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SurvivalGround >> Minimizing vehicle costs for off the grid living
| 4/27/11 8:26 PM | |
NonIntervention
Member Since: 3/23/11 Posts: 97 |
Seems to me the biggest obstacle to living off the land is the near necessity for a vehicle of some sort, preferably a truck of some sort. Cars are expensive as hell, and the newer ones require a wide variety of skills to repair and maintain. If you are going to check out of society and stick it to the man you are still going to need a vehicle. Thoughts on minimizing the weight of this shackle? |
| 4/27/11 8:54 PM | |
CR1chard
7 
Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 8391 |
A diesel vehicle outfitted for biodiesel would be the way to go, unless you want to go the amish horse & buggy route |
| 4/27/11 9:15 PM | |
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NonIntervention
Member Since: 3/23/11 Posts: 100 |
Any particular ones that are easier to maintain/more reliable. Other than a VW rabbit? |
| 4/28/11 8:05 AM | |
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simthefarmer
Member Since: 11/23/03 Posts: 2787 |
this could be interesting |
| 4/28/11 9:09 AM | |
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gsx_r
Member Since: 9/17/09 Posts: 646 |
bio diesel is NOT cheap, unless you get free oil. Get a pedal bike or just accept you'll have to buy some amount of fuel each year. |
| 4/28/11 9:10 AM | |
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jfmx345
Member Since: 5/12/08 Posts: 8 |
An 80's era carb'ed truck would be ideal in most circumstances. Very reliable and super easy to work on. I think gas would actually be easier to get in a SHTF type scenario because 99% of cars on the road are gas, and they are easy enough pop a hole in the tank and get all the gas you need. No converting oils. If you can find a nice late 80's F150, that would be perfect. |
| 4/29/11 3:32 AM | |
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chef kwon do
Member Since: 11/26/07 Posts: 1341 |
if you have plants or trees with lots of nuts or seeds this might be a cheap solution to producing oil: Manually operated Piteba oil expeller press http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuLJoAYX2WM hand-cranking it might be tedious, but imagine hooking it up to a stationary bicycle drivechain. at $138 on ebay, it might be able to pay for itself quickly. |
| 4/29/11 8:41 AM | |
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simthefarmer
Member Since: 11/23/03 Posts: 2794 |
this tree sounds great. |
| 4/29/11 7:32 PM | |
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jfmx345
Member Since: 5/12/08 Posts: 9 |
Here's the kicker for Copaifera langsdorfii "Copaiba is a climax species probably ranging from subtropical to tropical dry and wet forest, it is found in both riparian forest and montane semi-deciduous forest. The tree tolerates annual precipitation of 1000-4000mm, annual temperature of 20-27 deg C (with no frost), and soil pH of 4.5-7.5." It's probably not adaptable here due to the oil content in the tree, otherwise I bet you'd see a few universities working on variants. |
| 4/30/11 1:20 AM | |
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NonIntervention
Member Since: 3/23/11 Posts: 101 |
this is turning out better than I thought. Looks like an E100 ethanol vehicle might be best for me, when they are more available. |
| 5/9/11 10:27 PM | |
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NonIntervention
Member Since: 3/23/11 Posts: 141 |
or maybe not. It takes a whole acre of sugar beets to yield 550 gallons of ethanol. |
| 5/10/11 1:53 AM | |
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ClayK
Member Since: 7/25/07 Posts: 3704 |
I've posted this before, but you can sub jet fuel for diesel if you add 2 stroke oil. |
| 5/13/11 9:05 PM | |
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johnnypayne
37
Member Since: 5/22/02 Posts: 16414 |
ClayK - I've posted this before, but you can sub jet fuel for diesel if you add 2 stroke oil. Also some diesel engines can run on straight veg oil, not used. |
| 9/22/11 2:00 AM | |
Hessian
Member Since: 8/19/06 Posts: 5673 |
jfmx345 - Here's the kicker for Copaifera langsdorfii sub ty for info looking for another non-chipped truck (EMP) and will give these trees a try |
| 3/30/12 10:27 AM | |
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blushgirl412
Member Since: 5/10/05 Posts: 4128 |
4L |
| 4/5/12 2:17 PM | |
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TheHouse
42
Member Since: 9/25/09 Posts: 1827 |
Is there anyone out there who buys bulk gasoline? Like is there anyone who keeps a 50 gallon drum of it on their property for emergency or rationing or anything? I am hopefully going to be able to get a house in the next year and I was considering this as an emergency stock pile for emergencies or if the gas spikes. |
| 4/19/12 2:55 PM | |
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NonIntervention
Member Since: 3/23/11 Posts: 1643 |
Lots of rural people store shit loads of propane, and propane vehicles are pretty common. |
| 4/25/12 1:32 PM | |
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LeroyJ
1
Member Since: 10/2/03 Posts: 1848 |
You could get a truck body and outfit it with a wood gasifier. That way, you'd only need oil for internal lubrication & the thing would run on firewood. That's for an extreme off the grid situation though. |
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