Bringing it to the masses
 

Vehicle efficiency upgrades

Promoted to "featured" and then to "popular" on day 1.
Over 4000 views and 40 comments in less than 2 days!

A couple comments are from people saying that they are considering doing the same.

Congrats on the exposure!
I also went on your website: biodieselhauling.org
Very cool as you seem like a very genuine guy!

do you make your own bio-diesel?

Aalb1: Thanks! :)

BEEF: no, I buy it from a (female owned) co-op in Berkeley CA, the BioFuel Oasis. Their stuff is much higher quality than homebrew, although the drawback is I have to pay for it. (Of course, if I had free fuel, it would be hard to motivate myself to make the truck more efficient).

well, even if you made your own, it isn't free but much cheaper. I noticed in your gas log that you spend $3.75 per gallon for the bio? it seems that bio has gotten much more expensive than regular diesel. maybe regular diesel is just cheaper in my area. there again you have the advantages. there are probably people that use your services based on the fact that you use waste material to run your vehicle. that percentage of clientele may be relatively small.

that was a decent instructable good work;) i like how you're playing with the alternator too, so much more practical on a diesel!

BEEF, I would phrase that differently; dino diesel's price dropped and biodiesel's didn't. Biodiesel has always been far more expensive whenever I've looked at it (maybe it's cheaper in other regions), but then when dino-fuel prices skyrocketed last summer, biodiesel stayed where it was and became competitive.

OK, you are right on that one. I remember whe diesel was pushing $5 per gallon, many of my friends were talking about getting the bio mix. I never heard a price but they said it was much cheaper. at those times, a dollar a gallon was much cheaper.

I don't really keep up with it that much since I don't have a diesel truck (or other vehicle for that matter).

Biodiesel cost
 

When gas (and diesel) prices went up a year ago or so, for a brief time Bio was cheaper, but over all it has always been more expensive (at least around here).
I do get some customers based on my environmentally friendlyness (its also a certified green business) but it isn't about the money for me. I ran the truck on 100% bio before I was using the truck for work.

Bio-diesel is much cleaner, carbon neutral, renewable, and domestically produced.
Unfortunately there is no where remotely close to enough bio-diesel to meet America's current oil consumption - I'm not big on alternative energy in general. What we really need is for the idea of efficiency to go mainstream.

jacob,

you may want to talk to a user named RIDE. he has a design for a hydraulic hybrid. his goal is to get a truck to get 100mpg. his design is being perfected at virginia tech university.

I really like his idea as it will help all vehicles large and small alike. of course, you will see more gain with smaller ones.

I can't explain his design as well has he can so I won't try. it is an awesome design. it does require a complete new engine design which isn't easy to do thus the VA tech thing.