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So, why do you drive a diesel?

I could go into a long story about the lack luster pulling power of the Vortec 5.3 liter gas engine years ago I had, but that's another day.

It's a pleasure to have that low rpm torque, pulling power of a LBZ Duramax, or other Diesel, whatever you have, you know how it performs.

This past Saturday I went to deer camp to get my hunting camper since the red clay soil had dried out. 242 miles or so up there, same amount back, close to it, my route back involved more 2 lane roads, due to road construction on the interstate.

I averaged about 18 mpg headed up there, cruising at 75 to 77 mph, at times less based on the speed limit.

Coming back with the camper and a truck bed of gear, high winds, I got about 11.3 mpg. I ran most of the time about 60 mph on the 2 lane roads and about 70 mph on the interstate.

Diesel prices, the highest I've paid in many years. Just inside Virginia it was $4.699 a gallon, I topped my tank off there. Headed back home once I got down to about a half a tank I stopped at a Murphy USA and topped the tank off again. Diesel there was $4.799 a gallon there. Oh yea I had a man that was one of those beggers that carries a sign around approach me while I was pumping fuel. He was a nasty looking white male, that appeared to have no disabilities. I had my trusty pistol on me and more firepower within reach inside the truck. I was nice and greeted him, but didn't want to send a signal that I was his buddy and was going to give him a ride or money. I said what's going on tonight. He said can you give me a few dollars? I told him I was sorry, but it was taking all my money to fill up my truck with that high priced diesel. He said we can blame Biden for that and walked off. I told the attendants inside about it, they said there's all kinds of jobs in the area, the guy just needs to get a job. I said, yelp I agree.

After that ordeal I had a full tank of diesel and was west bound and down, 95 miles to the house. Up ahead I had the steepest grade, Black Mountain on I-40, it sucks the life out of some of them. I set the cruise at the bottom of the Mountain on about 60 mph and let the Duramax and Allison do their thing. I got in the middle lane and passed some on both sides, I was using the cruise control lever to increase or decrease my speed. Ran up on some cars that can't drive worth a sh#t and had to back out of it. The Truck stayed mostly in 5th gear, I think it hit 6th one time, then bumped back down to 5th. Needless to say it had lots more mph if needed, I just don't want to sling the camper out of the road in those sharp curves. Idea conditions no cars or trucks getting in my way the truck has almost pulled that mountain in 6th gear at 55 to 60 mph, the cruise set. So nice to have that pulling power and able to recover if you get jammed up and speeds drop to 45mph or less.

Same mountain a smaller camper I had, the Vortec 5.3 gas was gutless pulling that grade.

Heaviest load I ever pulled with my 2006 Chevy 2500HD was my farm tractor that's got the bucket and backhoe on it. Not a massive load but if I step down hard on the go pedal it will spin the tires with ease from take off. Pulled some steep grades with that combination at the speed limit with plenty to spare.

That my friends is why I drive a diesel for the pulling duties. I'd rather have the power to maintain speed on the highway and not get run over struggling with a low powered vehicle any day. Slow vehicles on the highway creates problems and dangerous situations.
It sits in the garage most of the time, but when I need some pulling power I put it into action.
Could I do without it, yelp maybe, but I'd want a big block gas motor with some grunt to it.

0305221150a.jpg
 
I recently had to go through a drill of dumping the older diesel vehicles and get something new(er) that (in theory) would cost less and spend less time in the shop. Interestingly, the family members applying pressure to purge the old beasts were not the ones who drove them or paid the bills. But, I played game (for a while) anyway just to keep the peace.

New and newer diesels were a hard no-go. After talking with the local shop (whom keep the local fleet of money-makers working), they confirmed that my older rides were much less of a maintenance cost to keep running. So with unwillingness to pay $70K - $90K just to shut-the-family-up, along with unwillingness to pay even higher maintenance bills when compared to the beasts that were on the chopping block, the focus changed away from oil + amonia burners.

This left three manufacturers that had a platform of towing up to 10K# without sacrificing payload (ie: not needing to trade trailer weight for number of people that get to ride in the cab). FWIW, no overseas manufacturers could meet the requirements. All remaining candidates were in the gas V8 territory which sat in 3/4 ton chassis and mated to a 6 - 8 speed tranny.

Final decision was a unilateral rebellion. I told the fam to deal with it as (until the day came that *they* actually did the driving, gear jamming, *and* paying the bills) I was the only one with skin-in-the-game, so the old beasts would stay. Period. Yeah, I am sleeping on the couch for a while, but sometimes it is worth it :D
 
Stoney said:
My buddy just bought a 2020 Chevy 3500.. regretting it already.. I told him changing a injector will cost more then I paid for my truck....
I'll keep my old rigs.
Click to expand...
The odds of having to replace said injector in less than 300,000 miles is pretty much zero if he does any kind of decent maintenance. MANY are way past that... My old LBZ is almost at 400k on original fuel system.
 
Lots of reasons to own a diesel.

I think an old mechanical pump diesel truck is a good apocalypse vehicle. Very few things to fix if there was an E.M.P. or solar flare. The truck can sit a decade and not gum up injectors or carburetors like old gas does. Diesel stores for years without going sour.

You can make fuel from renewables (bio diesel) at home, and use methanol injection, to avoid outrageous fuel taxes.

If you‘re a canola farmer, you can grow your own fuel just like Rudolf Diesel intended.
 
@emmott your point about diesel storing for years.... not so much for us in the lower 48. The forced ethanol/methanol at 5%- 10% minimum by law depending where you live, means 6 months is about the longest ya want to store diesel for here. If sealed in an all metal container that is air tight like a 55gal drum- and you add the stabilizer for it- 9 months. Yes, stabilizer for diesel. SMH.

But also you missed the plastics to fuel option for those that can operate dangerous equipment intelligently. Just remember 1,2,4,5,6 only. #3-Pvc makes hydrochloric acid when converted. 7 is a mix of whatever junk so you never know what it is, often includes pvc. 1,2,4,5 are what you really want- yield on 6 is not great.

Used tires- the fumes are toxic- and tires are so full of sulfur it is amazing. Some sulfur is good for older engines, but a lot can require sooner oil changes.

And if a person builds a diy pyrolysis rig for this- you can crack used engine oil through it too.
 
Will L. said:
@emmott your point about diesel storing for years.... not so much for us in the lower 48. The forced ethanol/methanol at 5%- 10% minimum by law depending where you live, means 6 months is about the longest ya want to store diesel for here. If sealed in an all metal container that is air tight like a 55gal drum- and you add the stabilizer for it- 9 months. Yes, stabilizer for diesel. SMH.

But also you missed the plastics to fuel option for those that can operate dangerous equipment intelligently. Just remember 1,2,4,5,6 only. #3-Pvc makes hydrochloric acid when converted. 7 is a mix of whatever junk so you never know what it is, often includes pvc. 1,2,4,5 are what you really want- yield on 6 is not great.

Used tires- the fumes are toxic- and tires are so full of sulfur it is amazing. Some sulfur is good for older engines, but a lot can require sooner oil changes.

And if a person builds a diy pyrolysis rig for this- you can crack used engine oil through it too.
Click to expand...
I think I might just have to look into this plastics into fuel option. And tires, whhhooooaaahhhhh, there is tons of old tires in this neck of the plains.
 
A company out of Japan is manufacturing a home size Pyrolysis plant. I’ll do some more scrounging and searching tomorrow.
It appears the name of that company is Blest. Thats all I found so far.
Was trying to find info on how to build one. Requires an oxygen free melting or burning container. Not het sure on the full scale of the how to-s yet.
 
Will L. said:
@emmott your point about diesel storing for years.... not so much for us in the lower 48. The forced ethanol/methanol at 5%- 10% minimum by law depending where you live, means 6 months is about the longest ya want to store diesel for here. If sealed in an all metal container that is air tight like a 55gal drum- and you add the stabilizer for it- 9 months. Yes, stabilizer for diesel. SMH.

But also you missed the plastics to fuel option for those that can operate dangerous equipment intelligently. Just remember 1,2,4,5,6 only. #3-Pvc makes hydrochloric acid when converted. 7 is a mix of whatever junk so you never know what it is, often includes pvc. 1,2,4,5 are what you really want- yield on 6 is not great.

Used tires- the fumes are toxic- and tires are so full of sulfur it is amazing. Some sulfur is good for older engines, but a lot can require sooner oil changes.

And if a person builds a diy pyrolysis rig for this- you can crack used engine oil through it too.
Click to expand...
So how does one build a dyi pyrolysis rig?

My dream vehicle has always included an International engine - like a DTA360 and 4 doors. Saw some nice ones.. Good for at least 500,000 miles. Very low maintenance.
 
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jrsavoie said:
So how does one build a dyi pyrolysis rig?

My dream vehicle has always included an International engine - like a DTA360 and 4 doors. Saw some nice ones.. Good for at least 500,000 miles. Very low maintenance.
Click to expand...
Probably not an IH engine but I sorta like these.

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Hemp seed is far superior to rapeseed (canola) for making biodiesel from. Much higher yield per acre (hectare) than rapeseed and it is plant and forget - no fertilizer/herbicides needed - and grows well in almost any kind of soil, as well as yielding a better base stock oil to use.
 
Husker6.5 said:
Hemp seed is far superior to rapeseed (canola) for making biodiesel from. Much higher yield per acre (hectare) than rapeseed and it is plant and forget - no fertilizer/herbicides needed - and grows well in almost any kind of soil, as well as yielding a better base stock oil to use.
Click to expand...
I posted about this years ago and got roasted a bit for promoting industrial hemp. Should have never been outlawed.
 
jrsavoie said:
I posted about this years ago and got roasted a bit for promoting industrial hemp. Should have never been outlawed.
Click to expand...
Henry Ford built a car almost entirely out of industrial hemp - all body panels, interior panels/upholstry/carpet, all the "plastics" used in the car - knobs, steering wheel, etc. - were hemp-based. It was done to promote the American farmer as the foundation of Industrial America.

During WWII, the USDA put out a promotional film, "Hemp For Victory" encouraging American farmers to not only grow hemp for the war effort, but showed them how to grow, harvest and process it - four years after the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act had banned industrial hemp growing in the US! Before Kentucky's farmers became Government Subsidy-supported tobacco growers, they were self-sufficient, financially independent growers of industrial hemp.
In WWII, future President George H.W. Bush's Navy fighter plane was lubricated with hemp oil products, its guages of its precision instruments in the cockpit all floated in hemp oil and its hydraulic systems filled with hemp oil.

Hempcrete is lighter and stronger than conventional concrete and is actually an insulator. Hemp fiberboard is lighter and stronger than conventional construction fiberboard and waferboard. Hemp fiber is 3 times stronger than sisal fiber (which is what's currently used to make 'natural' rope) and as strong as nylon and polyester ropes of the same diameter. Hemp fiber doesn't rot, which is why Pacific Theater uniforms in WWII were made from 100% hemp cloth instead of cotton - it not only took a beating and wore far better than cotton - they didn't rot away in place on the wearer like cotton did. All the rigging ropes on Naval ships were hemp, as well as all the canvas of the sails used prior to steam ships made of hemp because it was stronger and didn't rot at sea like cotton canvas would.
 
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