$3.37 Gas & $3.58 Diesel - Thrilled.

[dcyrilc]

Not to get off on a tangent here but local farmers have been devastated here too.
Big business owns this country, when you have companies like ADM and Monsanto suing small farmers because Monsanto's GMO seed blows onto local farmers' fields you know things aren't right.
You simply can't beat the lobbies, we have a few farmers holding on but big business is out to control all the land and all the water up here.
Not a pretty picture!
R

For us it's the environmentalists, but same effect.

 

[300UGUY]

What's delusional is the thinking that we can keep buying oil from people who want to bomb us or did some of us miss 911?

What's delusional is driving around in a pickup truck with tandem tires on the back and American flags hanging out the windows.

Conservation is patriotic and it's the only avenue to reducing the strangle hold on this country.

The gov. gives us 30% back on alternate energy installations. With my 20k grant from my utility I'll have no out of pocket cost. In a couple of years when oil is at 5 or 10 bucks a barrel I won't care.

But what's your solution?

I have a neighbor that drives a customized F650 dually. Really nice wheels, lifted, a custom paint job and a tonneau cover. I don't think it has ever towed anything, the guy just wants to drive the biggest truck in town. I see it at the grocery store, basically doing a beer run. I haven't seen them drive it the last month or so. I know several guys, mostly retired, that drive F350's. These guys are 75+, just want to drive huge trucks. They ***** a lot about the government......

 

[wedge40]

I have a neighbor that drives a customized F650 dually. Really nice wheels, lifted, a custom paint job and a tonneau cover. I don't think it has ever towed anything, the guy just wants to drive the biggest truck in town. I see it at the grocery store, basically doing a beer run. I haven't seen them drive it the last month or so. I know several guys, mostly retired, that drive F350's.

We call that LPS. Little P**is Syndrome.

 

[jeffgreef]

Convert your tractors to electric.

Sounds extreme or even nutty at this point, but if diesel hits $5-6 everyone will be scrambling.

Some tech sectors are gearing up to do hybrid conversions of existing fleet trucks and vans. Check these links;

Join the Campaign to Electrify World's 900+ Million Vehicles

Products & Design | ALTe

Make sure you run the demo video on the second one. This shows the basic idea- remove the internal combustion engine, replace with an electric motor. Add a smaller internal combustion engine with a generator, and add a bank of batteries. End result- for the first 50 miles a pickup operates entirely on electric, then switches to gas on the generator, running more efficiently on the gas generator (like a locomotive). Infinite range, half the fuel use.

For tractors, the generator is unnecessary if you have enough battery capacity. Battery technology is almost up to the task now, but not for the commercial tractor operator who will be in the seat for 8 hours.

The average internal combustion engine is about 17% efficient, diesel is a bit more I think. Here's a link to a new design of fuel burning engine that is supposedly 60% efficient:

Shockwave Generator Could Be Future of Cars | Geekosystem

If this "shock wave" engine works, it would make a generator far more efficient, in which case you could operate your electric tractor with few batteries, burning fuel in the generator most of the time, but using 1/3 to 1/4 of the fuel per hour.

The technology is not there yet, but we should keep a close eye on it. Electric is the drive of the future.

One more link- some New England hippies that converted an old Allis Chalmers G Model cultivating tractor to electric- and swear by it.

Allis Chalmers "G" Electric Cultivating and Seeding Tractor Conversion Project

Maybe I should buy a Kubota L30 with seized engine on the cheap, and hold onto it until converting to electric is easily done.

JG

 

[Redneck in training]

Increased efficiency will help but not solve the real problem: Non polluting energy source. As the standard of living in many countries rises while population of the world increases, the demand for and cost of energy will increase dramatically. It would be very hard to convince Chinese to stop driving because we need the cheap fuel. In fact it might be the Chinese to convince us to drive less because they need the fuel.

 

[RayCo]

I have a neighbor that drives a customized F650 dually. Really nice wheels, lifted, a custom paint job and a tonneau cover. I don't think it has ever towed anything, the guy just wants to drive the biggest truck in town. I see it at the grocery store, basically doing a beer run. I haven't seen them drive it the last month or so. I know several guys, mostly retired, that drive F350's. These guys are 75+, just want to drive huge trucks. They ***** a lot about the government......

Everyone has hobbies or interests. His hobby does not necessarily invalidate any complaints he might have. The price of gas (or rather, the devaluation of the dollar) affects him just as it does the rest of us.

 

[Gods Country]

I bet the OP wishes gas were still $3.37 & $3.58 for diesel.:laughing:

I know I do.

 

[newt92]

I bet the OP wishes gas were still $3.37 & $3.58 for diesel.:laughing:

I know I do.

No kidding, gas $3.85 and diesel $3.99+

 

[Grateful11]

I just started reading this thread and man there's some hostility in this thread,
someone even mentioned that Warren Buffet had been bailed out, I don't think
so, he could bail a few companies himself.

Anyway we had 200 gallons of off-road diesel delivered today and I guess it's most
we've ever paid for Diesel at $3.85 a gallon, at least we didn't have pay any tax on it.

 

[300UGUY]

I just started reading this thread and man there's some hostility in this thread,
someone even mentioned that Warren Buffet had been bailed out, I don't think
so, he could bail a few companies himself.

Anyway we had 200 gallons of off-road diesel delivered today and I guess it's most
we've ever paid for Diesel at $3.85 a gallon, at least we didn't have pay any tax on it.

I just paid 4.39, but I only need 10 gallons, just have my little bota. Buffet came out of the recession richer than ever. He didn't take any bailout. Heck, he loaned Goldman, Sachs money. The guy still lives in the house he bought in the late 50's? No real fancy offices, his companies are run very conservatively - old time conservative. They have great balance sheets.