In case of EMP

saburai

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2.5 years so far. I have a single 100W solar panel which is generally all I need for my tiny 12v compressor fridge, cell phone, water pump, LED lights, etc. Another 1 or 2 would be nice but hardly needed. I run one of the generators on extremely cloudy/rainy days if the batteries start getting close to 50%.
Are you solo? In the truck camper in your avatar? How's the idi motor home coming along?
 

MtnHaul

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A bit off-topic here but have you WVO people had issues with rats or other vermin attacking rubber parts? I recently spoke to someone who lived in a rural area and had so many problems with rodents being attracted by the WVO that they gave up on it due to chewed up rubber fuel lines. Especially in an emergency EMP-type situation it would be horrible to be shutdown due to a rodent chewing a fuel line(I know this can still happen with electrical).

I've even talked with folks who have gone backpacking in areas where the common practice was to lay out a HUGE tarp, drive onto the tarp, and then wrap your vehicle like a xmas present to deter critters from chewing up your rubber parts. Perhaps a problem on a limited scale but still a potential issue.
 

Cubey

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Are you solo? In the truck camper in your avatar? How's the idi motor home coming along?

Aside from my dog, yes solo. I was in the truck camper a while, got a trailer last year but hated pulling it full time and sold it not long after. Went back in the truck camper until a short while after I got the motorhome.

The truck is parked, stored at my mom's house in her back yard for now. Nothing really wrong with it, besides being a much heavier oil burner than the motorhome is, and I have too much in it to sell it without a big loss. So for now, it'll sit there. I put square paving stones under the tires to keep it from sinking in the ground since it's in a place, since the area of the yard it's in (by the gate) tends to flood a couple inches when it rains hard.

I'm in the motorhome and have been for several months now. It's fan clutch seems to be failing at the moment. But I'm parked for the summer at the moment at a cheap RV park, so it's not something I have to do right this minute. I ordered a new Motorcraft fan clutch off Rockauto a couple weeks ago, so I have it on hand already.

I will attempt to do it myself first. Failing that, I'll poke around for a shop. I've read that sometimes it comes off easily, sometimes it takes 2 people and a lot of muscle. It is probably the original, so maybe it'll come off easily, since it hasn't been soaked in red locktite or something that some dork might have done to it. I'm just waiting until fall, when I get to a city with an O'Reilly where I can get the free rental 48mm fan clutch wrench.

I will put on an Equus mechanical temp gauge in a couple months before hand, so I have a real gauge to monitor. I have new coolant in the system, so I need to buy a new, cheap drain pan to save it and reuse it, since you have to remove the upper hose to get the fan shroud out.

It got new rear shocks in May too, which it needed badly. I put Monroe Gas Magnum RVs, about $33 each through Walmart. The old shocks were probably original from 1985, USA made Motorcrafts. They had NO rebound left in them when compressed.
 

Selahdoor

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You are assuming others haven't gotten there first.
Am I?

Or am I suggesting that it is more likely that you'll find engine oil and transmission fluid in abandoned vehicles, for a longer time, than you'll find fuel and batteries?
 

Macrobb

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Am I?

Or am I suggesting that it is more likely that you'll find engine oil and transmission fluid in abandoned vehicles, for a longer time, than you'll find fuel and batteries?
And that's not even counting stuff like:
1. Tanks full of diesel in various places that people aren't able to get to: Buried tanks, farm tanks etc.
2. Supplies of other types of oil - 55 gallon drums of various gear oils and hydraulic fluids will be located in industrial busineses.
3. Transformers. Obviously a last resort, but both pole transformers as well as substation transformers will have a lot of oil in them.

And that's not counting 'used' sources - veggie oils, waste oil tanks(at, say, the dump) etc.
 

Oledirtypearl86

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And that's not even counting stuff like:
1. Tanks full of diesel in various places that people aren't able to get to: Buried tanks, farm tanks etc.
2. Supplies of other types of oil - 55 gallon drums of various gear oils and hydraulic fluids will be located in industrial busineses.
3. Transformers. Obviously a last resort, but both pole transformers as well as substation transformers will have a lot of oil in them.

And that's not counting 'used' sources - veggie oils, waste oil tanks(at, say, the dump) etc.
Will the mineral oil used In transformers burn in out trucks personally I'd stray away due to the pcb's
 

GOOSE

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PCB's are yeaterdays news. Funny thing they simply dilute the PCB contaminated oil to a point that it's less than one part per million and it's no longer considered a hazard.

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Cactus Bob

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I hate to be the wet blanket here, but this thread is starting to get a little disturbing.
All of you do realize that everything in the world does belong to somebody....Someone does own the things around you it's not just a free for all.
I know i would be a little more than a little upset if for example i went out on my Bicycle to see whats going on in the world after such an event and come home to my trucks and cars all been drained by some idiot that thinks anything not protected by armed guards are fair game for the taking.
The "law" might be a little busy at that moment but the "law "will be back. People have to try to keep there heads. I would hope that would be more the norm than not.
 

Selahdoor

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I hate to be the wet blanket here, but this thread is starting to get a little disturbing.
All of you do realize that everything in the world does belong to somebody....Someone does own the things around you it's not just a free for all.
I know i would be a little more than a little upset if for example i went out on my Bicycle to see whats going on in the world after such an event and come home to my trucks and cars all been drained by some idiot that thinks anything not protected by armed guards are fair game for the taking.
The "law" might be a little busy at that moment but the "law "will be back. People have to try to keep there heads. I would hope that would be more the norm than not.
True enough. And agreed.

But I think that while you are thinking hurricane katrina on steroids, others are thinking the walking dead...
 

Macrobb

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I hate to be the wet blanket here, but this thread is starting to get a little disturbing.
All of you do realize that everything in the world does belong to somebody....Someone does own the things around you it's not just a free for all.
I know i would be a little more than a little upset if for example i went out on my Bicycle to see whats going on in the world after such an event and come home to my trucks and cars all been drained by some idiot that thinks anything not protected by armed guards are fair game for the taking.
The "law" might be a little busy at that moment but the "law "will be back. People have to try to keep there heads. I would hope that would be more the norm than not.
Here's the thing - you are right. Kind of. If things look like they can recover, you do your best to do whatever you can. Heck, if you still have cash or barter, that's the best.
On the other hand, if/when things turn into a zombie apocalypse wasteland environment, with entire deserted cities and people shooting each other over a can of food... that's when it's "well, sucks, but chances are you are dead anyway, and won't need that car(that probably has windows broken etc already).

others are thinking the walking dead...
Exactly. That's the first thing that comes to mind(worst possible case scenario).
 

Cactus Bob

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Well guys, when has mankind ever had to navigate a "zombie event" ? or a total "every man for himself" event?
Answer: NEVER.
So preparing for such an event is futile.

So what am i preparing for ? A temporary or even permanent loos of the electrical grid. this means all technology stops and may not return for months or years or NEVER.
This is an event mankind has suffered through before. Mankind has lived for thousands of years without a power grid and all the nice things it brings.
Mankind will again.....he will have too.
 

Selahdoor

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Well guys, when has mankind ever had to navigate a "zombie event" ? or a total "every man for himself" event?
Answer: NEVER.
So preparing for such an event is futile.

So what am i preparing for ? A temporary or even permanent loos of the electrical grid. this means all technology stops and may not return for months or years or NEVER.
This is an event mankind has suffered through before. Mankind has lived for thousands of years without a power grid and all the nice things it brings.
Mankind will again.....he will have too.
Party pooper! :)
 

genscripter

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you have not had problems with old WVO? I sure have. I was doing the WVO thing from 1998 to 2015 . I would age the WVO for a year then filter and then store. I found the oldest filtered oil would loose power when used. the older the oil the less power i got from it . oil 1-1.5 years(after filtering) old had no loss then it went down hill and at the 3 year mark it had a noticeable lack of power.
this is how i figured this out. We have a long hill on the 202 freeway. using my 84 Volvo (55HP engine) i can tell how much power i have by raising and holding speed of 70 at the bottom and flooring it at the start of the hill, the speed at the top is how well the fuel is doing.
With pump diesel at the top i was going 57MPH (still in 5th gear)
with newer WVO at the top is was going 50MPH (still in 5th gear)
with 3 year old WVO at the top i was going 35 MPH and had shifted all the way down to 2nd and winding out the engine to maintain that speed.

you have had no problems with your 10 year old WVO ?


Below is a link or a copy and paste of my filtering system........what do you think better or worse than what you are using? always looking for input, always looking to improve.

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I haven't had problems with old WVO. When I filter and dewater my grease, I store them in individual clean cubes, and bubble argon into the top of the cube. Then I cap it. It removes most of the oxygen in the cube, and what little oxygen is left is more buoyant than the argon which lies on top of the oil. I've run oil that is years old without issues.

That said, I try to not let oil sit for more than 5 years if possible. I do a lot of roadtrips and I pack anywhere between one ton to two tons of oil with me in my IDI or 25 cubes in my Jetta TDI if I'm heading up to the Yukon. That tends to drink up my supply and I get rid of the really old stuff to keep my stockpile new.

I have all my WVO road trips on this site if you are interested: http://www.nickpisca.com/wvo/ There is a page detailing our "fleet" of biofuel cars and trucks we've converted.

I haven't noticed any power reduction on wvo in either of my veggie vehicles. Sometimes at high elevations above 10,000 feet, I tend to turn off the wvo circuit just to hedge my bets, because I never really designed either kits to handle that kind of elevation.

As for your filtering method, it seems fine to me. I like that you settle for a long time. Lots of guys try to filter too fast, and it leads to water issues. A year is a good duration. I tend to do the same, depending on it I want to make space in my shop.

I would change some minor things on your filtration. First, put your cubes in cardboard. Have your restaurant keep the empties. That will reduce the sun and light getting to your grease. And, it will reduce the likelihood that your cubey plastic will degrade and cause a crack or leak. Also, you might want to shop around for another supplier. That grease is pretty black. Not that it's not usable, it's just more work, filters, and time. Some restaurants barely use their grease before they have to replace it. I once had a french restaurant that had pristine looking grease when they unloaded it. I miss that place.
 
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