Truck advice [RE-wrenches]

Ray Walters walters at taosnet.com
Sun Jan 21 21:30:12 PST 2007


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Hi Allan et al;

We just got a second Dodge Cummins Diesel. We've run for almost 6 years 
off and on on Biodiesel up to 100%. Definitely blending at about 20% 
right now, but I have run all but Dec and Jan on B50. My current 
supplier, (we used to make it ourselves from waste fryer grease) puts an 
additive that helps with the gel point of the BioD. Its so good, that my 
trucks start (0 F) better on the B20 than on regular diesel. Definitely 
improved power and emmisions (as measured by eyes, noses and throats at 
my building). I had the turbo boosted for the altitude which improved 
power, but mileage stayed the same (about 17 mpg).
I really like the ARE toppers as Travis mentioned. We're getting a new 
one built for the new truck.

Drake,
 As far as poo pooing Biofuels, is there a better way to move 1000 lb.s 
of batteries out to a customer's place?  Is anyone on this list able to 
service their customers by bicycle? Believe me I've spent a lot of 
design time on this issue, and tried all sorts of things, including 
building several electric vehicles for closer work. I have an all 
electric Mazda Pickup we're outfitting with new batteries and a solar 
array. I have a small 2 WD Mitsubishi for long distances, light loads; 
it gets 26 mpg. There is just no free lunch, but biofuels are definitely 
an improvement. I try to combine trips, camp out on site, spend more 
time packing, etc to reduce our use.
I come from farming family in Oklahoma. The world is not starving 
because farmers are growing feed for biofuels, or because we're running 
out of land. The farmers themselves are not even staying in business. 
The govt. is paying farmers to NOT grow food, because wheat for instance 
is so cheap, you can't even pay for your FUEL to drive your tractor to 
grow it. Farmers running on their own fuel grown on site would be 
better. Beef by the way is an extremely inefficient way to feed 
people,and IMHO is much more of a problem than biofuels.
We're all trying to do the right thing, and Bio fuels are much better 
than our current Oil war/ Global warming situation. Obviously serious 
conservation, combined with a sustainable energy and transportation 
infrastructure is the way. I moved my entire business from its off grid 
location to on grid, specifically to reduce my total carbon emmisions. I 
was living the good life on solar, but driving over 20,000 miles a year. 
(Ouch!)

No Free Lunch.

Ray

Travis Creswell wrote:

>We moved on to late model F250's (one with 7.3 powerstroke, one with 5.4
>gas) with custom built contractor shells from ARE.  
>  
>


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