Here is an interesting Blog about a young couple who bought a diesel pusher and had it converted to run on veggie oil, which they get for free.

http://livelightlytour.com/

They save about $270 per 90 gallon tank.

Has anyone done this to your Barth or given serious consideration to doing this?

It seems like a great way to go until thousands of people start doing the same thing.

I wonder how many veggie-burning RVs we could support in North America?

Rick

This is right up my alley.
I am looking for a nice diesel breakaway or even maybe a gm fred.
I have adapted my mercedes to run on veg oil and have logged many thousands of miles.
It's easy, fun and I use MILES PER DOLLAR rather than miles per gallon as my benchmark.
A motorhome generally starts up and travels a pretty hefty distance then stays put for awhile- a perfect scenario for veg oil.
For example, say a diesel motorhome is able to get 10 miles per gallon.
Start it and warm things up on diesel.
1/2 gallon.
Switch to veg oil.
Drive 200 miles.
Shut down on diesel.
1/2 gallon.
So about tem miles covered on the diesel.
And 190 miles on the vegetable oil.
Figure $1.20 a gallon for time and materials per gallon of veg oil.
A gallon of diesel we'll say is $3.00
19 gallons of the veg oil is $ 22.80
Total fuel cost for 200 miles 25.80
versus $60 of diesel if that's all you ran.
Savings of 35.20.
So on diesel the coach costs .30 per mile or in miles per dollar you get 3 1/3 MPD.
Versus diesel and veg oil 12.9 cents per mile or in miles per dollar 7 3/4 MPD.
This equates to the motorhome on veg and diesel getting the equivalent to over 23MPG!
Is it hard to do? Nope.
Does it cost a lot? It can be done EASILY for under $1000.
How does the performance change? Engine is quieter and the veg oil actually lubricates and extends the already long engine life of diesels.
My mercedes has almost 250K and runs perfect.
The older 90's Cummins diesels and even the GM 6.2 and 6.5's have GREAT injection pumps (mechanical) which are very similar in the rugged construction of the injection pump in my mercedes making them IDEAL candidates for adaptation.
At any time the coach can run on diesel, vegetable oil or biodiesel when properly adapted.
We are working right now on my veg oil partner's Prevost to run on the veg.
The used vegetable oil needs only to be filtered and dewatered to be ready for use and is available from any restaurant that fries food, it's a waste product they have to usually pay to dispose of. We have several restaurants who gladly give us all their used oil and currently have enough to run four commute cars that cover an average of fifty mile per day each.
There's all kinds of conflicting info out there but I am here to say and my car is living proof veg oil works, and works good!
No reason a diesel generator couldn't run on it either.
Now instead of diesel smelling up the place, you get a nice aroma some people liken to french fries. Most people who drive behind pull along side at a stop light and ask what's cookin? It's makin them hungry. Fun.

Thanks for that interesting report!

At a fuel cost per mile of 12.9 cents, I could afford to do as much traveling as I want to and not even worry about needing a toad.

Rick

1983 Mercedes 300 SD Turbo

If I drove a 24-year-old car I'd probably run it on vegetable oil too. And use "re-refined" motor oil (50wt, perhaps?). And toilet-paper oil filters.

Now Gunner, don't be casting aspersions on us old crocks and their old tin, or in my case Birmabright!
I run my 39 year old truck on Castrol GTX 20W50 but it does burn petrol instead of oil. It doesn't break any speed limits and it didn't have any problem hauling 2 real nice buck whitetails and a 800 lb cow moose (dressed weight) plus 3 guys and their gear 6 miles down a powerline cut to a greenlane trail and then 280 miles south on pavement to home last November. It's done this little run for the last 8 years and will lkely keep doing it long after I've given up the hunt!
And ... that 83 veggiemobile is only 7 years older than my other aluminum tank ... the Barth!
Don Leaming
1968 Land Rover "The Best 4X4 by Far"

quote:

Originally posted by Gunner:
1983 Mercedes 300 SD Turbo

If I drove a 24-year-old car I'd probably run it on vegetable oil too. And use "re-refined" motor oil (50wt, perhaps?). And toilet-paper oil filters.

quote:

If I drove a 24-year-old car I'd probably run it on vegetable oil too. And use "re-refined" motor oil (50wt, perhaps?). And toilet-paper oil filters.

At 24 it's doing well. Regular 10/40 oil, doesn't burn any between changes. Surpisingly, the oil filter IS reminiscent of those toilet paper jobs, not a little spin on but a long paper element similar to a truck oil filter.

I'll be the first to admit the veg oil thing is a goofy thing. Or at least that's what I thought when I started. I found out that Rudolph Diesel, credited often as the inventor of the diesel enigine, ran his first one on peanut oil. The goal was to give agriculture a mechanical replacement for beasts of burden that the farmer could "feed" or fuel with crops he grew.
His vision really didn't get any traction and the engine was "re-engineered" to use a petroleum based substitute.
The diesel engine is still the best choice for longevity and fuel efficiency, Diesels are a 50% fuel burn efficiency compared with 27% for the best gasoline engines.
At over $40K per copy in the 1980's, these were some of the most expensive, luxurious cars ever made and 24 years later they still get 25 mpg, top out at over 100mph on the flats and were probably the first "flex fuel" vehicle made.
Clessie Lyle Cummins from Indiana founder of Cummins Engine Co, improved on existing diesel engines. He put one of his engines in a Packard Limousine because the car had a large enough engine compartment and drove from Indiana to NYC where he wanted to show his creation at the auto show in 1929 and was banned from doing so. Undaunted, he rented space across the street and "$1.39 for fuel from Indy to NYC" became a popular feature of the show anyway.
Speaking of Indy, In 1931 Cummins entered the Indianapolis 500 with a self-built (3,389 pound, 361 cubic-inch) four cylinder, three-valve, 85 horsepower, Model U marine diesel that he installed into Model A Duesenberg. The Cummins Duesy averaged 86 miles per hour and completed the race on 1 tank of fuel, without any pit stops! [Car & Driver Magazine. October 2003].
1950 Cummins had a diesel entry at Indy as well.
Currently Audi has won the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Lemans 2 years running with their 10cyl, 650 hp diesels.

Apparently with all the biodiesel manufacturing ramping up as it has over the last several years, the fuel industry is starting to revisit this 100 year old technology once again, too.
Jet fuel is a kissin cousin to diesel, who knows, maybe soon the plane you fly on will be burning some form of vegetable oil/biodiesel, it sure won't be a battery powered hybrid.

Diesels, simple, tough, efficient, longlasting and powerful. I like 'em, they're cool and since the very first one, they have always been able to run on vegetable oil whether brand new, 24 years old or older.

Now Gunner, don't be casting aspersions on us old crocks and their old tin, or in my case Birmabright!

That was a mean-spirited post; did I write that?? Good sarcasm is seldom appreciated; poor attempts are just plain ugly, and mine was poor. Methane, propane, ethanol, and vegetable oil are not the answer to "high-priced" petroleum; vegetable oil is a toy, and perhaps is fun to play with. Apologies for the tone.

But hydrogen could be, since there is plenty of it in the seas off of our coast lines. It burns cleanly too. Dispensing it is the problem. For the near future, it will be hybrids for certain.

Just think of time before computers and the internet, and how limited communications were. Now we have this great technology very few could envision just 25 years ago.
It wasn't one giant leap but lots of little steps.
That's life, just putting one foot in front of the other and taking the journey to find out what's around the next bend.
This whole fuel paradigm has been going through changes and while what we will be using in the future is still anybody's guess, looking back we'll probably view it with the same sort of awe this computer stuff has evolved into.
I for one am very happy I happened across this group with all the different backgrounds and experiences.
We are all big enough to hear and profit from each other's experiences and opinions.
I hope I can be helpful to others like everyone has already been so helpful to me, trying to learn about these great machines and find one of my own.

I was working Hippie Concert earlier this year. I was there with my Barth and one other guy had a 30-some-odd-foot diesel pusher. I had not eaten yet that day and when he drove-by, my stomach began to growl ...FRENCH FRIES!

I then had to track-him-down, and thus, ensued a conversation about converting.

waste motor oil is easier in your old diesel !!!!running 80 % waste oil ...

OK, I'm posting as a recovering fuels and lube engineer...Waste motor oil has all the contaminants one tries to discard with the waste oil.

IMHO, not a good idea, not to mention you're probably violating a few EPA rules (although you're not likely to be on the EPA Hit List).

if filtered proberly !!! hehehe you move the oil to a more controlled area.. a couple of small filters to discard .. in stead of hundreds of gallons..........smiles ,..........would ideally like to run a centrifuge.oil comes out like new ..

It's not the solids, it's the liquids; the latter can't be filtered out.

Now what would really be fun would be to convert a 454 to veggie oil. That would be a lean, green, machine.