Adelaide to Darwin on WVO July 2020

[Macz Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close Macz]

Planning a trip Adelaide to Darwin and back from mid July in a WVO capable Musso. Looking for supplies along the way. can carry 300L on board.
Any suggestions?

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: Adelaide to Darwin on WVO July 2020

Planning a trip Adelaide to Darwin and back from mid July in a WVO capable Musso. Looking for supplies along the way. can carry 300L on board.
Any suggestions?

Put together a system for filtering on the roadside (or at the back of the fish & Chip shop / pub / roadhouse)
Refill your 300L of containers whenever you find usable oil.

I am a bit out of the way for your trip to Darwin, but I can offer you some if you get to the Perth metro area.

Tony

[Macz Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close Macz]

Re: Adelaide to Darwin on WVO July 2020

Put together a system for filtering on the roadside (or at the back of the fish & Chip shop / pub / roadhouse)
Refill your 300L of containers whenever you find usable oil.

I am a bit out of the way for your trip to Darwin, but I can offer you some if you get to the Perth metro area.

Tony

Thanks Tony,
Have that set up but as I'm traveling with a Dino user in another vehicle I don't want to hold the show up. Maybe we should go to Perth instead.:-)

[Johnnojack Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Johnnojack]

Re: Adelaide to Darwin on WVO July 2020

We are currently travelling to Mataranka from Adelaide towing a camper with 2 others using dino. 2900ks so far on oil, picked up some at Alice. Hard to get good stuff.

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: Adelaide to Darwin on WVO July 2020

We are currently travelling to Mataranka from Adelaide towing a camper with 2 others using dino. 2900ks so far on oil, picked up some at Alice. Hard to get good stuff.

Keep up the travelogue. I would love to do a trip like that.
Any good tips on collecting along the way?

[Macz Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close Macz]

Re: Adelaide to Darwin on WVO July 2020

Just returned to SE SA from Darwin on WVO all the way (nearly 7000Km).
Managed to find supplies of WVO by asking around.
Filtered with simple equipment and did entire trip on 1 in-line filter with 5000 Km already on it.
Frequent changes of filtering medium was needed when cleaning unsettled oil.
Zero issues with the car. (except 1 windscreen modified by passing road train)
A company called Cookers seems to have northern NT pretty well stitched up so little success in or near Darwin itself.
Cookers apparently makes Biodiesel and supplies the stock food industry with vege oil although I didn't contact them.
NT a great place to visit. The warm weather and thermal springs are most enjoyable.

[Bueff Biofuel Enthusiast Find all posts View Profile Close Bueff]

Re: Adelaide to Darwin on WVO July 2020

A company called Cookers seems to have northern NT pretty well stitched up so little success in or near Darwin itself.
Cookers apparently makes Biodiesel and supplies the stock food industry with vege oil although I didn't contact them.

Yes these guys have the market here too, most of the shops say they are messy and unreliable. I was kind of hoping that they would go bust in this challenging times.

Thanks for these posts, how did go finding oil along the way? We where thinking of going out that way once this silliness has settled down.

have a great day.

Jens

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: Adelaide to Darwin on WVO July 2020

I have seen their trucks in Perth too.
They do not have much of the market here as far as I can see.

Tony

[Macz Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close Macz]

Re: Adelaide to Darwin on WVO July 2020

Getting WVO up the center reasonably O.K. although some luck helped a lot. Major outlets less inclined to help due to company protocols etc. Independent and isolated outlets more helpful. Encountered a number of places using lard type frying that I couldn't use. They usually had a lot on hand with disposal problems. Describing what you're doing with the oil often creates helpful curiosity and amusement.

[Johnnojack Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Johnnojack]

Re: Adelaide to Darwin on WVO July 2020

Reached Mataranka where I have been able to get oil from shop attached to BP. About 30 20 litre drums of cottonseed oil about 2/3rds full, some with no lids, most with some water on the bottom. By using clear suction hose was able to pump good oil off the top of some of the older settled drums with lids. Only once sucked up a bit of watery stuff but with the instant reverse switch in my hand sent it back into the drum and moved onto the next. Have enough to get back to Alice and beyond. Nice and warm for pumping cottonseed oil which would be rather thick back home.

[Johnnojack Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Johnnojack]

Re: Adelaide to Darwin on WVO July 2020

Got home last week after 6000 km mostly on vege oil. Car developed a problem, wouldn’t start when hot on diesel and finally refused to start at all unless given a small dash of petrol on air filter element. Then had trouble stalling when revs dropped below 1200. That was a major hassle once we hit heavy traffic crossing the city from Nth to Sth. Now fixing the original pump which I will take to diesel mechanic to get adjusted and tested. One in car has done 65000 kms since I swapped the original for it. Had to reassemble it after Diesel shop had declared it dead and delivered it back to previous owner in pieces in a big plastic bag.

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: Adelaide to Darwin on WVO July 2020

Johnnojack, Sorry to hear of your problems.
Please keep us informed of the diagnosis and resolution.
What was the issue your original pump?

[tillyfromparadise Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close tillyfromparadise]

Re: Adelaide to Darwin on WVO July 2020

G'day all,
Just making an observation.
Over the many years I have been in the biodiesel/ SVO game I have noted that on the biodiesel forums many posts run along the line of "how do I make better biodiesel", while on the SVO forums a similar percentage of posts run along the line "Why has my engine stopped running?"

Far be it for me to say that one method is better than the other, but that is a true observation.
I currently play both ends from the middle, 50% WVO and 50% biodiesel in the winter and 60% WVO/ 40% biodiesel in the summer- works perfectly.

[Johnnojack Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Johnnojack]

Re: Adelaide to Darwin on WVO July 2020

Took assembled pump to diesel shop who checked it over then put it on test bench and set it up. That cost $550 but we did save $1500 on diesel on just the recent trip, so still in front. Removed old one and fitted new one over last couple of days. Took a bit longer as I fixed up a hose or 2 along the way. When I get time will take apart the old pump and see what happened to it.

[Johnnojack Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Johnnojack]

Re: Adelaide to Darwin on WVO July 2020

Tony the original pump did a similar thing, it was pretty dirty when I took it apart, had the layer of brown gunk on every surface. Also the rollers were a bit corroded, got new ones for $80. Didn’t need any other parts, although I replaced front seal and the O rings.
I have now taken apart the pump which played up on our NT trip, it was surprisingly clean after 64000km on vege oil. Trouble is I can see nothing wrong with it.