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[BurninVeg]

OK, after lurking around for about a year I have decided to post. My girlfriend thinks I have an addiction to this website, but what does she know?

She and I decided that when we graduate college we would take a trip from Maine through Central America via Alaska. Well it has almost been a year and we will be ready to leave for 6 months beginning in May. I started this thread as this will be our home from May until November of this year.

After converting an old mercedes to run on WVO, while procrastinating on my senior project, I figured what better way to travel than on vegetable...for multiple reasons. So we concluded we would need a diesel truck. It was a long road searching for the right truck..(4 months of obsessing on Craigslist) but I think we made the right choice.

We bought a 1996 dodge cummins extended cab long bed for our trip. Although a beast, it will have more than adequate space, and a simple/bulletproof engine that I am comfortable working on. Plus you really can't beat the 12 valve for ease of veggie oil conversion.

Here is a picture of the truck when first purchased:

After buying the truck it was time to get rid of the dinky donuts that dodge claims are factory tires. Since we are traveling long distance with the majority being roads I opted for the 285/75/R17 Toyo OC A/T (which at this size are plenty beefy) mounted on some 17x8 Rock Crushers(for ease of repair and they're a lot cheaper).

Next we found a sweet cap on craigslist for 200 bucks which came with a ladder rack that I will hopefully turn into a cargo rack/sleeping platform with a few mods.

Here is the truck with the new wheels:

Here is the newly aquired $200 cap:

Next will be the WVO system. I will post a build up as it progresses, hopefully will be next weekend's project:ylsmoke: I spent too much time this weekend working on Sadie.

I have quite a few modifications brewing upstairs, finances permitting, I will keep everyone posted.

I apologize in advance if I didn't post the pictures correctly.

 

[Funrover]

Nice!

 

[kcowyo]

...when we graduate college we would take a trip from Maine through Central America via Alaska.

Sounds like quite a trip and the extremely long way around. I think a Cummins would make a great platform for the long haul. Look forward to reading about the WVO conversion.

Welcome to ExPo -

:campfire:
.

 

[jcbrandon]

Sweet! Welcome aboard.

 

[T.Low]

Wow. Like to hear more about your basic route and itinerary. Are you going from Alaska thru Vancouver and Seattle, then down the coast? Down Baja and ferrying across to Mazatlan? So many questions.

Best of luck on the trip. You don't have too much time left to plan, but sometimes thats a good thing.

 

[BurninVeg]

Today I spent some time tracking down most of the remaining parts needed for the WVO system.

I was lucky enough to have found the main components from someone who no longer wanted to run veggie oil and was willing to sell me his kit.

So the base system will focus around my recycled parts out of an old suburban.

The parts list is as follows:

15 gallon aluminum tank
3 Hydraforce valves
Turbofyner heated filter housing
HotFox heat exchanger/pickup
Flat Plate Heat Exchanger
Walbro fuel pump
Enough miscellaneous brass fittings to start a hardware store
Painless wiring fuse panel
3/8" OD aluminum tubing for use as a HIH delivery
Carling On-Off-On switch

Additional parts that I need are:

50' of 5/8"ID heater hose
20' 3/8' Fuel hose (thinking goodyear SAE30R9...kind of pricey though)
Fuel Level Gauge
Fuel Temp Gauge
Brackets for mounting
Remote fill bracket to fill from exterior of cap (will be added later)

I am also concidering dropping the money for a much larger fuel tank but have not for a couple of reasons.

1. If the fuel tank becomes contaminated via remote fill, coolant, bad wvo, etc. or leaks I will only lose 15 gals vs 60gal plus.

2. Multiple fuel containers are much easier to transport, and can be used to store clean or dirty oil. I'm thinking like (10) 5 gal plastic carboys should work.

3. A new much larger tank is going to be in the $400-500 range which would be much better spent on an auxiliary battery system and/or refrigerator.

Right now I am in the process of working out my fuel/heating/wiring diagrams..will post when complete.

 

[BurninVeg]

Wow. Like to hear more about your basic route and itinerary. Are you going from Alaska thru Vancouver and Seattle, then down the coast? Down Baja and ferrying across to Mazatlan? So many questions.

We actually have not fully planned our itinerary yet. Our plan is no plan (to an extent) We have many friends and family spread throughout the US, Canada, and Costa Rica that we will be visiting. When we get closer to the departure date I will definitely post our general outline.

 

[EuroJoe]

regarding WVO containers, my local homedepot has plastic kerosene jerry cans on sale, if there is one local to you it might be worth checking out

 

[lostworldexpedition]

20' 3/8' Fuel hose (thinking goodyear SAE30R9...kind of pricey though)
Right now I am in the process of working out my fuel/heating/wiring diagrams..will post when complete.

Have you looked at using Viton hose? Good stuff, but also very expensive... (the cheapest I have found the 3/8" is $13.90/foot).

I am looking forward to your write up. I am planning my SVO conversion, but I get bogged down in the details (even have a hard time choosing a camera, I am talking weeks of deliberating!).

Good luck.

 

[ntsqd]

I don't know about WVO, but on work's dyno I use Aeroquip FC332 hose and the Push-Lok/Barb-tite fittings that it was designed to be used on with gasoline (with and without blended-in two stroke oils), diesel, JP-8, Jet-A, etc. with no issues. I subjected two short sections to total open ended immersion in gasoline and in diesel for almost a month. Neither showed any sign of delaminating, going soft, or any other intolerance of the fuels.

Depending on size it's good to at least 200 psi (without any clamp!!) and either 200 or 250 degrees F. I've singed the outer cover of the turbo oil supply hose and it was still a perfectly viable hose (I did change it since the turbos we're testing are worth 5 to 6 figures).

Most industrial plumbing suppliers have it or can get it. If they know what a Push-Lok or Barb-tite fitting is, they'll either have it or something like it.

HTH

 

[VeggieRam]

You will have a great time. I've been to Alaska and down to Cabo in my 12v Ram running veggie and never had a big problem. Your Wvo system looks well thought out here are a couple things to think about:

The block mounted lift pumps are great on these. I used this pump for both fuels for 20k without a problem but it did fail. I replaced it with the spare I had and went on my way. When I got home I reworked my system a little. I went to a dual pump setup. My second being a fass pump for the veggie. When I go to veggie the Fass kicks in and the factory pump is just sent back to the tank via a 3 port. I like this because I know if a pump goes I can keep going with the other pump.

The next thing is I had my HIH system crack and leak in Baja and it was a pain. I think the roads took there toll. Lucky for me it was near the tank at the junction so I just started pulling in air and lost power. It took us about 12 hours on the side of the road trying to figure out what happened. Not fun. I switched to HOH.

I don't know how you plan on filtering on the road but just make sure you get the water out. In Mexico Oil in very hard to find in any quantity above 5 gallons. thats if you can even find any. We took down over a 100 gallons went through it all and burned no2 until we got back. Don't bank on finding oil once you're down there.

Carry spare's Lot's of filters, upper and lower radiator hose, 2 belts, fuel pump etc..

Have fun. I couldn't have picked a better truck for our trip.

 

[BurninVeg]

Ordered my fuel line today (probably not as exciting for anyone else)...ended up finding the goodyear SAE30R9 for 3.50/ft at Greasecar of all places, and it was the cheapest I could find by far. Plus it's always good to support the local small businesses. Thought about full viton but $13/ft is just highway robbery in my book.

Veggieram- you seem to know a lot about veggie oil in a cummins. Just out of curiosity did you run your veg filter before the lift pump or after. There are pros and cons to both ways, just curious to hear others opinions.

I mentioned I was going to go with the HIH however I am actually doing a combination of HIH along the frame and HOH elsewhere. I have not seen any set ups like this yet so it'd kind of an experiment. Also I will have two isolation valves for the coolant system so I can cover my MMMMM when in the middle of nowhere when something goes wrong.

As for the fuel pump..I will have the Walbro on board but will use the stock lift pump as the primary for both fuels. May not be the brightest move, but a replacement stock pump is pretty reasonable.

I figure if something goes terribly wrong I will shut down the coolant loop and plug in the Walbro direct to the diesel filter. Should be able to at least make it somewhere I can have a replacement shipped to.

I really appreciate the words of encouragement from everyone, and please feel free to ask questions for those concidering your own WVO system. I have plenty of learned from mistakes I can share.

 

[VeggieRam]

Both filters before the pump. You have to redo the diesel side so the filter is before the pump. Veggie side went heated tank, fphe, filter, hoh, 3 port, pump, vegtherm, IP. Diesel side went tank, filter, 3 port, pump, IP. This is how it is run when I ran a 1 pump system. If you do this bring a spare. You won't need it but if you do you..... well you know the rest. Now that I have dual fuel pumps both filters are under pressure instead of vacuum. Neither is better it is just a diff. setup. Go with what you have and enjoy your trip.

 

[VeggieRam]

The stock lift pump is great. Don't worry about it until you have to. Mine had 344k on it when it died. I'm at 440k and the second is going strong. Not many trucks have the reliability that is built into these trucks. I have 440k and haven't opened up the engine. Changed the oil, trans fluid, 1 new injector and that's it. That's the reason I kept my 12v when I bought my new truck.

 

[The Adam Blaster]

It sounds like you guys will be travelling at a pretty leisurely pace, that's very cool.
You may want to think about getting to Alaska for the 3rd week of June though. The 20th (or is it 21st??) is th elongest day of the year, and it would be an interesting experience to have it light outside at midnight.