We are Sooooo close to finished with the install. The tank and filler neck, fuel lines, wiring harness, gauges, dash switches and V3 unit are all installed. There is a small wiring issue with the V3 unit that the Vegistroke guys are going to check out in the morning, then we test drive. See photos on my WVO album.

Don’t let the terms ’system’ and ‘install’ lull you into the view that this is all a ‘paint-by-numbers’ affair. While the majority of the V3 unit components are very straightforward, the fuel tank whether in-bed or under-bed, involves cutting holes in your truck and making things fit. There is custom work involved and it does not always go smoothly. These under-bed tanks are still a fairly new product (since last August) and connections were not in optimal locations, fittings not included . . . nothing critical, but it sure pushes some extra work onto the installers. Dan wrestled with that tank for half a day, ground down fittings, custom cut plumbing and ultimately fit the tank with millimeters of clearance between the exhaust, towing package and rear shocks.

I have to say that all my dealings with Dan and Farhad at the Green Drop Garage have been great. Very good communication, great hospitality, straightforward in explaining options and costs as well as helping out on any questions regarding veggie oil in general. (oh, and Farhad showed me some great restaurants in the area)

GDG

Landed in Portland, met the boys at Green Drop Garage and saw the truck. Touched the Truck, Sat in the Truck. IT IS REAL!

All the mods and repairs are complete and tomorrow we start on the Vegistroke installation.

GDG

I had just watched the last Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, Neil Young did a great number which inspired me to play a random assortment of his music while i bought my one way flight to Portland. First line of the first song (Out on the Weekend) “I think I’ll pack it in, and buy a pick up, take it down to LA . . . .” Thank you Neil.

I am flying up to Portland on Wednesday, February 3rd for two and a half days of Vegistroke installation and then driving back on the weekend. Although the guys at Green Drop Garage have been busy checking out and buying the truck, ordering parts and such, I finely feel like i am crossing the border from planning to doing!

GDG

I have chosen not to suck.
After some great email and phone conversations with Farhad at the Green Drop Garage, I am going to hold off on the super sucker plans. While it is still the system to aspire to, I think i am going to work up to it. Regardless of what systems for collection and modifications to make to your vehicle, it is always good to have someone to bounce your ideas off of. Farhad built his own wvo vehicle mods back in his Berkley days before getting behind the Vegistroke products and in his day collected 5000 gallons per month of WVO.

Above is the picture of the Sotera diaphragm pump, a little pricier than i was planning on, but it is the Cadillac of pumps. It is a 12v pump so we can modify the cord to plug into the trucks trailer adapter. House it in a nice Rubbermaid tote and it won’t be too much work to load and unload. Additionally having the collection be more portable allows a greater collection range form the truck . . . 15 ft cord + 15 ft collection hose doubles the range.

Planning, planning . . . can’t wait for doing, doing . . .

GDG

I spent my holidays searching craigslist posts in Portland OR for the right truck using these terms “(diesel|powerstroke|7.3) (f250|f-250|f350|f-350) -dually -manual -crew” limited by my price range. Translate this to english by replacing | with OR, space with AND, – with NOT and you get ads using the term diesel or powerstroke or 7.3 and f250 OR f-250 . . . . you get the idea. Every now and then a check for just “Ford F250″ cause some folks don’t give a lot of info in the ad.

Initially i picked the trucks i liked and had the guys at Green Drop Garage do all contact with the sellers, but given the holidays and them running a business it wasn’t the most efficient way to get things done. I took over and started doing the preliminary contact with the sellers and get answers on:

• Confirm my basics: 7.3L, Auto, ext cab, 4×4,
• What mods to truck?
• What is history of Truck? Off-road? Towing?
• What repairs/Maintenacne? Have Records?
• Why selling, Flexible on price?

If it passes, i would perform a carfax and have Green Drop Garage do an inspection on the car. We had dealers that would pre-warm the cars and then not let them off the lot for full inspection, some good but not great trucks and then THE ONE.

This truck had great carfax, regular maintenance (with lots of records) and was like new inside. I own it and I can’t wait to see it!

F250, GDG

As i may have mentioned in a previous post, i am book smart and experience poor in the WVO arena. Couple that with my god-given skill to research a project to death until i have enough information to talk myself out of actually executing anything and you have a nightmare of a potential client (ask, pester, confer, ask more, inquire . . . disappear).

I have come to know that there are two types of communicators in this world and it boils down to ‘bullet points’ vs ’stories’. If you send an email and get back stories or visa-versa, prepare for communication problems. When i sent my bullet-point email to Green Drop Garage, i got back sub-bullet points. So far so good!

I was pretty confident that if they were listed on the Dino Fuels website, they would have the installation chops, my two big qualifiers were their ability and willingness to put up with my questions and to help with local vehicle inspection. The most difficult part of buying a used vehicle remotely, is getting the mechanical inspection and getting an accurate read on the seller as he tells his ownership/ “why i am selling” story (ie, the all important ’seller vibe’).

After a handful if emails back and forth, these guys look like they are the ones for me. They are ready willing and able to act as my “agent” to make sure i am getting a solid truck, their quotes for service and products seem fair to and are in line with what I have seen around and we traded bullets for bullets.

GDG

I spent about 5 hours today searching craigslist for F250 trucks. To search the whole US of A at once, i used www.allofcraigs.com which returns results from all of the craigslist cities. The site allows some search filters including a range, but this is not easily applied to the price and seems to key in on mileage, Gross weight numbers as well. In the end, i used the brute force method and powered through.

It looks like $9k will get me the low end of a 1999 F250, i may have to consider getting an in-bed tank instead of the custom, under-bed tank so i can put the $$ towards a better vehicle.

One trend i am noticing about the type of trucks is that near urban centers (LA, Dallas, NJ/NY etc) many of the vehicles tend to be ex-fleet vehicles while less urban areas appear to be primarily from individual tradesmen. The latter is preferable as it is human nature to take care of your own toys, while the company vehicle is more often than not mis-treated.

I am also targeting a truck that has wintered out of the snow regions and is not bordering the hurricane states. This puts me up the west coast, east to Dallas. When i overlay the available installers for Veggistroke, Portland OR seems to come out on the top of my list. Oddly enough, given the high marks for customer service, the Dino Fuels folks never replied to my email request for information about installers that could also help inspect vehicles for a remote buyer.

Time to check out the guys at the Green Drop Garage.

DFA, GDG