4k mile round drip with all my WVO on board?

[arcticathlon]

my car is due for an oil change just before i leave, it has only been 2750 miles since the last change, but i am thinking that with rotella T, after this change i can go the whole trip and back before i change it next.
the trans fluid and filter i changed last month, and i changed every other filter in this car except for the power steering fluid. that will come later. i also just flushed my radiator and gave it new green.

my overall trip will be from little rock,ar to dallas,tx to flagstaff,az to fresno,ca.
the only reason i was going through flagstaff was that it was shorter, but it is the higher route.

i know i will use fuel along the way, and if i get 20mpg then by the time i hit flagstaff i should be down 1 entire 55 gallon drum and 1/4 of another 1. i have a total of 4 drums in my trailer, 2 will be full with filtered WVO rug mix, 1 will be dirty oil that i have to filter in cali while i am there. and the 4th is my steel barrel that i use to filter, and it will be empty. so 3 full barrels will be how i store the wvo. i bought a gas pump nozzle that i have hooked up to a crank pump, and so when i want to fill up my 300d i just pick up the nozzle from the trailer.

the thing i will have to do to keep my rear end from sagging is smart placement of the barrels. they are heavy but i can slide them around in the trailer. the trailer has 1 axle and if i place them right above the tires/axle then i can lift up the trailer by the front toung without any back breakage. now if i were to slide the barrels to the front, i would be lifting almost all of the fuel weight, which would break the hitch off. if i push the barrels all the way to the back, then i would be lifting the benz up, which is dangerous because i would loose traction. it might sound complicated, but it is not. it is easy to get them in the middle and keep them there.

i was thinking of using some dino mix during some hill portions of the trip, because i will probably end up having to fill up twice on the way back. so i might as well have more power when i need it during the trip.

i have a gps adapter for my laptop that my wife and i will use on the trip, and i some contacts from the dieselbenz brotherhood. i have the trip mapped out with microsoft street and trips 2006, and should be fine for the trip.

[Pete Burton]

a good rule of thumb for trailer handling is the tongue weight should be 10% of the loaded trailer weight. That means 200 lb for a 1 ton trailer. If you have less, then your handling will suffer.

[dougk]

I think that you should go onto a forum such as at Greasecar.com, frybrid.com, or any other alternative fuel website and ask around for anyone along your route. Many people will give you filtered oil for free or sell it to you for cheap. Just like others here, I don't think you should be towing if you are tight on money. The car could overheat, burn a ton of oil, and bring down your per gallon mileage. Just my 2 cents.

If you were coming up to New Hampshire, I would help you out with some veggie oil.

Good Luck
DK

[junqueyardjim]

Dan, are you running any heat in that fuel system. It ihas been 20 to 30 degrees F here all week and I just went and checked the WVO in my garage which still has liquid water on the floor. Not real cold in there, just above freezing. In checking the oil, my newest stuff is 2 five gallon cubes of a combination of peanut, corn and canola that I have deep fried two turkeys in. So it is almost new. But the stuff is so thick that it will barely pour out of the cube. Never ever on the road would you be able to suck it out of a drum and get it into your car with a pump. It just won't move. And that is in a garage and only about freezing. Now you put this waste oil in barrels and start running through that high country west of Oklahoma City all the way to Needles and you will not have any liquid WVO to use. Not the stuff you are carrying. I will be as stiff as wheel bearing grease. Believe me, I have been through that country often, and it is real winter up there.

FWIW, I would skip the trailer and put as much VWO as practical in the trunk. Put your luggage in the back seat and hit the road. Buy cheap diesel when you find it on the road and save the rest of your VWO for another day. If you don't have enough $$$ to buy at least some fuel, you just shouldn't go. You need access to enough emergency cash to deal with breakdowns, accidents, theft, etc. anyway.

[apache]

I agreed with what Craig said.

For what it's worth, the least reliable component when I tow a trailer seems to always be the trailer. Tires, bearings, and tail lights on my trailers have failed way more often than on my vehicles.

Also, when flying a big jet, there is a concept of how much extra fuel you burn by electing to carry extra fuel. Of course, it is hard to argue with free fuel, the argument is the same when factoring in straining certain parts of the car such as the very expensive MB automatic transmission.

Instead of tankering fuel by dragging a trailer, you might consider straining on the go. I read an account on one of the grease websites about a dude that greased his way down to Argentina in a VW. It sounded like wvo was not readily available and not of great quality south of the border. Carry LOTS of filters.

Just my thoughts. Good luck and have a safe trip.

[PagodaLover]

Those ideas of Ra sound great to me. Pack the trunk and seat with less and buy some at the pump. Or were you planning about carrying something back there instead?

Good luck and I'd go for it.

[Ra_]

If you could locate smaller containers, storing at least 20 or 30 gallons
on the floor in the back seat would at least solve the fluidity issue.

I guess if you were mixing 50/50, you'd only be using about 10 at a time?
Each time you used them, you could move another 10 forward from the trunk,
or trailer, if you do take it, until you got into a warmer region.

[coachgeo]

Where to get Veg oil in route.

http://www.geocities.com/biofuelstations/

YOU! that's right you.... you know you got at least a little veg to share... so go sign up on this site so folk taking a trip have some potential places to refuel on veg.

[Austin85]

Coachgeo;

That is a great site; I tried posting my wvo but keep getting error posting notices... I will try again till it works.
Any concerns about "The Man" tracking down our untaxxed stills????
AA

If not this should be a thread on Diesel forum in itself!

Austin
Boca Raton

All else fails, get your WVO related power problem fixed first then take off.

If the trailer + your car gets on slick roads you will regret having that thing behind you (with no brakes on it right?)

If its a cheap-o trailer be weary. Good trailers are nice but not the type you but at the store and assemble

[arcticathlon]

the trailer has been really good for me. i built it my freshman year in college and it has served me for almost 4 years now. it does not have brakes, but i have learned to keep my distance when i am loaded up. i might burn some diesel during the up hill parts, but will keep it to my wvo mostly. i will have lots of pics for you guys once this trip is over, and hopefully i wont be posting here from some hotel in the middle of new mexico.

Remember when pulling hills...pick a gear that allows you to put your foot into it a bit more and accelerate just slightly and just hang out there (without your foot into it)

This way you are not just throwing fuel in there S gear is your friend

[RobTheMod]

Greetings from Phoenix, AZ.

I have driven all the roads around the SW (Interstates, at the very least) and i agree with junqueyardjim... Keep it on the southern route!!!

The difference between Flagstaff and Tucson is night and day. Driving a venerable Benz like ours, never mind the WVO, I'd keep off the hills/ice of northern AZ/NM if I had the reasonable choice to do so. And if the difference is 100 miles or thereabouts... no brainer. keep her on the smooth, lower-elevation, snow-free southern route. They got winter in Flagstaff, and this is coming from a Minneapolis native!

I also might consider thoughts of taking only as much WVO as can fit inside the 123... and leaving the trailer behind. Handling (though it sounds like you knwo how to handle a trailer rig), weight, MPG, strain, all balance against the cost of fuel.

That hill outside Albuquerque was the only spot in the whole trip I took from Concord, NH to Phoenix where I thought the 1989 Audi 80 Quattro (130 HP, 2800 lb gasser, quite snappy) was going to explode from the strain. I passed semis like they were stopped, but the little Audi was at 5500 rpm in 3rd and beginning to feel her 195,000 mile age. I can't imagine what a 123 with trailer would do on that. Probably hang in there at 40 until a coolant/tranny cooler/oil cooler line ruptures from heat and pressure! Don't mean to scare you but really, I would take the southern route.

[arcticathlon]

well darn it then. i already have a reservation at a hotel in Flagstaff, but by your very informative post (RobTheMob), i will cancel the reservation and get one near pheonix. i will have to pay a 20 dollar penalty on a 50 dollar room, but i guess i would have lost more in fuel with that route. i was also thinking that making another reservation would probably be a bad idea, incase i dont get as far as i had hoped. best bet would probably be just drive until i get to a hotel. thanks for all the info you guys have been giving me.