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Diesel Truck Owners Are Getting Ripped Off by Emissions Rules — And No One Seems to Care
Behind the scenes of strict regulations, diesel truck owners are fighting a quiet battle no one’s paying attention to.
from Nebraska
by David, 52
“My Truck Died — It Was How I Fed My Family, and No One Cares”
-David
It’s been years of me going back and forth about whether I should delete my truck or not. Truth is, I’m one of those diesel owners who’s spent way too much time worrying about regulations and all that government stuff. But looking back, I shouldn’t have wasted all that time thinking not while my truck was slowly dying on me.
This truck ain’t just some ride. It’s how I live. It’s how I feed my family. I’m a farmer, and I use my truck more than anything else I own. I’ve been driving trucks since I was 25 years old, and now I’m 52. This ain’t a hobby, it's my livelihood. I’m still using it for work right now,Man, let me tell ya before I deleted my truck, it was more of a headache than a help. I run a farm out here in Nebraska. Long days, early mornings, and my 17 Ford F-350 is my right hand. I use it for everything hauling feed, moving equipment, pulling livestock trailers.
But once I hit around 90,000 miles, that truck started giving me all kinds of trouble. First it was the DEF system. One morning it was -10 out, and the truck wouldn’t start. DEF line was frozen. When it finally turned over, it threw a code and went into limp mode. I had to crawl 6 miles back to the barn at 5 mph.
Took it to town, and the mechanic said the DEF injector was clogged with crystals. That cost me $600. Two weeks later? Same deal, different part this time it was a DEF sensor, and that bill ran me $1000.
Then the DPF started acting up. The truck was regenerating almost every other day. My fuel mileage dropped to 10 MPG, and I could smell it cooking every time. One day, Regen failed while I was pulling a trailer truck lost power, black smoke everywhere. Took it in, and they told me the DPF was clogged solid, needed replacing. That was a $4,500 repair, not including labor.
And to top it all off, the EGR valve was plugged with carbon so bad they had to tear it down and clean it by hand. It looked like someone poured tar in there. That job cost me another $600.
Look, I’m not a guy who complains. But I need a truck that works as hard as I do. I can’t be spending thousands just to keep emissions parts alive. So I said enough’s enough. I got a delete kit, pulled the DPF, DEF, and EGR, and tuned the truck for towing.
And let me tell you it’s like a brand new truck. No codes, no limp mode, MPG jumped to 16–17, and the power’s back. It pulls like it should.
I know some folks wouldn’t agree, but they ain’t out here working 12-hour days in the mud and snow, relying on that truck to get things done. I am. And now, finally, I’ve got a truck I can count on.
But I’ll tell ya, even after I made up my mind to delete the truck, it wasn’t smooth sailing. Deciding to go through with the delete was just half the battle; the real challenge was finding a company I could trust to get the parts from.
See, once you start looking online, it’s a minefield. I must’ve spent hours scrolling through forums, YouTube videos, and sketchy websites. Every company claimed they had the “best kit” or the “most reliable tuner,” but half of them looked like they were run out of someone’s garage.
Some sites were charging outrageous prices like $3,000+ for a delete bundle that didn’t even include support or install instructions. Others had cheaper kits, but the reviews were a mess. People complaining about wrong parts, missing tuners, or worse kits that bricked their trucks and left them with no support when things went south.
That’s when the doubt started creeping in. I remember sitting there late one night, staring at the checkout page of one site, finger hovering over the “buy” button, thinking:
“What if I just get scammed? What if I spend all this money and my truck ends up worse off than before?”
It was a real gamble, and I wasn’t about to throw away more cash after everything I’d already spent on repairs. I didn’t trust any of them, to be honest. Felt like every company was trying to take advantage of folks like me who just wanted their truck to run right. I even called a few of them and half the time, no one picked up or worse, I’d get some guy who didn’t even sound like he knew what parts fit my truck.
The worst part? They all acted like their stuff was made of gold. One guy quoted me $2,800 for a basic kit, and when I asked if it came with tuning support or install help, he just said, “Nah, you’ll figure it out, it's easy.”
I was this close to giving up and just living with the constant limp modes and breakdowns. It felt like the whole system was rigged like they knew we were stuck, and they were just milking every dollar out of desperate truck owners.
But I kept digging. I didn’t want to make another expensive mistake. I wanted a company that actually stood behind their products, gave clear instructions, responsive support, and most of all fair pricing. I didn’t care about flashy websites or big promises. I just wanted something real, something that would work and not leave me stranded again.
And man, I wish someone had told me earlier how hard it would be to find that. Deleting your truck isn’t just about ordering a part and bolting it on. It’s about finding the right people, the kind of folks who know what you’re dealing with, who answer the phone when you call, and who actually give a damn about helping you keep your truck on the road.
Then one night, just when I was about ready to give up, I stumbled across a company called Diesel Patriots. Their site looked solid, and just by looking through it, I could tell they knew what they were talking about.
So the next morning, I decided to give them a call. Figured it couldn’t hurt. And man that call changed everything. The guy who answered wasn’t reading off a script or trying to push a sale. He actually listened. I told him what I’d been through all the limp modes, clogged filters, repair bills and he just said, “You’ve had enough. We’ll take care of it.”
FEATURED IN
Save Up to $25,000 Just by Deleting Your Emissions System
Cleaning the DPF
Cleaning the EGR
DEF Injector or Sensor Issues
DPF Failure or Clogging
SCR System Failure
DEF Fluid Costs
Before Buying Delete Bundle
$400/3Y
$300/3y
$1500/3Y
$700/1Y
$4000
$5000
After Buying Delete Bundle
$0
$0
$0
$0
$0
$0
