The Calls Don't Stop

Tried to get away for 2 weeks to Toronto, but I keep getting calls, from my signs, seeing my van, my crappy google add campaign.  What would happen if I actually paid for some real advertising?  I will have a packed couple of weeks when I get back, besides a few jobs that I had to turn down because they need electrical help now.

My other stairway lighting idea, didn't work out as sexy as the ones in the first video, but perfectly functional.

Stairway lighting

I published my filtering fryer fat vid for old stinky, on my http://fuelmiser.blogspot.com/ blog.
I decided to use that blog for the publication of my vegtable oil adventures, just because its older than my new website, www.vegtableoilhybrid.com  So for now, Vegtableoilhybrid.com, is forwarded to fuelmiser.blogspot.com.  More on that whole deal later.

On another note
I haven‘t had time to finish the project yet, but here is a quick video of the stairway lights I made recently.  Understand our house is old, with no three way switches, nor even stairway lights.  I have some really cool Lutron switches to  fix that, I'll get a vid of that up eventually.  But for now this will get us up and down the stairs in the dark.

Possum Van Brings Joy

Yes I got several calls the other night from people seeing the Possum Van on TV.  Everyone was excited, high fivin, yelling "Possum Van" wile they were watching Canadian Pickers, and the stopped the camera on the Possum Van, wile the narrator something like "Possum, Weird".  I am sure I will get a copy of that episode, and violate all copy rights by posting it up here.

The latest Possum Van keeps on truckin, but is getting its own issues.  I refuse to give it too much love cause I am so excited with my latest discovery of the VW starting, with little protest, on what I call D20.  thats 20% diesel and 80% fryer fat rite out of the old deep fryer, filtered through an over sized coffee filter.  I will have a video of that operation up next week.  Point being, I am motivated to finish the VW diesel Possum Van, then fix the biodiesel reactor, and never stop at another gas station to buy gas again.  I will refer to them as bathroom stations, cause they aren't good to me for anything else.

Trouble w Old Stinky

Old stinky, the diesel Jetta, gave us a scare today.  I had heard that Randy from Canadian EV ran his truck on strait fryer fat.  I worked up to this, did diesel/fryer fat mixing tests, ran the car on 50% fryer fat 50% diesel mixed together, until today.

Today I just dumped 40 liters of golden brown french fry goodness in the tank.  I then topped the tank up with a whole 2 liters of diesel fuel.  Yes thats 565mpg on paid for diesel, ridiculousness.

The plan was to drive back to Edmonton, and run a few errands, at that point it would take another 15 liters of diesel to dilute it the golden goodness down a bit.  Well we didn't get 5 min out of Andrew, when Ol Stinky quit.

Really, it won't run on strait canola oil without excessive heat?  No that wasn't the problem, although it was first suspect.  A quick walk back to the gas station for a jerry can of diesel, and a quick fuel filter change, primed w diesel, and she fired rite up.  We were going to go back to the house, drain 20 liters of fryer oil out the tank, and top it up w diesel, but when there was no more problem I wrote it off as a clogged filter.  problem solved.

Google

We are both sick w the flu.  We fly to Toronto in a week for a wedding, hope we're better by then.

I have had a Google addwords campaign running for about a month now.  I got more people calling me looking for work, than I did looking to have me do work.  So just as my "free trial" was about to expire, I get an email from someone who found my possumelectric.com blog.  

It was the perfect email, all my questions where answered, because I asked them all in the latest post at possumelectric.com.  It was very easy for me to reply to the email, and say yes I can do your work, for this much, available in 2 weeks.  

That was on a Sunday, I looked at the job and had it by Wednesday.  Google adwords came through.  But it appears I have a low quality score for "edmonton electrician", so that will require some work to fix.  The quality is not in my work, but Googles automated relevance of those key words to my web site. First I will have to figure out how to fix it.

Oh Oh, We Stopped At a Chicken Farm

Now I think we have to put a little incubator in the basement for some new Silky chicks.  If that works out we will probably bread our Australorp chickens at some point.  How much fun will that be?

Plans are in the works to build a small 5 x 8 chicken coop on the old tent trailer chassis.  Then the existing camper coop will get hauled to the dump, where they can knock the camper off its wheels, and I can take the heavier duty trailer frame home to make a 2 or three dune buggy trailer out of it.
  

Bike Season

I got the trailer hitch welded on the VW finally.  So we have been moving to Edmonton, on our weekly trip out to Andrew.

I am very happy with my results running 50% used deep fryer fat rite in the diesel tank.  I have not had any trouble starting the car since.  There is just some fittings I can't find, holding me up from making the strait fryer oil tank, but there is still a lot of work I can do in preparation for that system.

Hauling the flat deck trailer back and forth from Andrew to Edmonton, with probably 1000lb on it both ways, I get 65 mpg on the paid for fuel.  So I am really only getting 33mpg, but paying for 65 mpg with the free fryer oil.

Just a quick video to show how awesome the VW is, and Michelle on her bike.  She hasn't forgotten a thing from her biking days last summer.

VW suspension lift, and Fryer Oil

Loving the weather, even though its just 8 degrees or so.
I started on some of the vehicle maintenance.  Air bags were a bit pricey for the stinky ol VW, so I got these $2 spring separators.  I got them at like a dollar store.  They seem to be a failed retail item, sold off to the dollar stores.  But they do work, so far.  I have driven a good 40km and they stayed in place, giving the vw a stiffer ride, without ever bottoming out like it used to.

The stinky VW also got some expensive fuel on the week end.  $1.29 a liter.  That was enough to spur some radical action.  20 liters of filtered used fryer fat went strait into the diesel fuel tank.  No pre heaters, or fryer oil burner apparatus, tanks switches ect, have been installed yet.

I have been a bit disappointed with my VW mileage over the winter.  I believe the constant -30 deg celcius, and the high altitude of Alberta is what spoils it.  I was only getting 40 mpg.  This last tank, which hauled the trailer and lumber on the roof the whole time, would have probably been around 30mpg, But I put 20 liters of frier fat, with 17 liters of diesel in the tank getting 65 mpg on paid for fuel.  I will bring that up to 80mpg, then phase the fryer oil out of my tank, keeping it in a separate tank for next winter, and bing my mileage up to 200+ mpg on paid for fuel.

How is this sustainable you ask?  I drive the VW to Andrew every weekend.  Just that return trip uses about 20 liters of fuel.  Wile in Andrew, I stop at just 2 of the 6 restaurants, and pick up their weeks worth of fryer oil, placed on their back step, for the garbage man.  That alone, virtually no effort, gives me 45 liters of fryer oil fuel every week.  The other restaurants want me to take their fuel, but I need to pump it out of the ol collection dumpsters.

Buggy Repairs

I have been comunicating with this guy Cliff since last May.  He contacted me, wanted to buy the orange dune buggy.  Talking to him more I found out he had a Carter Buggy that didn't work, it has a broken axle, and he has been trying to get it fixed for well over a year now.  I told him I would take it as a trade in, then I said I would fix it for him  That was last summer, when I had the time.  He sent me this email today:

I appreciate your help. I believe you are our only hope of ever using this buggy again. Last year I brought it to a mechanic friends of mine and he now has it stored at his acreage. I would like to move it out to your place so you can look at it and wrap your creative mind around it. This way you could figure out exactly what you can do to save it and what the end cost would be to me. I need to know when I could bring it down as I need to arrange for a trailer.

That was kind of cool.  I had told him I didn't really have time to do it now, but how can I say no to that email.  I had sent him this neat video, from aussikartman, to better explain how we would rebuild the back end of the kart, removing the independent rear suspension, with CV joints and the failed tri joint, and 2 axles. Once removed I would have to basically hinge the back of the cart, with the motor in it, put a solid axle in and remount everything.  Aussikartman does it well here making a new back end of his kart to take a bigger motorbike motor.  

Alberta's Photo Radar.

When I was in BC they had photo radar vans, that you could see from a mile away.  In Alberta they use the well suited pickup truck.  They park inconspicuously on the side of the road, drivers window down, and camera equipment on the drivers seat, wile an officer sits in the passenger seat.  They change the truck colors up all the time, and sometimes even hide in the ditch.  In the sense that they always park at 90 degrees to traffic, they are very conspicuous, and easy to spot.  Also no front plates in AB so you know they are only getting you as you pass them.  I made this video for my friends that say, "I don't know where I got the photo radar ticket from?".  Look around, they are everywhere.