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