Keith Addison wrote: >> Keith Addison wrote: >>>> I'm having a hard time finding WVO. I need 500 Gallons per month and >>>> I'm tired of driving around and fighting for oil at every restaurant >>>> within 10 miles. I've found other companies in other states that sell >>>> and deliver larger quantities but nothing close to home. I'm just >>>> outside of Philadelphia - has anyone heard or run into such an animal. >>>> Thanks, >>>> Roger >>> Why do you need so much oil? That should be enough for 12 people. >> This is the US Keith :) > > Yes, Chip, I know. :-) > > But it just doesn't wash.
Heh, Yeah, I was just stirring the pot. Mostly anyway. > > I also come from a big country, not that big, but big enough, so I > know something about it. I quite often used to drive 1,000 miles each > way for the weekend, or 400 each way for a different weekend. In an > 850cc Mini, foot flat all the way at 80 mph, and not very much gas > used. (I'm not small, 6ft 2in.) > > Japan's a big country too, in its way, narrow but long. Where you > guys need a 6.8 litre F250 truck the Japanese use little 660cc > K-trucks, for just about everything, very economical, tough and > capable. Oh, how I know it! Fellow up in my hometown, (that place that is 127miles from where I work?) has a bunch of K-trucks. It's funny, because EVERYONE loves them, everyone wants'em. But since their road-legal-ness is suspect, and they don't haul down the Interstates at 80+mph they get dismissed. In order to import them them to the US, they have to be governed to max speed of 25mph. It's kinda silly all in all. There are special classes of vehicles that some states allow to be operated on state highways and road with a posted speed limit of 45mph or less. the K-truck would fit this nicely. It's just too radical an idea, for now, for the US. I love tiny vehicles. Love them. The smallest car I ever had was a Fiat 650. But as you know, there are much smaller cars than that. When I lived in Germany in the mid-80s, for a while I had a Citroen deux chevaux, which relative to some things, was pretty big. I could use it on the Autobahn, legally. it was capable of hitting 130kph. What I wanted was a Renault 4 Fourgonnette (box van) like a buddy of mine had. a fellow I used to play darts with had one of those bmw isetta 600s, the 'big' Isetta :) As you probably know however, seems that a lot of Americans greatly enjoy hammering down the road in 3+ton gvw SUVs while jabbering on cellphones and slamming into one another. Simply put, Yer old 660 mini wouldn't be safe here, not in this part of the country, with it's traffic density, and complete disregard for all road use courtesy. I still have a saab sonett that I quit driving a few years because I could not longer enjoy it. Got rid of my last VW rabbit (the real rabbit, the G1 golf) at about the same time, bought a '98 subaru legacy outback hoping to survive the eventual altercation with a Ford Excursion or Chevy Tahoe. > Good 4x4 too, not easy to get stuck in a K-truck. They're > real trucks, but miniaturised, not made-over cars. I don't think > Japan would work very well without its K-trucks, I can see it sort of > slowly grinding to a halt. There are K-cars too, all the K-vehicles > have low taxes to encourage people to buy them. Well, my father -who was part of the first occupation- spent his formative years in Japan, and since he arrived there at the age of 18, and stayed for a while, fell deeply in love with the place and the people. One of those sailors who 'went native'. Anyway, that's staggeringly long story, the germane bit is that the last time he was there, was about 20 years ago. His idea of a good time, was to go down to the fish market at about 4am, and sit back across from it, and wait, and watch. He just loved watching all the little vehicles, and of course, -being a seafood biologist- and the market. As he put it, there was no such thing as a vehicle so small that there wasn't a smaller one that could pull up and park between two of them. :) Of course, he also bought his first VW beetle in 62, and loved small cars. His last car before he stopped driving was an old diesel dasher, that got over 50mpg, and had over 360k miles on it. I wonder if your > F250s accomplish that much more work than Japan's K-trucks do (let > alone 10 times as much work, since they're 10 times as big), and what > the real costs might be per unit of work accomplished in each case, > or some such efficiency comparison. I've no idea where to find such > data, if anywhere, but it might be a surprise. No to me. On the leading point, since I hardly use mine, it's almost a moot point. On the overall point, since it's road legal, I can use it, more or less safely. It's a 85 6.9 mechanical idi, not a 6.8. So at least I can work on it. It's a good truck. But were things just a little different, I'd gladly trade back down to my preferred truck; a suzuki long-bed F-413 pickup. Can't get those here. You see a few lwb 410s around, but they are collectable. I literally lived out of a samurai for a while. Love'em. > > Anyway, the cases you describe don't seem to be typical for the US, > according to these stats, source U.S. Department of Transportation: > Average annual fuel consumed per vehicle (gallons) - Passenger car - 2005: 541 > Average miles traveled per vehicle (thousands) - Passenger car: 12.4 > http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004727.html No, not typical. But pretty typical for this region. Where I work, just west of Washington DC, in northern Va, folks either live around the corner, or commute huge distances. with the 'housing boom' the cost of housing in this area skyrocketed, and that of course, drove commuting through the roof. Seems under this heavily subsidized 'free market' economy, if you can afford the housing, you can't afford to work there, if you can afford to work there, you can't afford the housing. Unless you make just staggering amounts of money. Somehow I don't think this is an 'unintended consequence'. Seems to make too many cats fatter. > That's about what I thought, 12,000 miles a year, 500 gallons. So > yes, Roger's 500 gallons a month should be enough for 12 people. > > I don't know, but I don't think he's in the same situation as you. He > says he's just outside Philadelphia, he said before he works for a > laboratory surplus equipment company, in Philadelphia I guess, though > maybe not. So why does he need so much fuel? > > Interesting numbers at that infoplease page. > > Number of passenger cars registered > 1960: 61,671,000 > 2005: 135,568,000 > > Did the US get twice as big in the meantime? No: > > Vehicle-miles traveled - Passenger car > 1960: 587,000,000 > 2005: 1,689,965,000 > > It got three times as big! LOL! > > Sorry. > > <snip> > >> But still I see no real changes, just individual disasters. > > That's the problem eh? Ordinary people, the real ones, get hurt > first, and the toy people don't feel a thing. > > I suppose long-haul will go by train, or not at all, trucks will be > for local. What I am seeing, and what seems to be the case, is that the corporate shippers, or 'logistics' corps, the Maersks and COSCOs of the world, are doing just fine. Their drivers get run into the ground, desperately trying to keep their benefits, their wages fixed, and so on. WallMart writ large, and the independents get run into the ground, out of businesses, clearing the way for more monopolistic locks on shipping. Take all people, and turn them into employees. I don't think this is an 'unintended' consequence. In fact, it seems to be working out quite well for them. They just pass the increase in operating cost along plus a neat percentage return on their fuel investment, and take their profit out of both, or all rather, ends. Get those pesky true 'free market competition' types out of the way. Hm. The Japanese don't export the K-vehicles, but I think > you can get second-hand K-trucks in the US now. Maybe some of your > trucker friends might be interested in this: > >> http://www.best-used-tractors.com/mini_truck.html >> Used Japanese 4X4 K-class Mini Trucks, Micro Trucks - US and Canada >> >> "The Japanese have been making right hand drive light duty trucks >> for decades which Best Used Tractors can now import used in >> containers to the US, to Canada, and to many other countries around >> the globe." > > Bit of money to be made there, I think. Could even be trendy, sort of > an anti-Hummer. Oh, it would work. No doubt. Here folks refer to them as 'atv-trucks' even though there is a class of atv that fits more accurately. Just need a change in some road use laws, and a more practical approach to transportation. Actually turn the roads over to the people who paid for them. Meaning, 'the people'. --chipper > Best > > Keith > > >> Lemme see, 500 gal of svo, could yield 500 gals of bd, for >> a 30 day month, that's ~17 gallons a day, in my F-250, >> that get's 16-20mpg,if I drive it really gently, that's 300 miles >> a day, but that's every day. Since I live 127 miles from where >> I work, I could *almost* burn that much. However, I don't commute, >> I only go home on the weekends, and I don't drive the truck :) >> >> Some folks will boggle at that. But around here, it's not as >> far-fetched as one might -at first blush- think. >> >> Of the 80-some-odd folks that I work with, more than half of them >> commute more than 50 miles a day, some more than 75. A few >> well over 100. >> >> I personally drive just a bit over 70 miles a day on average. >> On the road, I see vehicles coming in from much farther out >> that are gigantic fuel burners. These are daily commuters, >> 2.5 to 5ton class diesel trucks close to fully loaded with >> welders, etc. that probably log well over 200 miles a day, >> and I'm sure they don't get anything like 15-20 mpg. >> >> So, yeah, I can see how some folks, trades people esp, who >> would go through 500 gals a month. >> >> An interesting trend that I've been paying attention to >> over the years are the 3/4 to 1 ton short bed crew cab >> turbo diesel pickups, that are 'dressed' up, making >> them essentially SUVs that haul up and down from much >> futher out than i normally drive (which is already an >> insane amount) who have no regard for anything resembling >> speed limits. As the prices have climbed over the last >> year, I've started seeing more and more of them in used >> car lots, but there are plenty of them still on the road. >> And they haven't even slowed down. >> >> So, though diesel has gone up nearly 2x in a year, seems >> these folks are just fine with that. Lot of complaining, >> but very little change in behavior. >> >> I also know, as in know personally, over the road truck >> operators, who have been completely buried. done in >> by this fuel increase. Sitting home, going through their >> savings, hoping for a reversal of fortune, and looking >> for different work. Some completely wiped out already. >> >> But still I see no real changes, just individual disasters. >> >>> Best >>> >> > Keith > > > _______________________________________________ > Biofuel mailing list > Biofuel@sustainablelists.org > http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): > http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ -- Chip Mefford -------------------- Before Enlightenment; chop wood carry water After Enlightenment; chop wood carry water --------------------- Public Key http://www.well.com/user/cpm _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
