Will a 55gallon drum of methanol fit in my trunk?
 

My first batch of biodiesel was a success. Now, I want to get methanol cheaper than $4/gallon. The best deal I've found is $149 for a 55 gallon drum, but its 70 miles from me. Renting a UHaul pickup is too expensive ($.59/mile + $20), and the Benz is the largest car avaliable. Will a full drum fit into my trunk?

not sure if it will fit, but have you considered how youre going to get it in and out of the trunk?
also, maybe its just me, but i would be a little weary of putting so much flammable liquid in the trunk. id be afraid i would be rear ended on the way home.

I'm pretty sure I can rent an engine hoist from autozone for free, that should do the job, with some extra chains...

That should weigh between 350 and 400 pounds, the rear of your car may be riding a little low if you can figure out how to put it in the trunk. Also, try not to get rear-ended on the way home. Do you have a friend with a pick-up and a lift gate?

It would be the first 300 MPH 81 SD :eek:
In a word, NO, it will not fit, and even if it did, you are talking about 350 LBS at least. Not work the risk. Do some more checking, and check some of the Bio-D forums for some ideas. :scholar:

I know a 55 gallon drum won't fit with the trunk closed on my 300D, and don't remember how much deeper the trunk was on the old SD parts car I had...Personally I wouldn't want to haul it in my trunk either. Do you have a neighbor that might have a pickup truck??? Or even a small pull behind trailer??? Will the people you're getting it from load it into your trunk anyways???? It'll weigh a good bit too, you got good shocks on the rear??? Just my 2 cents worth....

Friend with pickup, yes, friend with pickup willing to drive 140 miles, no... I'm a highschool student..

i would seriously look into a truck or a rental from uhaul. i have issues with pulling out two 5 gallon cubies at times. kills the back pretty quick. plus if you end up dropping that while taking it back out, IF you get it in the trunk, you are looking at a mess and a waste of money. Take the careful route and rent a uhaul or con your friend into helping.

the only dimension of real concern is height versus the overall width of your opening.

it might actually fit but you have another problem. GIRTH it will NEVER fit even half way in that dimension and you really need it to go in at least half way.

If you have a giant 55 gallon drum sticking out the back of your trunk REAR ENDING is not a concern you WILL be noticed and avoided.

The problem is mass inertia and G forces its 350-400 pounds plus drum mass AND its LIQUID that means its gonna keep moving when you try to stop or go adding to your problems.

since this will NOT go far enough into your trunk to touch the floor its going to be resting its considerable mass on your trunk EDGE and the TOP edge and bottom of the trunk lid.

I would guess with near 100% accuracy that it WILL bend significant portions of the back of your car before you made it home. the REAR edge of the trunk opening might survive its pretty strong on most cars but that trunk hinge section and the trunk lid itself is NOT very strong.

the only way I would do this would be to completely REMOVE the trunk lid stick it in the back seat and then BUILD UP the the floor so that the drum is not resting on the edges of the trunk any longer and also build it into a CRADLE like shape to distribute the inertial forces when you accelerate and decelerate.

By the time your done you WILL have spent at least another $50 minimum not counting your time so your once again at $4 a gallon pretty much and have now risked injury to you and your car.

ALSO consider the cost in fuel to go "GET" this drum it wont be insignificant unless its really local.

The only way I can see to make this profitable is to buy say 6 drums and rent a uhaul trunk to retrieve them. this way the rental fee for the unhaul is not spread over $900 worth of fuel insignificantly adding to your overall cost keeping you around $3 a gallon.

Another good idea is to buy 4 and find some friends to buy 2 and charge them a slight premium say $175 a drum this will offset your cost in the uhaul truck and fuel and still give them a pretty good deal.

I personally HATE ethanol. it sucks big time. they now put 10% into our fuel and I now LOSE more than 10% of my fuel economy in my van.

I was averaging 14.5-15.2mpg in my Club Wagon (LONG recording history VERY consistent) One day I got 13.2mpg and was like what the hell? I went back filled again another low one 13.3mpg then I saw the sticker for 10% ethanol.

Ever since then I can not seem to get past 13.6 averaging 12.9-13.1

My simple consumer math says that 15-13 is a loss of 2mpg and that is MORE THAN 10% a loss from before.

So now I am paying MORE for my fuel AND getting more than 10% fewer miles on that more costly fuel. that means by adding ethanol to the gas they are actually INCREASING out dependence on foreign oil since I have to go back for more MORE often than without it and the difference is GREATER than the percent change in the fuel!!! (I lost almost 15% efficiency)

That sucks bit time ESPECIALLY since 2mpg is HUGE for something that gets 13-15mpg :-(

When I go on my trip this summer and drive 1936 miles not counting local driving at my destinations this ethanol is going to cost me roughly 300 miles worth of efficiency that means I have to spend an extra ~$60 in fuel for that extra 23 gallon I will need and the efficiency is even WORSE for the "daily" driving back and forth between the hotel and the field and dinner etc.. so it will probably end up cost me about an extra $100 for that one trip just because they decided to try and save some fuel with 10% ethanol but in the end I am using 5% MORE gasoline as a result.

I really do not understand why its doing this. by this math I would go FURTHER on 18 gallons of regular than I would on 20gallons of regular with 2 gallons (10%) of ethanol ??? I would be in BETTER shape if they simply BOUGHT 10% less fuel from outside the country. ???

That sucks :-(

Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/

back seat?
more evenly spreads the load, but kisss your seats goodby...
a small trailer would be better, pickup rental is like 45.00/day.....
John

I have some plastic 55 gallon drums, I could go see if they fit... I don't know how you would get it out of course..............
John

Guess my only option is to go beg my friends with pickups, SUVs, and vans to go down there with me... Wonder if anyone has a diesel, could offer them a free tank full of biodiesel...

ahhh backseat bad idea. not only is it likely not big enough but when you have to slam on those breaks WHAT is now directly in front of that 400 pound drum with nothing but the wee set back to stop it :-) hehe

even I am not that brave :-)

Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/

theoretically, lets just say... if u were to det rear ended by a ford f-350 or a pickup truck of ur choice..... well the word im trying to say would be somewhere along the lines of...boooom

I may have tried that back in high school, too, so I'm not raggin' on you. But, dude, you will kill your benz and do a whole lot more damage in the long run if you stick a can of methanol in your trunk--even if it fits. And if you have friends like I had, someone in the back seat would probably light a doobie and, well, just as good as the rear ending mentioned previously, just a whole lot funnier.

PS: If you really want to save money on methanol cost, you need to look into methanol recovery methods. Plenty of opportunities to blow yourself up there, too, though I suppose. Good luck!