adventureduo
Dave Druck [KI6LBB]
Subscribing...
Carbon Neutral Expedition - CNE I (Spring 2010)
- Thread starter dieselcruiserhead
- Start date
Viggen
Just here...
Sorry in advance...
Carbon markets crash because there is no imperative or force behind them. The markets will spike when there is talk of legislation and will crash when the legislation is dropped, as it is now. Carbon markets are flawed as one can not measure their output and thus can not have an accurate value placed on them. As long as the involvement in this trading scheme is voluntary, there will be no value to its goods. They work in Europe because there is legislated caps and legislated force behind them. I personally would love to see certain actions taken from a central planning (gasp! Im not a socialist, I swear) point of view but in our political climate, things like carbon sequestering and storage technology and carbon caps and trading will never happen. The carbon neutral thing is admirable and commendable but seems to me to be a little more on the gimmick side of things than anything. I agree that maybe it should be called an alternative fuel trip. Even exhorting the value of biofuels are a little iffy these days as the amount of energy consumed to refine them, the rapid loss of biodiversity and deforestation (look at Brazils loss of forest to grow palms for their oil) and, in America, the loss of food crops is tough to justify.
My D1 gets somewhere around 12 mpg and I wish I could get more. I would love to convert it to diesel but there arent many options really. I could go with an HD diesel like the Cummins/ Isuzu (HD in light duty isnt legal anywhere) and break the law or import an LR 300tdi drivetrain (illegal motors in the States) and break the law or go with an old OM617 Merc motor, which again, isnt legal as its manufactured prior to the truck itself. Im stuck with a gasser for the time being and am in the research stage of a motor that could get me better mpg and burn cleaner than the old BOPR V8. Modern gas motors burn very clean now with all the emissions equipment and programming. There just arent very many diesels in the States that could be made to work without serious technical knowledge and huge expense and that would buy a LOT of gas. Im stuck waiting for motors to come into the States legally...
All that rant being said, I liked the thought and purpose behind the trip a lot and want to make a huge trip like that at some point. Make it a SVO or WVO trip and that would be perfect. Diesels were originally designed to run on it after all.
Carbon markets crash because there is no imperative or force behind them. The markets will spike when there is talk of legislation and will crash when the legislation is dropped, as it is now. Carbon markets are flawed as one can not measure their output and thus can not have an accurate value placed on them. As long as the involvement in this trading scheme is voluntary, there will be no value to its goods. They work in Europe because there is legislated caps and legislated force behind them. I personally would love to see certain actions taken from a central planning (gasp! Im not a socialist, I swear) point of view but in our political climate, things like carbon sequestering and storage technology and carbon caps and trading will never happen. The carbon neutral thing is admirable and commendable but seems to me to be a little more on the gimmick side of things than anything. I agree that maybe it should be called an alternative fuel trip. Even exhorting the value of biofuels are a little iffy these days as the amount of energy consumed to refine them, the rapid loss of biodiversity and deforestation (look at Brazils loss of forest to grow palms for their oil) and, in America, the loss of food crops is tough to justify.
My D1 gets somewhere around 12 mpg and I wish I could get more. I would love to convert it to diesel but there arent many options really. I could go with an HD diesel like the Cummins/ Isuzu (HD in light duty isnt legal anywhere) and break the law or import an LR 300tdi drivetrain (illegal motors in the States) and break the law or go with an old OM617 Merc motor, which again, isnt legal as its manufactured prior to the truck itself. Im stuck with a gasser for the time being and am in the research stage of a motor that could get me better mpg and burn cleaner than the old BOPR V8. Modern gas motors burn very clean now with all the emissions equipment and programming. There just arent very many diesels in the States that could be made to work without serious technical knowledge and huge expense and that would buy a LOT of gas. Im stuck waiting for motors to come into the States legally...
All that rant being said, I liked the thought and purpose behind the trip a lot and want to make a huge trip like that at some point. Make it a SVO or WVO trip and that would be perfect. Diesels were originally designed to run on it after all.
BLKNBLU
Explorer
I wouldn't feel too bad about your rig. When people gripe about my '86 being "so old", I ask them what is the cost to the environment to produce a new car? I think we could all go a long way toward helping the environment by making well thought out purchases in the first place and then taking care of and completely using up the item. Probably the government will make me disappear for speaking such heresy in our current consumer economy. (j/k) I think it's great that you have a 33 year old vehicle and it's still ticking.
teotwaki
Excelsior!
Loved the pictures! They would make a great calendar or coffee table book for offroad overlanding fun. Really great eye candy. I liked the two yellow Pelican-drawers in one rig.
Ditto on keeping older vehicles running a long time and getting the most out of the resources used to create them.
Ditto on keeping older vehicles running a long time and getting the most out of the resources used to create them.
cruiseroutfit
Supporting Sponsor: Cruiser Outfitters
Some solid photos, finally getting a minute to browse though them all. Tell Rich hello for me, what a great guy.
articulate
Expedition Leader
I loved all the photos, the trip concept, the trucks, the big smiles. Great stuff! At the Expo, I bent John Brasier's ear for a long time about the trip because it intrigued me so much.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing.
dieselcruiserhead
16 Years on ExPo. Whoa!!
Back to it, and I haven't even finished introducing everyone. I'm sorry this has taken me so long to get back to. I've had a tremendously busy schedule and have been looking for time to finish it.
Next was my neighbor Rich Joss who usually works at McMurdo station either in logisitics or occasionally helping scientific expeditions. He gets around Utah a lot and in particular really knows his slot canyons well. He's always seen me prepping for various trips and has always badly wanted to come and this time it was a real pleasure to have him along. He cooked a yellow curry his night for the food competition that was unreal and also helped with some of the driving in my truck. He's also a quiet guy who always adds a level of stability to anything he helps out with and is literally the best neighbor in the world. He mostly rode with my Dad and I on the trip and is one of those people you can never get sick of, he's completely 100% competent yet completely mellow at the same time.
Here are also his wonderful pics of the trip:
http://andreshoumatoff.smugmug.com/Travel/CNE-2010-Rich-Joss
(this link was posted earlier).
______________________
Next is Mike Toomey from the Phoenix area who I heard was at SEMA this year so some of you might know him though his hair is no longer long. He's really into music so much so that I get some emails from him once in a while that have lots of really good funky stuff. For example "Funkier than a Mosquito's Tweeter" by Nina Simone of all people. Good stuff (and keep it up Mike!). He is a nurse by trade and gets around quite a bit mostly with his lifted solid-front-axle 4 Runner that is built for rock crawling but still expeditions pretty well. He joined us in Page Arizona for the Arizona portion of the trip and pointed us to Tatahatso Point overlooking the Grand Canyon Navajo land.
Here is a pic of Mike, Ann Lockley, and I plotting the Arizona route down to the Overland Expo.
Next was my neighbor Rich Joss who usually works at McMurdo station either in logisitics or occasionally helping scientific expeditions. He gets around Utah a lot and in particular really knows his slot canyons well. He's always seen me prepping for various trips and has always badly wanted to come and this time it was a real pleasure to have him along. He cooked a yellow curry his night for the food competition that was unreal and also helped with some of the driving in my truck. He's also a quiet guy who always adds a level of stability to anything he helps out with and is literally the best neighbor in the world. He mostly rode with my Dad and I on the trip and is one of those people you can never get sick of, he's completely 100% competent yet completely mellow at the same time.
Here are also his wonderful pics of the trip:
http://andreshoumatoff.smugmug.com/Travel/CNE-2010-Rich-Joss
(this link was posted earlier).
______________________
Next is Mike Toomey from the Phoenix area who I heard was at SEMA this year so some of you might know him though his hair is no longer long. He's really into music so much so that I get some emails from him once in a while that have lots of really good funky stuff. For example "Funkier than a Mosquito's Tweeter" by Nina Simone of all people. Good stuff (and keep it up Mike!). He is a nurse by trade and gets around quite a bit mostly with his lifted solid-front-axle 4 Runner that is built for rock crawling but still expeditions pretty well. He joined us in Page Arizona for the Arizona portion of the trip and pointed us to Tatahatso Point overlooking the Grand Canyon Navajo land.
Here is a pic of Mike, Ann Lockley, and I plotting the Arizona route down to the Overland Expo.
dieselcruiserhead
16 Years on ExPo. Whoa!!
Which leads me to Ann Lockley. I can't remember how Ann heard about us and the trip and I didn't know her or had never even heard of her but she is a regular contributor to Overland Journal now and has been writing for primarily UK 4WD magazines on events in the states for several years. I actually just had lunch with Ann today and it was really nice to see her again. Ann came down from Victoria B.C. just outside of Vancouver for the trip and was a presenter at Overland Expo. Here she is in her SWB Range Rover classic with something like 270K miles on it (and it's gorgeous)...
____________________________
Next is Hils Everitt who is the editor 4x4 Magazine in the UK who Ann brought along. We had an absolutely blast with Hils and it was awesome to actually have some 'girl power' on our trip and I think Hils was a lot of that.
Here she is taking a photo overlooking the Grand Canyon, but here she is as well (sorry for the unflattering photo Hils, but you gotta lotta love it) showing us boys how it's done in the UK:
I love Hils and I only hope I have the chance to see her or possibly do a trip with her again!
____________________________
Next is Hils Everitt who is the editor 4x4 Magazine in the UK who Ann brought along. We had an absolutely blast with Hils and it was awesome to actually have some 'girl power' on our trip and I think Hils was a lot of that.
Here she is taking a photo overlooking the Grand Canyon, but here she is as well (sorry for the unflattering photo Hils, but you gotta lotta love it) showing us boys how it's done in the UK:
I love Hils and I only hope I have the chance to see her or possibly do a trip with her again!
PirateMcGee
Expedition Leader
great concept for a trip......kudos
dieselcruiserhead
16 Years on ExPo. Whoa!!
Next is my old man, who flew out from Canada to finally join me on one of my overlanding trips that I've been talking about for years. He also drove quite a bit and as a journalist travels all over the world (and is happens to be on a Safari at this actual moment in South Africa to Zimbabwe and it was great to have him along. He is a pretty well known environmental journalist mostly for Vanity Fair Magazine and has a number of books under his belt including a book about the American Southwest called [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Legends-American-Desert-Sojourns-Southwest/dp/0060977698/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_4"]Legends of the American Desert[/ame]. I thought I'd post this pretty funny picture of him and Donald Trump, and recent he was arrested for trying to sneak in the famous [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Grove"]Bohemian Grove[/ame] in Northern California to do a piece on some illegal logging of old growth redwoods. His largest project is called [ame]www.DispatchesFromTheVanishingWorld.com[/ame] that documents disappearing species and cultures and has readers from 90+ countries around the world and is his call to action on things like 1 in 5 species currently facing extinction (up 200 times its normal rate) in the last 50 years.
______________________
Ara Gureghian, who is a good friend who I've known for a few years, also joined us for the last few days as well. He came west from Texas and met us in Page mostly because the days leading up to Page (if the pass wasn't snowed in - so we ended up not taking this route) are pretty rough. Ara is mostly known for The Oasis of My Soul (he has a thread here on ExPo about it: http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3258) and his blog has about 150,000 readers and a story of his life has recently been optioned. He was also a presenter at ExPo. The bad news was Ara came down with a kidney stone and even spent a couple days in and out of the Page hospital before joining us. So the jarring of the trip was certainly something tough for him.
Ara keeping his "Spirits" up (Spirit is the name of his dog).
___________________________
Nathan Hindman. Nathan also runs Pangaea Expeditions and has a well build Defender 110 called the Bio Bonatti Rover that was also in SEMA 2009 and won an award there. Nathan was also one more guy I hadn't met from previously but I'd been talking to him for some time, and we also shared a strong interest in building up custom vehicles, diesel conversions, and alternative fuels and we've been in touch pretty frequently since the trip.
Here is his unreal truck:
and here is a pic of Nathan...
____________
Bill Green who is also from Sagen Media. They did a lot of the video and Social Media marketing for Expo and it was a real pleasure having Bill on as well and I also have a good friendship with Bill as well since the trip and it was a pleasure to meet him. He also took many of the spectacular photos here marked "William Green Photography."
___________________
And finally Holt Webb (and his buddy Kevin Lock) from the Vanishing America project which won the Overland Society flag award at Overland Expo for the first year. Holt lives on almost nothing and basically scraped to his last measly change to make the trip out west (from Tennessee and Georgia) to make this trip west to hand over the Overland Society flag to the next recipient in a ceremony at the end of the Overland Expo (that I missed and I honestly don't even know who got it). Holt displayed the flag with pride throughout the trip and was extremely gentleman-like and a good friend in the month leading up to the trip particularly for someone I didn't know as well, and is someone I continue to call a good friend now. Most recently has project has been focusing on the Gulf Oil Spill which he has been taking amazing pictures and videos of, of its affects to wildlife, and to people...
Here's a photo of Holt from Bill Green...
Here is some of the work he does:
And here is his Defender 90, the "greasy beast" that made the cover of Ann Lockley and Hils Everitt's 4x4 Magazine in the UK.
_________________
And then myself. I got Land Cruisers in about 1998 when I was in college and by 2001 I began building websites and eventually worked as a GM for a Land Cruiser modification shop. I ended up buying a non-USA Toyota HJ 60 series Land Cruiser and part of the "next step" became doing diesel conversions into Land Cruisers. Today I own the largest community of people who do diesel conversions (www.4BTswaps.com) and from 2004 to 2007 I managed one of the more successful biodiesel coops and advocacy organizations in the country (Utah Biodiesel). For this project I attempted to build a 1991 Toyota Pickup with a Mercedes Diesel (also as a professional sponsored car) except that the transmission and other crucial components didn't arrive until a week before the trip. So I attempted to have this truck ready for the trip (by pulling 3 all nighters and sleeping about 4 hours a day and with help from lots of friends) but it wasn't in the cards and in the end I took my Ford truck on the trip, which I'd actually never thought of using as an Overlander, and it did surprisingly well. I cooked one of Ara's famous 1-pot recipe's actually that he taught me the last time we went camping, which is black bean mango chicken fajitas.. Absolutely delicious...
The 2000 Ford Super Duty and 33's TreadWright retread tires, and stock F-350 springs. Towing an Adventure Trailers Chaser. It performed really surprisingly well I thought!
So that's all of us! Quite an exceltic group that somehow came together, all got along somehow with a real community spirit and almost no drama whatsoever and an absolute blast. We had almost no breakage and no crippling issues or even really any repairs needed. It was really pretty awesome and absolutely ended up being one of the best 4WD trips I've taken...
______________________
Ara Gureghian, who is a good friend who I've known for a few years, also joined us for the last few days as well. He came west from Texas and met us in Page mostly because the days leading up to Page (if the pass wasn't snowed in - so we ended up not taking this route) are pretty rough. Ara is mostly known for The Oasis of My Soul (he has a thread here on ExPo about it: http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3258) and his blog has about 150,000 readers and a story of his life has recently been optioned. He was also a presenter at ExPo. The bad news was Ara came down with a kidney stone and even spent a couple days in and out of the Page hospital before joining us. So the jarring of the trip was certainly something tough for him.
Ara keeping his "Spirits" up (Spirit is the name of his dog).
___________________________
Nathan Hindman. Nathan also runs Pangaea Expeditions and has a well build Defender 110 called the Bio Bonatti Rover that was also in SEMA 2009 and won an award there. Nathan was also one more guy I hadn't met from previously but I'd been talking to him for some time, and we also shared a strong interest in building up custom vehicles, diesel conversions, and alternative fuels and we've been in touch pretty frequently since the trip.
Here is his unreal truck:
and here is a pic of Nathan...
____________
Bill Green who is also from Sagen Media. They did a lot of the video and Social Media marketing for Expo and it was a real pleasure having Bill on as well and I also have a good friendship with Bill as well since the trip and it was a pleasure to meet him. He also took many of the spectacular photos here marked "William Green Photography."
___________________
And finally Holt Webb (and his buddy Kevin Lock) from the Vanishing America project which won the Overland Society flag award at Overland Expo for the first year. Holt lives on almost nothing and basically scraped to his last measly change to make the trip out west (from Tennessee and Georgia) to make this trip west to hand over the Overland Society flag to the next recipient in a ceremony at the end of the Overland Expo (that I missed and I honestly don't even know who got it). Holt displayed the flag with pride throughout the trip and was extremely gentleman-like and a good friend in the month leading up to the trip particularly for someone I didn't know as well, and is someone I continue to call a good friend now. Most recently has project has been focusing on the Gulf Oil Spill which he has been taking amazing pictures and videos of, of its affects to wildlife, and to people...
Here's a photo of Holt from Bill Green...
Here is some of the work he does:
And here is his Defender 90, the "greasy beast" that made the cover of Ann Lockley and Hils Everitt's 4x4 Magazine in the UK.
_________________
And then myself. I got Land Cruisers in about 1998 when I was in college and by 2001 I began building websites and eventually worked as a GM for a Land Cruiser modification shop. I ended up buying a non-USA Toyota HJ 60 series Land Cruiser and part of the "next step" became doing diesel conversions into Land Cruisers. Today I own the largest community of people who do diesel conversions (www.4BTswaps.com) and from 2004 to 2007 I managed one of the more successful biodiesel coops and advocacy organizations in the country (Utah Biodiesel). For this project I attempted to build a 1991 Toyota Pickup with a Mercedes Diesel (also as a professional sponsored car) except that the transmission and other crucial components didn't arrive until a week before the trip. So I attempted to have this truck ready for the trip (by pulling 3 all nighters and sleeping about 4 hours a day and with help from lots of friends) but it wasn't in the cards and in the end I took my Ford truck on the trip, which I'd actually never thought of using as an Overlander, and it did surprisingly well. I cooked one of Ara's famous 1-pot recipe's actually that he taught me the last time we went camping, which is black bean mango chicken fajitas.. Absolutely delicious...
The 2000 Ford Super Duty and 33's TreadWright retread tires, and stock F-350 springs. Towing an Adventure Trailers Chaser. It performed really surprisingly well I thought!
So that's all of us! Quite an exceltic group that somehow came together, all got along somehow with a real community spirit and almost no drama whatsoever and an absolute blast. We had almost no breakage and no crippling issues or even really any repairs needed. It was really pretty awesome and absolutely ended up being one of the best 4WD trips I've taken...
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dieselcruiserhead
16 Years on ExPo. Whoa!!
So that's for now... "Tomorrow" with luck I'll start actually putting together an overview of the route and start putting some of these pics to places.
Once I have the trip report posted I'll also let everyone know and we can also answer any questions...
Once I have the trip report posted I'll also let everyone know and we can also answer any questions...
BLKNBLU
Explorer
Great to see you back posting again A. It really was a good trip, and that's just based on a partial participation. I ran into Ann at SEMA and again up at the Hump n Bump event in Logandale. Pretty cool.
I feel a bit overdue on a new music package for you. I'll see what I can do about that tonight. Good luck with the future CNE efforts and let me know if I can help w/ AZ in any way.
Mike
I feel a bit overdue on a new music package for you. I'll see what I can do about that tonight. Good luck with the future CNE efforts and let me know if I can help w/ AZ in any way.
Mike
cruiseroutfit
Supporting Sponsor: Cruiser Outfitters
x2, thanks for the update and looking forward to more.
So when does 2011 planning start
dieselcruiserhead
16 Years on ExPo. Whoa!!
Thanks a ton guys. Also Mike I saw your email on more funk tunes - just awesome...! I have a great idea on how to index all of your songs...
I am psyched to be posting but I've just been so busy again. Super psyched on 2011 as well. Now I need to get info on the route and getting photos placed to where we were and what photos reference what.
For example, where and when was this:
I am psyched to be posting but I've just been so busy again. Super psyched on 2011 as well. Now I need to get info on the route and getting photos placed to where we were and what photos reference what.
For example, where and when was this:
