Hi,

My girlfriend and I are thinking of tieing the noose...I mean knot and are discussing long term plans for our life. I am thinking of buying a 76-79 Dodge van to use as a traveling/utility van for the next 10-15 years. One use will be for long term road trips - the interior will be turned into a camper, the other use for towing a trailer for heavy goods in the next couple of years as we build our own house and maintain our own small farm. I have the following ideas and would like your thoughts on them:

- install a diesel engine that can burn veggie oil (What kind of engine? Most of the vans I have looked at have a dodge 360)
- Turbo?
- dual speed rear end, lower gear for towing, higher gear for better mileage on road trips

We are content with driving a vehicle that is already more than 20 years old for another 20 if possible, don't have the image problem. Actually, I like that image.

 

Yeah, A 4x4 1 ton CTDvan would be my ultimate fishing/travel vehicle. Gonna have to install an OD set up or youll be goin slow everywhere. sounds good, just gonna be lots of $$$ and work.

 

I think it would be much simpler to buy a used Ford E-350 with a PowerStroke than to put a CTD in a Dodge van. It would already have an overdrive trans, it's turbocharged, and Powerstrokes have been converted to veggie oil successfully. The Diesel Stop has an active forum on biodiesel/veggie oil conversions, you should check that out.

If you do decide to stick with an old Dodge, a 4BT (4 cyl version of the 5.9) would be much simpler to install and easier on fuel.

A diesel without a turbo is a crippled engine. A turbo improves the efficiency of the whole package so much that it would be foolish not to use one.

US Gear and Gear Vendors both make bolt-on auxilliary overdrives, but you can buy a 1,000 gallons of diesel for what they cost. If you're getting veggie oil for free or close to it the economics just aren't there.

 

But with the gear splitter, you wouldn't have to find Veggie as often. Also, you want to have a large auxillary tank for the Veggie, so you can take a bunch if you find a motherload someplace. Sounds like fun.

I've heard of the Cummins being successful on Veggie, but never seen one. Check out www.GREASEL.com or WWW.GREASECAR.com. I'm sure it can be done. Actually, I'm planning on doing it as soon as I get a truck. Like in 10 years or so...