It was just a matter of time I guess.

lmorris · March 11, 2020

Diesel Brothers Hit With $850,000 Fine for Tampering With Truck Emissions - The Drive

Bruce Amacker · March 12, 2020

I'm actually glad to see this. My personal and professional position is against modification or removal of any emissions device.

Keith Browning · March 12, 2020

Not only that Bruce but in this case, you have some guys on a popular television show making it look like all the black smoke belching from trucks is terrific fun and perfectly okay. I like these guys. They are skilled and creative and build some really cool stuff. It's too bad they are irresponsible and on that note why don't the producers of that program and the Discovery channel realize they are promoting illegal behavior? I still want to know how Moonshiners does not cross some legal line as well.

Disclaimer: I love both programs but I do not condone their behavior.

Chad_Kelsoe · March 14, 2020

I saw this in a news article about the lawsuit..."

This is the first time we’re hearing from the Diesel Brothers after a four-year lawsuit against them has closed.

A federal judge ordered the custom truck makers to pay more than $800,000 to the U.S. government and Davis County for polluting Utah’s air.

Firing up the engine on his diesel truck, David “Heavy D” Sparks from the Diesel Brothers on the Discovery Channel, points out the tailpipe vibrating, but you don’t see anything come out.

“That is the majority of what’s in question here with this lawsuit,” said Sparks.

Sparks is talking about the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) that prevents black pollutants from coming out of the tailpipe.

After the first 20 or 30,000 miles of driving, Sparks said the DPF gets clogged and it’s a $5,000 to 10,000 dollar fix.

“Whereas to bypass that, you’re [looking at] 500 to 1,000 bucks,” said Sparks. “The vehicle runs better and gets better mileage, creating more power—that’s why people are interested in taking those off.” "

After reading this I realized he has no idea how the emissions on the diesels work and I guess he doesn't understand how DPF regeneration works either. And the truck doesn't magically run better just because you removed the DPF, its part of the tuner you installed that probably doesn't care about safe fuel rail pressure, injection timing, or boost pressure. It's sucks driving trucks that are deleted and tuned because they usually have horrible drivability characteristics.

JoeR · March 14, 2020

On 3/12/2020 at 12:29 PM, Keith Browning said:

...you have some guys on a popular television show making it look like all the black smoke belching from trucks is terrific fun and perfectly okay.

I've always found these little mini-cultures interesting. Humans are hard wired to mimic the behaviors of others. Sometimes is results in some whacky stuff.

Consider that at some point someone thought it was a great idea to drop their pants and pull their underwear up, and then walk around like that. Now there are a ton of people that do it too. They are all 100% convinced they look good, and are totally cool. To everyone else they look like idiots, but it doesn't matter to them.

The guys riding cruiser style motorcycles dress up in pirate costumes. Again, they are totally convinced they look like badasses. And while some of them are badasses, they still look like a kid in a pirate costume.

A top contender for the dumbest copied behavior is the guys that do the Carolina squat on their trucks. Those things look like a female dog taking a leak, but again, they think it is 100% cool. There's no convincing one of those guys that it doesn't.

This brings us to the rolling coal folks. To everyone else their truck looks like it is a broken, worn out POS when it smokes like that. Fogging out pedestrians and Prius owners makes them look like a total pansy while crapping on someone from the safety of their truck, and then generally running away. To the people that know how to make power in a diesel they look like hacks. You can make gobs of power with a diesel without having to over-fuel them that badly, and belching smoke makes you look like the kid that sawed their exhaust off their Honda to gain more power.

There are tons of other little sub cultures like this, and while plenty of them serve a purpose, not all of those purposes are obvious. They are fun to watch though.

Joe

JoeR · March 17, 2020

....and now a new, curious behavior has emerged. The hoarding of toilet paper, and anything else people can wipe their ass on, across the Country.

DieselD · March 26, 2020

I wouldn't be surprised if this was setup by discovery channel for ratings. Not really scripted but willing doing things that knew it would gain them attention with EPA to impose fines so they have some more story to write about.