Lessons Learned

As much as we'd like to use this project as an opportunity to teach, we are constantly reminded that we are also humble students. We had barley left CT when we stopped at a gas station to put some air in the truck tires. A gentleman delivering gas to the station was looking at us funny as we filled up the first two tires, and walked over to the air pump as it shut off. I sarcastically joked that 75 cents was expensive for air. He replied that it was actually free in the state of CT and that I should have read the instructions before inserting my money. I humbly took my foot from my mouth and thanked him kindly before going to see the attendant so that we could fill the other two tires.

We then set off on I84 West travelling through Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvennia. We then took I81 South through Maryland, West Virginia, and stopped off Charlottesville, Virginia for a bite to eat. Lesson #2 came later that night as we were on our way to Tennessee. We had been running a about a 50/50 blend of B100 recycled Tao oil with petrol diesel, and as the temperature dropped below 50 degrees the truck began to hesitate under load. As it turns out B100 Tao oil has a freezing point of about 49 degrees and was gelling up in our truck tank and not flowing properly to the engine. Not all bio-diesel has this high of a freezing point, but to be on the safe side you should definately check before you start running it in your engine. B100 soy oil for example has a freezing point around 25 to 30 degrees As we move further south into warmer temperatures we plan on experimenting with different blends of Tao oil.

We've stopped briefly at Krystal's fast food resturant in Nashville, TN to utilize their free WiFi. After a quick stop in Memphis to check out the King's Palace, it's on to Arkansas this evening.



Stay tuned....