Carbon Neutral Expedition - CNE I (Spring 2010)

[dieselcruiserhead]

Carbon Neutral Expedition I
www.carbonneutralexpedition.com

• Proffitt's Cruisers
• Cruiser Outfitters
• Eco Off Road
• Environmental Chef Services
• Expedition Utah

Hi All,

This writeup highlights Carbon Neutral Expedition I (CNE I) that was in late April of 2010 prior to Overland Expo. This was an idea that we came up with some years ago when we started doing the mathematical calculations on our emissions outputs and thought it would be a good way to highlight the trip/concept and large 4WD vehicles that can actually be quite "eco-friendly" when powered with renewable fuels. In this case, it became an excuse to specifically go to the Overland Expo in Amado in the Spring, and do it a "hardcore" way, in a way that we actually know pretty well, in that we'd do it multi day and relatively self sufficient and basically make it our own little "expedition."

Once we launched the idea, I found that I had a pretty strong response from the people I called and shortly after I actually had fairly overwhelming interest in it and eventually settled on a cast of about 15 characters (full introductions coming below), most of which I had actually never met in person and most of whom are now people I might even call life long friends.

There is a lot to the debate of the benefit of biofuels and I don't have too much interest in getting into the specifics of it other than that biodiesel and vegetable oil (the principle fuels we used for the expedition) are a lot different than ethanol, and that we are not selling them as 'panaceas' to oil by any means, we're just pointing out that there are alternatives to oil and that fuel for diesel engines can come from plants and can be as stone-solid reliable as diesel for a trip like this. And if your vehicle can get 20-25 miles per gallon (which is common for a diesel even in an off-road truck) then running on vegetable oil in particular can make your vehicle produce as little as 1/4 of the greenhouse gas of a Prius.

In the end we had a great group from literally all over the world, and it quickly started becoming the makings of a real adventure. The event was such a success that we have plans to expand it into most likely an annual event. We are doing a smaller, more intimate Carbon Neutral Expedition in the fall (edit - this will now be in the early spring) and other future CNEs here and there.

Here is the mission statement I sent to friends and invitees:

We are explorers who are finding real world answers to questions about weaning our species off fossil fuels.

This is a gathering of friends, of wonderful spirits, and of wonderful environmental minds. 8 vehicles, 16 people, and a motorcycle with a dog that rides in a sidecar. We traveled from Park City, Utah to Amado, Arizona (20 miles north of the Mexican border) over 6 days and 1000 miles, completely self sufficient, and not adding a drop of carbon to our blanket (the atmosphere). We traveled through some of Utah and Arizona's most spectacular terrain, on existing dirt roads & tracks, and using Tread Lightly! certified techniques. This is about humans and our compatibility with the planet.

All vehicles ran on a wide range of alternative fuels or offset their footprint through carbon credits. Our final destination is the 2010 Overland Expo, a gathering of world explorers and vehicle-dependent adventurers who are largely environmentalists themselves - people who are out to see the world and the land and all of its beauty, who simply choose a car to do it.

_________________________

First, I invited Shane Ballinsky from Rover
Hybrids. Shane is a famous perfectionist for diesel conversions and veggie oil and has built some incredibly notable rigs including a famous "Defender 100" (in my book, one of the ultimate Rovers). Shane unfortunately couldn't come because of a move and a new kid and new stay at home Dad commitments but I have known Shane for years and I felt it was important to mention him as an important invite and hopefully we have him out again.

Second was Craig Reece from PlantDrive who builds veggie oil components, is one of the most remarkable human beings I know particularly after I got to know him in person (after this trip). I've talked to for years about veggie oil conversions a problem with talking with Craig is that usually a small conversation becomes a couple hours! I've found myself doing this many times, for years on end, before I actually met him in person. He also badly suffers from 'the disease' (aka, our disease, expeditioning, a great sense of adventuring, etc) as well and as a result he has a wonderful collection of some of the coolest trucks in the world, and does it as well as the absolute best. His trucks include a 1991 Land Cruiser with a factory Toyota 1HD-FT (the ultimate 6 cyl Toyota turbo diesel) and on veggie with his components. The whole rear is a stainless kitchen area that slides out and is a full pro quality cooking area. He also is the guy who has *everything* with him down to the correct cooking spice. And then he also owns the Defender 100 mentioned above as well, that is currently being repowered (again!) from a 300tdi to a 2.8 HO Powerstroke International (the high output cousin of the 300tdi). And finally he was actually the oldest out of the bunch of us, well into his 60s, and you would never know it. He is completely utterly fit and a great example of where we would all like to be when we are in our sixties.

Here is Craig's Defender 90 (before it became the Defender 100) from a picture of a trip he did with Nathan Hindman from Pangaea Expeditions (see more on Nathan below). It was on this trip, where he spent over $3000 in fuel, that he came up with the inspiration to start Plant Drive.

Here are also photos of his HDJ-80 that he brought along on the trip. I am posting so many because he had some last minute mechanical problems, so he basically drove the 1200 or so miles to meet us in Flagstaff Arizona for the last day of the trip, just after we hit the Grand Canyon, and to join us and camp with us for the Overland Expo itself. He had attended the year before and wasn't planning on attending but I was able to convince him otherwise (I had never been before either) and it was an extreme pleasure to have him along.

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Shortly after Craig committed to join, he suggested a new certified installer of his for his Plant Drive components, who I had never heard of, but also quickly became close with over several long conversations over the phone -- Scott Oncken of Eco Off-Road. Clearly a man after my own heart as well, someone who works on Rovers and cruisers and specializes in diesel conversions, and is tremendously knowledgeable and does some of the cleanest mechanical work I have ever seen. He was once a Washington D.C. officer of some sort (Secret Service or something along these lines) who eventually left to go to Wyotek to learn about cars (no small, or inexpensive feat as one of the best automotive schools in the country) and started this company and manages to only work on only older vehicles by choice.

He had a recently acquired 1966 FJ45 Short Wheel Base, Removeable Top Land Cruiser Pickup (the cream of the crop of FJ45 pickups) and (I just recently put 2 and 2 together that it is a truck that I know well from when a gentleman named Dukes owned it up in Jackson Hole) - yes, this is the famous blue Land Cruiser pickup that was in Wilson/Jackson for all of those years for any tourist to Jackson Hole who might have seen this truck and it's also been in dozens of catalogs over the years. Scott decided in about January or February (fairly last minute) to quickly hammer out a diesel conversion and all other modifications to make it an expedition vehicle as well, and bring it on the trip, and was also working on it down to the wire much as I was on my own truck. Scott has highlighted the build here, on the ih8mud.com forums, for anyone interested in checking it out. He also managed to break his hand from a piece of metal that was caught in a drill press, about 1/2 way through the build (so we thought there was no way he would finish) and showed up in a cast. Yet remarkably, he finished it, and on time...

The only mechanical issue he had, for a virgin truck, was a freak rear broken shock mount and a brand new alternator, off ebay, that failed about 1000 miles in. Both were two things that were completely out of control and neither impacted anything, and that he had only these small issues is simply remarkable. Here is a photo of him tinkering with something, along with Kurt Williams, on the FJ45, and then another shot from the rear. Specs are a Cummins B 3.3 Turbo Diesel (a nice quiet super reliable and relatively inexpensive Cummins that was brand new direct from them. This should be the engine all people install rather than 300tdi or HO 2.8), with a Toyota 5 speed Land Cruiser transmission (the famous H55F), and Plant Drive components as well. A work of beauty...

The next invitee to commit was my old friend John Brasier from Proffitt's Cruisers. These guys have always been wonderful to me and it has been a pleasure watching them grow over the years from a small rural shop to a national powerhouse and arguably the best Toyota Land Cruiser shop in the country. John was originally a customer of theirs who had all sorts of work done (the sign of a quality company when a customer becomes an employee) and is now their head of operations. He does all the sales and streamlined their processes so they were no longer working the insane hours they once were. He and his wife Mitzi are also some of the best people in the world and all of these years, all of the Cruise Moabs (the large Land Cruiser event in Moab) and I consider it a real honor to be good friends with John.

John has a customer who has been having Proffitts' put together one of their most spectacular builds while he is overseas for work. The vehicle is a custom Troop Carrier style Land Cruiser that Proffitts' built by hand out of many other trucks and has a 1HZ turbo diesel non USA Toyota Land Cruiser engine, a H55F Land Cruiser 5 speed, and then every possible option from ARB lockers to a veggie oil system to night vision and infrared sighting from the cab. It is also simply spectacular. Similar to Scott, they had gotten most of the build done but found themselves pulling an all-nighter to get some last little things done. Here is a photo of it, to the right. It was also our most capable vehicle, on 35" tires, and pulling a gorgeous matching Adventure Trailer as well. This was also the virgin trip for this rig and it was also remarkably trouble free as well, which is testament to Proffitt's Cruisers as well.

Like always, Proffitt's also came up with the idea to turn the Carbon Neutral Expedition into something professional and full bore, as they do everything. I was also quickly finding out that the permitting process for this was becoming insane if I were to do it right (hundreds of dollars to the BLM, let alone the huge PITA aspects that make it really hard to do anything like this legally there) so a little $$ that they donated to make the event fully legal (with insurance, satellite phone, portable toilet facilities, etc) actually went a long way.

So all of a sudden, we found that we "professional" and this added to the allure of the trip as well I feel for most of the group, and all of a sudden everyone was very excited to participate. The next thing we knew, we had a logo (compliments of Nathan Hindman) and I also constructed a web site as well to increase the profile of the idea of Carbon Neutral trips.

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Next was my good friend Kurt Williams, from Cruiser Outfitters, who I also watched go from a 19 year old kid (I was only 22 at the time), assisting at the old Cruiser Outfitters (the oldest Land Cruiser shop in Utah) to eventually owning it, and turning it into a Land Cruiser and Tacoma parts powerhouse of the west and one of ARB's best dealers in the west that incredibly well regarded. Kurt is also incredibly professional and knowledgeable and never tries to sell anyone anything they don't want or need. This to me was always the sign the sign of a quality individual. Likewise, his company has also grown tremendously each year, including during the recession, and Kurt deserves full complements on this.

Kurt also, more than anyone else I know, helped blow the doors open on the wonderful Utah terrain by exploring it and building a knowledge-base of the Utah roads that is probably second to none. Much of this can be accessed/addressed at Expedition Utah and I think the 40+ nights he spends out each year in his roof top tent, actually expeditioning more than anyone I know instead of talking about it, is largely representative of depth of his knowledge and how that has allowed a userbase of hundreds to really dive in deep for exploring Utah. It was a tremendous pleasure and asset to have him on this trip as well as much of the route we had planned were also roads he knew well and roads I had not been on, in addition to the hot shower installed into his Tacoma! (this was a life saver for many after a couple days out!).

In some of the paperwork that eventually described Kurt to the others, here were the photos I used (Kurt is also really into exploring Utah's vast network of underground caves) and here is photo of him dropping into a river along the very route we were planning to take:

Kurt also decided to sign up as a sponsor both as Cruiser Outfitters and Expedition Utah, as did Scott Oncken from Eco Off-Road, and Proffitts, so we were getting a pretty good base sponsorship. Each contributed assets in on regard or another that helped us all tremendously as a group.

___

Next was Alex Forsythe, who is a private chef originally from Oklahoma who went to high school with John Brasier (also from Oklahoma) and they shared a lot of the same principles. I didn't know Alex personally but what a character. He runs a company called Executive Chef Services that has a large group of private chefs that he books around the country for various cooking gigs, and he also has a dialect called Environmental Chef Services who are cooks who use healthy and natural products which is particularly popular with people who are ailing. One of his most prestigious has been the cooking for Bandar Bush (of all people) who is regularly in Aspen, among many other notable people and celebrities. e was also tremendously psyched for the trip and for all of his humor and awesome shenanigans it was because he was also a good soul and, boy, a simply tremendous cook, as one could expect. He agreed to do a little more than everyone else's share of cooking (and also hopped on as a sponsor by bringing all sorts of delicious goodies) and was one of the many reasons we ended up eating like kings for the most part. We eventually decided to have a cooking competition and he set the bar high our first night (check out this spread -- Ann Lockley in the photo) prepared by Alex. Yes -- that's chocolate and strawberries at Lone Warrior campground in the San Rafael Swell in Utah:

and here he is on after we arrived at the rim of the Grand Canyon on night 3:

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

To be continued...

In the mean time enjoy some of our galleries of the trip. I'll complete the cast, do an overview of the route, and put some photos to places throughout Utah, in continuation...

http://andreshoumatoff.smugmug.com/Travel/CNE-2010-Rich-Joss/

http://andreshoumatoff.smugmug.com/Travel/cne


And Holt Webb's photos from the Vanishing America project.
http://vanishingamerica.smugmug.com/Events/CNE

Here are some samples of what is to come:

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

And more to come... Let me know if you have any further questions for now.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

It was an absolute pleasure to be involved with the CNE I and I'm looking forward to future CNE trips as well.

 

[Rot Box]

Oh man you guys know how to have a good time--time and time again! Thanks for sharing :coffeedrink:

 

[TangoBlue]

Wow Dre - when I asked for an update I just meant a couple sentences...

Awesome chronicle of the trip - it felt like being there minus the french-fry smell of the exhaust and the pictures fill in the visual gaps well.

Thanks for your hard work - makes me want a diesel conversion... anyone have a spare D4D laying around?

 

[77blazerchalet]

..Let me know if you have any further questions for now...

I was a little surprised to see the note about this being carbon neutral in light of recent news like a Reuters item a couple of weeks ago about layoffs at the Chicago Carbon Exchange and the otherwise dire conditions in the carbon market - CCX crashed to ten cents per ton and hasn't recovered a penny. If that market goes completely bust, there's a very real possibility that carbon offsets may not be worth the paper they're printed on, while the actual costs to plant individual trees / recover landfill gases / wind & solar generation etc will still cost drastically more than the $54.42 offset you all bought for the entire expedition. What happens then? Will expedition members pay the actual labor/material/overhead cost amount of the offsets (however many hundreds or thousands of dollars that really is), or will future vehicle expeditions be simply renamed as eco-friendly ones?

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

I'm really not sure on that Blazer. I know your opinions on all of this and I certainly respect them. To me its not crucial that the event is truly 'carbon neutral' as we both know this is a little BS and the event really isn't so much about global warming to me though we had some good times talking about it. Only half the people in the group probably on believe in global warming so that means that even you would be welcomed to come along though we tried to focus on vehicles that ran on alternative fuels. As you saw I bought enough, according to their info, to offset something like a large SUV for an entire year. So my approach was to basically buy way too much to be safe and deal with it that way. If the market does completely explode then we'll have to reevaluate.

 

[77blazerchalet]

Looks like a fun outing, nice scenery, and probably good info traded on alternative sources of fuel, along with efforts to tread lightly, and I wouldn't be surprised if you left your campsites cleaner than you found them. All good things. Had I come along, I suppose there might be interest in my classic relic from the '70s, but I myself would be a tad embarrassed about the horrendous gas mileage such an old carburetor 400 gets. 20/20 hindsight says I should have gotten either an upgraded fuel-injected version, or better yet, a diesel that could ultimately be made to take bio-diesel. More likely, I'll sell it and get something that gets twice the mpg. I've always abhorred waste. Nostalgia and aesthetics had a hand in this purchase, I'm afraid.

For me, it's always been hard to form an opinion on the AGW issue when so many contradictions remain unanswered, something that perhaps would have been an entertaining campfire discussion on your trip, though not something I'd pursue in this thread. Here, I'm just appreciative of your answer, as probably everyone could agree that, for whatever underlying reason, the literal value of carbon offsets that can be purchased appears to be headed to a market point where people might not be able to sell them. Trees will still be planted (my own 'illicitly-planted' tree sapling outside my apartment door is rapidly growing), gases otherwise wasted from landfills will be recovered, etc, but the intangible offset itself as an item of trade could disappear. This surely poses a growing concern among those who feel a need to offset CO2 emissions. Perhaps it could lead to self-reliance actions, as in each person planting their own trees instead of relying on some far away company. I'd view that as a great response to a wipeout of the market.

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

I certainly agree with that as well. Methane gas is basically natural gas, so it is funny that we can also just let it steam off instead of running something off of it. Sort of like Beyond the Thunderdome .

Thank you for your awesome response as well BlazetChalet. Even with an old carburetted Blazer I must say there is something that still gets me about those old beasts, they are definitely in the top 5 of best 4WDs of all time. Just thinking of one reminds me of The Monkey Wrench Gang of all things.

thanks,
andre

 

[RU55ELL]

This is pretty inspiring to get into a bio rig.

 

[1leglance]

great start of a trip report and I am looking forward to hearing & seeing more...
amazing classic rigs no matter what your feel is on the Global Warming thing...true beauties.

Please keep the updates flowing!

 

[cruiseroutfit]

A couple of my pics from the trip:

Food


Chef


Wind