Hard Case In Florida
 

Hi All.

This place is great. I'm so glad I found my way here. I have to tell you though, I have lost hours and hours in these forums. Soaking up more data in an hour than I could learn in days elsewhere. Thanks for that. I hope I can return the favor somehow.

Meanwhile, I joined because I'm sick of being dependent on oil, and while I figure out some way to create a battery powered vehicle for myself, I want to reduce the oil I use for my personal transportation. That's where the hard case comes in. I drive a 2000 Dodge Ram 2500 w/V10 8L gas engine. I love the truck and the load capacity, but the 9 MPG hurts.

One part of the plan is to get into a '10 Prius soon I hope. Also, I am looking for all the great tips on here that might apply to a full sized pickup truck. Yeah, I think there is a ScanGauge in my future.

PS. I like battery powered because, as we convert to all electric, we have the opportunity to recharge those batteries with wind, solar, and other renewable resources.

Hi, Smaridge. There are lots of people here trying to squeeze more mpg out of their pickups, and I'm sure, with a little effort and a few mods, you could increase your fuel economy 30-50% - Imagine 14mpg!

I think the Prius, perhaps converted to plug in, would be a great idea. It can do at least 98% of the jobs that most people ask their full sized pickups to do. For the other 2% of the time, I borrow or rent a truck or minivan.

Whatever you decide to drive, I hope you find some useful information here, and post up some innovative mods of your own.

Yep, it probably will make you feel pure. And you won't need to dirty your hands with any nasty, smelly gasoline. Some feel good about being part of a progressive movement.

But what do you think the power plants that deliver your electricity run on? (Hint: your electrical power is probably not made with the alternatives you mentioned. But since you don't see how it is produced, the electrical power that is delivered to you looks clean and pure.)

It reminds me of the old joke about sausages: those who enjoy sausages and laws should never witness how either is made. :D

I don't so much care if I am part of a progressive movement... I just want off the oil. Not sure what you meant by the 'nasty, smelly gasoline' comment. I used to love working on cars, and gas engines... but times change.

Don't kid yourself that I don't know that the electricity I get is made with oil, coal, and so on. But if you look past the immediate thoughts that pop into your head, you can find out that the electricity from the grid is created more efficiently than the power that comes from burning gasoline to run your car. So no, the power that comes from the grid does not look at all clean and pure to me. I spent three years living off the power grid, and still couldn't get away from oil.

That's why I said we have the 'opportunity' to use renewable sources, not that we would be. And hey, then we can get into a whole new discussion about the invested energy used to produce the new technologies. And then we can talk about the toxic crap in batteries, and it goes on and on. So we have to start somewhere, eh?

OH STOP IT!! Now I am going to have dreams all night about actually seeing a two digit number on my Avg. Eco. gauge! :D

Thanks for the welcome, and I can only hope to find some way to 'give back to the community' here, what with all the excellent information I am finding.

Your signature line is: "There was life before oil, there can be life without it. "

That hints a bit at a progressive or crusading spirit. The implication is that life would unquestionably be better without oil.

Life before oil was more nasty, brutish and short (for most people, for many reasons) - hardly as utopian or bucolic as some today might like to think of the past. Oil and other advancements relieved us of a life sodden with soot and horse manure.

Thymeclock, you seem to read a lot that isn't written. My signature indicates that I believe we can live without oil. It's that simple. No doubt that oil brought wonderful things to our lives, but it is going to run out, no matter how badly you want to cling to it. Also, it's a big part of the bad things going on in our environment right now. I have no delusions that I will be an oil consumer to the end of my days, since it is so deeply ingrained in so many facets of our lives.

BUT... life AFTER oil is not going to be anything like life BEFORE oil. We have many OTHER wonderful technologies now that almost guarantee life after oil will be much better than life before oil.

The good news is that it's still a matter of personal choice. You don't have to do a thing about it if you don't want to. It sounds like you don't like the idea of change. If you are lucky, you can drive a gas-burner the rest of your life and not have to change. Leave it to somebody else.

Thanks for your good points. :)

Before oil the sky was blue and clean. Horse manure is fertilizer that can be used to grow healthy crops. Car emissions are toxic. Before oil, cancer was virtually unheard of.

Because of oil, many peoples lives are cut short (pollution, war). Gas is a considerable part of most peoples budgets, and can lower someones standard of life instantly when prices go up. (Remember $4 /gallon gas?)

Quality of life means different things to different people. Right now I live in Texas, which has about the worst air quality in the US. So to me, quality of life here is not good.

If you believe that, you must be profoundly ignorant. Read historical accounts about what train travel was like with wood burning locomotives. Read accounts of what living in any city was like with FAR dirtier forms of heating. Horse manure in the streets was not pleasant to live with. People died much younger than today and rarely went to doctors. Cancer itself was not known as a diagnosis, so it is an assumption to think that cancer did not exist then. No one knows whether people might have died of it or not. As most people today tend to do, you are viewing the past through rose-colored glasses.

Oil causes WAR? Wars have existed since the beginning of time. You can blame human nature for that, not oil.

So you are insinuating that oil causes poverty too? You can blame politics and government policies for that. Oil does not cause inflation, government does - they print what is in your wallet!

So if it is so terrible, move someplace else.

This thread went south quickly.

Good luck on the conversion.

What makes me scratch my head is someone concerned about fuel consumption using 3 times the fuel I do per mile.

Instead of the v10, why not go for the Cummins diesel? Economy figures in the 20 mpg range are common, and 30 mpg is possible. You'll lose 4 cylinders and 65 hp, and gain 10 ft llbs torque. My uncle with a 2500 with the cummins and a 5 speed manual, 4wd and a crew cab regularly got 20 mpg and could haul anything.

The 8L V10 has 300 hp, 450 lb ft, and gets single digit fuel economy.

The 5.9L I6 has 235 hp, 460 lb ft torque and gets 15-30 mpg.

Seems like a simple decision to me......

idea for your truck.
 

Check out re-involt.com for an idea with your Dodge Ram.
It's sort of pricey, but you will get the results you are looking for.

Calm down.

You take things way to seriously.

:)

You know you do not have to sacrifice the usefulness of a pickup and improve your mpg's.

While I agree that the V10 ram has abismal mileage, why not consider moving into a new Ford Diesel. I have had the pleasure of driving both the single and Dually versions of the new diesel motors and on both trips had the meters pegged at 30mpg. Which I think is insane considering the the size and weight of the truck. And I say pegged because they only read as high as 30mpg, which I thought was funny ... The trip average was 31.4 on the single wheel and 30.9 on the Dually. Both were trips were over 100 miles and mostly highway, where I carried a maximum speed of 60mph, 5 below the posted.

But, then again if you get someone behind the wheel like me, then why not imagine that you could sustain 30+ mpg in such a heavy truck? So do not be discouraged by having to jump into a prius from a truck, you can keep a truck and retain the mileage of most mid sized cars, or at least it appears that way with Ford's new line of diesel engines...

Thanks for the great feedback
 

I appreciate all the good ideas. The decision to go with the V10 was made 10 years ago, when I lived on the side of a mountain with an old gravel logging road for a driveway, and needed to haul building supplies all over the county. If I needed a truck full time right now, I would definitely consider that diesel! (And then start looking for a serious bio-diesel source.)

As it is, I live in-town in Florida, and only need its full capacity rarely. So it makes more sense to get a true sipper for my daily commute, and eke out as many M's per G as I can, while I keep the truck parked out back.

If I had the money, I would love to convert the truck to EV, just to make the point. But I don't have that kind of money, so I will have to make my point other ways. (Like, getting/building an electric bike, etc.)

Thanks again everyone!

You are correct. I do take things seriously.

But I don't need to be told to "calm down". My response to you was appropriately serious, but calm. May you also be calm, too.