I am a Florida General Contractor and I have been contracted to build an Earthship in Manatee County; aside from the obvious building code hurdles we are overcoming, we have decided to set up a "green camp" to have university students do a summer internship to learn about the various aspects of a completely off the grid home build. We have been using biodiesel in our earthmoving equipment, but for this build we have decided to use veggie oil in some of the equipment as we will be making biodiesel onsite, and I feel production cannot keep up with use with straight bio.

The theme of this build is sustainability, we are using as many recycled materials, and resources from the site as possible. There will be a good bit of media coverage for the event, so we are trying to adhere as strictly as possible to this tenet.

I have a 1985 Ford F-700 Dump truck with a Detroit Diesel; the truck currently has 2 50 gallon fuel tanks. My thinking is one of the tanks could be easily modified to use for WVO. I have 1987 Ford 555A backhoe that I am considering alternatives for. We have a John Deere Skid Steer which I feel may be a bit tight for a 2-tank system. We are also using a small Kubota tractor for mowing and road maintainence that may have room for a second tank.

What are you guys suggestions for this equipment? Again, we are trying to stick to technologies that are somewhat readily available and could be assembled by a group of college students; with of course my guidance.

Info on the Detroit conversion is hard to find. Someone here did run a bus on it a while back. There is a thread on it here that I started. Might be a good question to run by the numerous kit manufacturers. I'd sure like to try it. You certainly won't need injector line heaters.

What kind of engine is in the backhoe? Is it a Ford engine or a Perkins? The Cummins 4BT is a pretty common direct injection engine, used in Case backhoes, trucks, gen sets, etc. Only engine I might make a comparison with. Here's a thread on using SVO in one.

4Bt forum

I'm not sure about the skid-steer, may use quite high injection pressures if it's a late model. Phil

Thanks for the link. I am going to try a fairly simple conversion on the dump truck, basically running fuel lines inside heater hoses, a couple of solenoids and a heater loop in the second tank. I'll post the results.

The backhoe is a Ford and from what I understand it is a Ford tractor motor, not 100% sure though as it is an older machine. The JD skid steer is a 1998 model; I've mixed some SVO with the diesel in the tank and it runs fine that way. I'm thinking of running a blend in the tractors.

I just want to say thank you for thinking this way. Very cool.

They are building some houses next to me, and the amount of fuel wasted is HUGE. Trucks idling for no reason for 1/2 hour or more, etc. The damn builder even made each sub contractor bring their own generators for EVERY job. The guys who did the roofing had to have gens if they wanted power. End result - up to 5 2cycles running all day to power a few nail guns.

Meanwhile when another house down the street was being built, they just set up a temporary utility pole and everyone worked off of that.

Nice to see people doing the right things.

How's progress? I have lots of experience with SVO in Detroit/GM, Lister, Mercedes and Powerstroke and ready to advise.
YT,
SUB