It may be a felony for a dealership to remove a dpf on a customers vehicle but I bet a individual receiving a felony charge for removing a dpf on their personal vehicle is highly unlikely. I have never heard of anybody getting their truck impounded & taken to the cleaners for not having a dpf. If anybody has, please let me know & I'll eat my words
Back in Dec 09 when I first purchased my truck I was interested in purchasing a programmer & exhaust. I started reading several different forums & asking around at local shops about the legalality of removing the dpf & the longevity affects a tuner would have on my motor & trans. Everybody who was "ingnorant" about this advised against it & had me reconsidering doing any of these mods. I decided to do it anyways & never regreted it. My truck runs better now with the dpf removed & gets way better fuel mileage. I've been running a programmer & exhaust for the past 7 months & currently average 22 mpg. 20 mpg pulling a gooseneck trailer. Here is the combination I'm running & it works great!
H&S Black Maxx Race Tuner-I chose this tuner over Spartan's b/c it's shift on the fly & you don't have to purchase a couple hundred dollars on exhaust sensors, which are just "bandaids" that you don't even need but have to have to make the Spartan Tuner work correctly.
4" Flo Pro Downpipe-Back DPF Delete w/Twister Race Muffler
AFE Stage 2 Cold Air Intake