A big score in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico
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Question: How Do You Find Veggie Oil to Fuel Your Truck (in Mexico and Central America)?
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I’m so glad you answered this! I was wondering though, did you guys find any problems with the oil being dirty? Like have you ever had to clean it somehow, at least strain it first? what about different qualities of oil, was that an issue? I’m not too familiar how it all works, but can you generally just dump it right in there like you would normal diesel?
Thanks!
Hi Paulina,
My husband knows more about it, but you do have to select only used oil that is ‘clean’ – no added water, etc. and has settled – all the gunk is at the bottom. That means the stuff on top is clean and usable, we will still pass it through a strainer (especially if it has large chunks of french fries or something) and the filter in our veggie system filters out any other unwanted debris. Making sure the oil meets those qualifications, we can pour it right into our veggie tank (not our diesel tank).
Hi there, I asked this question initially because we also drive a WVO powered vehicle and last winter we travelled around North America. Here in Canada getting oil from behind the restaurants is discouraged, mostly because there is no guarantee there hasn’t been water infiltration. We have an ongoing relationship with a fast food outlet locally where they pour the oil back in the original containers. We then let it settle for 3 weeks, then we filter off the top to let any free water settle. When we were travelling we didn’t have time for the 3 weeks settling, so we arranged (in Canada anyway) for old university friends to pre-collect the oil in anticipation of our arrival and passing through. Once we arrived in the US, though, it was harder. We did luck out in Key West when a restaurant happened to mention to us that there regular “oil” customers hadn’t been able to pick up their oil for weeks. Also, we bought some filtered oil in San Francisco (at a fraction of the cost of diesel). But we have been leary of simply grabbing oil and putting it in our tank. Perhaps we don’t need to be quite so picky. We managed to run about half of our 20,000 kms trip on oil. The rest was on diesel. We hope the next time we travel we can do better. Thanks for the video!
We have a series of ‘qualifications’ the oil has to meet, and it needs to have the right ‘clarity’ – not something I can describe, but would have to show you 😉 As long as it has that clarity, and has settled a little, we pass it through a strainer and then the veggie tank filter cleans out the rest.
I am glad you guys posted this, I’ve been pondering this question for awhile in terms of how you guys are traveling in a F250 that runs on Veggie. Do you have to prep or clean/filter the oil after you retrieve from the restaurant/taqueria before putting it into your tank in the truck? Has there been times when you couldn’t find any used Veggie and had to go into the local grocery and buy new veggie?
I don’t post at all, but I am astonished about how much your family accomplishes in terms of traveling, home schooling, raising 5 children and creating income while on the road. Just Awesome !
Thanks Devin, I appreciate it.
I posted more details in replies to the other comments, so you can read those. As for buying veggie, sometimes we have bought it used from restaurants, but we have never bought it new from the store, because it is usually more expensive than diesel. If we can’t find free veggie, or inexpensive veggie, then we just buy diesel 😉
Hey guys. I haven’t been able to watch the video yet cuz of poor Internet options right now. I thought I would let you know how our veggie is working out. We have done about 20 k miles on veggie so far. All in the U S and eastern Canada. We have never had to buy diesel except for the start up and shutdown. It was harder to find in some parts of the US, namely Florida and California, but never too hard. We have found it very easy to get here in Maritime Canada. I just wanted to thank you guys again for introducing us to the golden fuel system. We have been able to do so much more and go so many more places because we don’t have to count the fuel cost.
Sweet! That is so awesome Lynn, thanks for sharing. We’re glad you’re enjoying your vagabonding. We sure had a great time with you in Arizona, hope we cross paths again sometime!
@Claudia Hi Claudia, the engine hasn’t been drastically modified, so for most ‘regular’ vehicle problems we can take it to a mechanic. Obviously for anything related to the veggie system Greg does have to do the work himself.