UPS and Oil

[satellitedriver]

Originally Posted by UPS Lifer

I remember those gas wars! Shell gave away glasses with the purchase and someone actually checked your oil and washed your windshield!

I had a '69 396 SS Camaro that had twin feed 850 cfm Holleys. It got 6 mpg!
One month I put $80 on the credit card and I thought my parents were going to take the car away! Now I put $80 in every time I fill the tank!

Loved the gas wars.
At 19 cents I couldn't cram $2.00 of gas in my 63 VW. (35 mpg)
I only made $1.60 an hour, but I could drive from Houston to New Orleans,to see my girl friend, on one tank of gas.
I should have saved the glasses and the Dino the dinasaur stuffed toy's they use to "give" away. Ebay money
Remember the tiger tails Exxon use to give away to hang on your gas cap?
(Tiger in the tank)
Gas war now has a different connotation.

[IWorkAsDirected]

Originally Posted by brownmonster

What UPS needs to do is adopt a computerized dispatch system that maximizes effeciency and saves fuel. Then actually implement it correctly.

That means going back to leaving it to the drivers who actually know how to do it the most efficiently........thus.....it will never happen. IE would have a fit!

[BLACKBOX]

I just hope we don't go through the gas embargo of the 70's! How many of you remember waking up early (me 4 am) to get in line for gas? And remember the odd-even system depending on your license plate?

[soberups]

Originally Posted by BLACKBOX

I just hope we don't go through the gas embargo of the 70's! How many of you remember waking up early (me 4 am) to get in line for gas? And remember the odd-even system depending on your license plate?

It wouldnt bother me. I drive an '06 VW Jetta diesel that gets 40 MPG. I use locally-produced biodiesel in it that is made from recycled cooking oil. In the winter, I blend this fuel with regular petroleum diesel. I have a "stash" of 60 gallons of diesel that I have set aside for emergencies, so I could go a couple of months without requiring a trip to the gas station. In a pinch I could also use kerosene or jet fuel, available at the local airport.

[coldworld]

Originally Posted by soberups

It wouldnt bother me. I drive an '06 VW Jetta diesel that gets 40 MPG. I use locally-produced biodiesel in it that is made from recycled cooking oil. In the winter, I blend this fuel with regular petroleum diesel. I have a "stash" of 60 gallons of diesel that I have set aside for emergencies, so I could go a couple of months without requiring a trip to the gas station. In a pinch I could also use kerosene or jet fuel, available at the local airport.

sober, did the vw come like that from the factory, or did you have to buy some kind of conversion kit? can you tell me more about the biodiesel??

[soberups]

Originally Posted by coldworld

sober, did the vw come like that from the factory, or did you have to buy some kind of conversion kit? can you tell me more about the biodiesel??

Any diesel car can use biodiesel. No conversion kit required. Pre-96 cars may need to have fuel lines upgraded to Viton. My car is stock and unmodified. I buy my biodiesel at a local Shell station that contracts with the manufacturer to sell it.It can also be made at home but I choose not to.
Biodiesel and vegetable oil/grease are not the same thing. Biodiesel is made from vegetable oil, but is has been "transetesterified" and had the glycerin removed. It is a direct substitute for diesel fuel. It can be mixed or blended with petroleum diesel in any percentage. It is necessary to do this in the winter, because biodiesel has a higher gel point than petroleum and will get cloudy and gooey in freezing temps. In the winter I run a 50/50 blend, in the summer I run straight biodiesel. I wish UPS would "go green" with its fleet, we could be running a B20 (20% biodiesel 80% petroleum) blend in all of our equipment with no warranty issues at all.
If you want to run vegetable oil in your diesel car it can be done but you need to install a second fuel tank with a heater. Veggie oil is too thick to run as fuel without being preheated. The normal method is to start the car on petroleum diesel and run it until the vegetable oil tank is up to about 190 degrees, then you switch over to the veggie oil. About 5 minutes before stopping the car you ned to purge the fuel lines or the veggie oil will thicken as it cools and clog them. This is a popular modification to do on old Mercedes and VW's, but it isnt really that easy to do with the more modern, electronically contolled models like mine.

[soberups]

The current fad is to bash biofuels by blaming them for higher food prices. To some extent this is true, but the problem lies with the crops being used. Soy and corn are very inefficient methods of producing biodiesel and ethanol in terms of gallons per acre.
The future is in biofuels produced from algae. Yes algae, the green slime that grows in your swimming pool. There are strains of algae that are thousands of times more efficient at converting sunlight into liquid fuel than corn or soybeans. Algae ponds can use brackish water and dont compete with food crops for arable land. It is simply a matter of economics---right now it is still cheaper to drill for oil than to grow it.
Im glad fuel is getting expensive. Its about time that we in America were forced to come to terms with our addiction to imported oil. I have no sympathy for someone spends $25k on an SUV that gets 10 MPG and then complains about how much it costs to fuel it.

[BLACKBOX]

Originally Posted by soberups

I have a "stash" of 60 gallons of diesel that I have set aside for emergencies,

Wow.....Are you well prepared or what!

[soberups]

Originally Posted by BLACKBOX

Wow.....Are you well prepared or what!

Oh yes. In addition to my 60 gallons of diesel, I have over 100 gallons of gasoline set aside for my van, generator and chainsaw. I keep a minimum of 3 cords of wood split and ready to go for my woodstove. We stock up on canned goods and bottled water when they go on sale. If there is any sort of crisis or natural disaster, I'm good to go for several weeks or even months. And if the zombies invade and try to take it all away from me... they will find out the hard way that I have also stocked up on several thousand of rounds of ammunition. I dont want to count on "the government" to take care of me or my family in a crisis, such as Katrina.

[Leftinbuilding]

Garfield on the oil crisis

A lot of folks can't understand how we came

to have an oil shortage here in our country.

~~~

Well, there's a very simple answer.

~~~

Nobody bothered to check the oil.

~~~

We just didn't know we were getting low.

~~~

The reason for that is purely geographical.

~~~

Our OIL is located in

~~~

ALASKA

~~~

California

~~~

Coastal Florida

~~~

Coastal Louisiana

~~~

Kansas

~~~

Oklahoma

~~~

Pennsylvania

and

Texas

~~~

Our

DIPSTICKS

are located in

Washington DC

Any Questions???

NO? Didn't think So.

[filthpig]

I hate oil.

[BadHABITS]

Well... I'm not sure what the cost of filling your average package car is. A Boeing 767 300ER has a maximum fuel capacity of 23980 U.S. gallons. 23,980x$4=$95,920! I don't know the the exact cost per gal UPS pays but most likely close to diesel. These aircraft are fuel efficient but that's a lot of gas money!

[rod]

Originally Posted by soberups

Oh yes. In addition to my 60 gallons of diesel, I have over 100 gallons of gasoline set aside for my van,

generator and chainsaw

you do realize that the average shelf life of gasoline now days is about 3 weeks don't you. I really like your way of thinking on a lot of your posts but if you are saving over 100 galons of gas I hope you at least added some Stabil to it

[soberups]

Originally Posted by rod

you do realize that the average shelf life of gasoline now days is about 3 weeks don't you. I really like your way of thinking on a lot of your posts but if you are saving over 100 galons of gas I hope you at least added some Stabil to it

Gas will last for at least 6 months if you keep it in an airtight gas can, and a year or more when you add 2 oz of sta-bil, which I do. I also rotate my gas out by running it thru my old truck once it gets a year old, and then I refill the can with fresh fuel.
I can remember getting up at 4:00 AM with my folks and going to wait in line for gas back in '73. Im not interested in doing that again.

[reydluap]

[quote=soberups;335356]The current fad is to bash biofuels by blaming them for higher food prices. To some extent this is true, but the problem lies with the crops being used. Soy and corn are very inefficient methods of producing biodiesel and ethanol in terms of gallons per acre.


I agree with your statement....but why don't anyone ever say anything about the farm subsidies that PAYS farmers NOT to plant corn/beans on their farms? Living here in farm country....I see farm ground sitting idle every year.

[1989]

My understanding is that the amount of corn ethanol it takes to fill up one SUV. You could feed one person for a year.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i...S0ZpwD90FKT7G0

[soberups]

Originally Posted by 1989

My understanding is that the amount of corn ethanol it takes to fill up one SUV. You could feed one person for a year.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i...S0ZpwD90FKT7G0

That sounds about right. Corn is a horrible way to make ethanol. Hemp would be a far better choice, as would switchgrass. Unfortunately, neither of those crops has much in the way of a lobby in Washington DC.

[brownmonster]

Sober, did you hide in your bunker as we approached the year 2000?

[rod]

Originally Posted by brownmonster

Sober, did you hide in your bunker as we approached the year 2000?

Thanks- now I have to clean the beer off my screen

[soberups]

Originally Posted by brownmonster

Sober, did you hide in your bunker as we approached the year 2000?

Nope...I had no worries about Y2K. I had every confidence that I would still get my mortgage and credit-card bill in the mail. I was right!