BioDieselNow - Renewable biodiesel fuel

i am trying to buy a new diesel truck and want to run as much biodiesel as humanly possible.  anyone want to push me in either direction. we are new to the bio world and just bought a 05 passat tdi wagon, took forever to find, and now want to swap out our gas guzzling truck for a diesel...please help us.

thanks from my the bottom of my heart that is turning greener by the day. 

Any of the trucks made by the big 3 should work fine. I would be sure to use commercial grade biodiesel, though. The 2007 GM and Dodge, and 2008 Ford have DPFs and other emissions equipment not found on earlier trucks. I may be wrong, but the DPF shouldn't have to work as hard on bio since bio produces a lot less soot. It might be smart to start with 5 and 10% blends and work your way up instead of just running B100 from the start.

I'm sure you will get a lot of replies stating that "this or that brand is a piece of s%#t." Well, I drive a 2006 Ford F-250 and I am happy with it; however, I know that GM and Dodge make fine trucks, as well. Good luck!

why do i want the manual transmission.  just drove the 6speed automatic and man was it awesome......

also, i am looking at the 6.7 and feelings on that over the 5.9

thanks 

I can't speak much to the comparison (I drive an '02 dodge) but check the mileage.  Our company just bought an '08 Ford and it gets less than 10 mpg.  My '02 gets mid to high teens and I've heard some get a reliable 20+.  Maybe the new dodges are just as bad as the new fords, but if I had it to do again I'd check that out closely.  Problem is, diesels don't have to post their mileage est. on the sticker so you have to get ahold of some actual truck owners (or hope for an honest, forthright salesman).

k 

Jared:

well the dodge dealership didnt want to make the deal happen, so i am back to the drawing board.  going to look at an 06 ford f350.  anyone got any feelings on that truck.   thanks to all for helping.  

jared

I drive a 2006 Ford F-250 with the 6.0 liter Powerstroke. I average 30,000 miles a year on the truck, much of it pulling a 12,000 lb. fifth wheel travel trailer. I have pulled that trailer from Texas to Wyoming to California (including Death Vally), not once, but several times. I use bioldiesel as much as I possibly can; I even carry several five-gallon jugs of bd just in case I can't find a distributor. I once made a September trip to Yellowstone using palm oil bd that gelled at 55 degrees (a mistake made by my main supplier). I may not pull 20,000 lb. hay wagons all year long, but I do work this truck a little. I have had only one problem with this truck since I bought it: I needed a new battery. Needless to say, I am quite happy with the truck.

When I first bought this truck, many of my friends told me the 6.0 was a dog and to stay away from it. I did my research and it seemed to me that most of the problems with the 6.0 occurred in the 2003 to 2004 model years. Ford had to do a lot of warranty work on the engine for that period of time. By 2005-2006, most of the problems seemed to have been ironed out. Refer back to what chuckspowerstroke said about brand new engines. I have no complaints about my truck, yet. It runs fine and has plenty of power. It runs even better on biodiesel.

Here are a couple of pointers in case you choose to buy this truck. First, since the fuel injectors use oil pressure to operate, be very dilegent about oil changes and the quality of the oil used. In fact, I use Mobil Delvac-1 synthetic in my truck when I can. It is expensive, though; it might be overkill and is probably not necessary. Second, I would only use commercial grade biodiesel. I've run commercial grade ranging from B20 to B100 with no trouble at all. Even the palm oil bd that gelled in the jugs worked just fine.

I'm sorry to hear that the Dodge dealer wouldn't work with you. The Cummins is a fine engine with an excellent record. I like my Ford, but I recognize that Dodge and GM make very good trucks as well. Which does bring up one question: why haven't you looked at Chevrolet or GM?

Good Luck!

well, i finally made the plunge.  I bought an 07 dodge 2500 6.7 diesel.  i am going to slowly go to 100% bio and will post my progress on this forum and hopefully it will help others......

erussell, i am pretty sure there is no difference btwn the 2500 and 3500 dually and will let you know what i think.  if anyone is driving the 2500 6.7 with 100% bio please let me know.

Thanks

Jared

ps- my wifes passat tdi is getting over 40mpg and we are on second tank of 100% bio. 

Congrats on your new truck! I have a 2005 dodge Cummins and am looking into running more biodiesel. In Illinois most places are 11% already from what I understand and I have had no issues. There are several folks on the Dodge Cummins forums that are running higher concentrations in their 6.7s so you may want to visit over there to see their progress. Alot of folks are taking off the DPF equipment and realizing a 2-3 MPG improvement(or so they say!).

I would recommend an additional filter that separates water better than the stock filtration on the truck. I switched to a Baldwin 5 micron absolute with 2 micron nominal to help keep stuff out of the injectors also. It seems the common rail system does not like water and that the bio really needs to be of excellent quality or it can cause injector issues over time.

One more thing, if you run over the Cummins recommended % for biodiesel, 5%, you do run the risk of becoming your own warranty station. My dealer made that very clear to me as they have seen injector issues caused by poor quality biodiesel. Since Ilinois has 11% at most pumps from what I am told it seems to me that the stock filtration is inadequate.

Keep us posted!