Truck advice [RE-wrenches]
Ray Walters
walters at taosnet.com
Sun Jan 21 21:30:12 PST 2007
<x-flowed>
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.
>
>
- - - -
To send a message: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Archive of previous messages: http://lists.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/read
List rules & how to change your email address: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/etiquette.php
Check out participant bios: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/
Hosted by Home Power magazine
Moderator: michael.welch at homepower.com
--^----------------------------------------------------------------
This email was sent to: michael.welch at homepower.com
EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bz8Qcs.bz9JC9.bWljaGFl
Or send an email to: RE-wrenches-unsubscribe at topica.com
For Topica's complete suite of email marketing solutions visit:
http://www.topica.com/?p=TEXFOOTER
--^----------------------------------------------------------------
</x-flowed>
More information about the RE-wrenches
mailing list