So, last year figuring out how my compatriots and I would all get down to G-ville was a bit of a clusterfuck, involving van rental companies, haggling with rednecks over twenty year-old vans, and other moronic endeavors. In the end, half of our eight man crew took a Honda Civic, the other half took the Greyhound. A bit of a disparity, I know. I took the Civic in and the Greyhound out (I traded my seat in the Civic for some grass) and I realized that we had quite possibly picked the dumbest way to go Festing.

That got me thinking about alternative methods of getting down to your alligator- and old person-infested state. I've been reading about powering diesel engines with waste vegetable oil for a few years now. I think it would be utterly wicked-bad to take a grease-powered van to Fest.

Essentially, because a diesel engine is powered by compression, not combustion, a wider variety of fuel can be used in a diesel engine, included filtered Waste Vegetable Oil, or WVO. WVO can be found in grease-dumpsters behind any restaurant that serves anything fried. It gives off less emissions than diesel, the exhaust smells like french fries, and if you're handing with a bucket, you've got an unlimited supply of fuel stretching across the highways and byways of America.

A grease-powered vehicle could be anything with a diesel motor and plenty of trunk space. As I understand it, there are a few essential compenents to add for the optimum grease setup. You've gotta put in a special tank to hold the WVO, a filtration system, a second fuel tank to hold the filtered grease, and a few odds and ends like switches and new fuel lines.

The diesel tank stays in the vehicle, because you use diesel fuel to start the engine. As it is grease, it tends to solidify at lower temperatures. To offset this, the fuel tank for the filtered grease can be heated with power from the engine. Once the filtered grease is heated enough to be used in the engine, the driver flips a switch and the tanks swap, and grease is used to power the engine.

Considering the fact that everybody in punk rock is broke, I'm not surprised I haven't seen a lot of these. They're still kind of in the realm of hobbyists, grad students and people with too much time and money on their hands. Still, I was wondering - is anybody heading to Gainesville this year in something powered by grease?

I don't really have anything to add, except to say that come October 31 this will surely be right up there as a contender for the topic you least expected to see discussed in some technical detail on the Fest 7 board award.

Well, good for me, I guess.

Finding a supply on the road is the trick...or you could do like Warped is doing this year and pay a tanker to follow you. They're up to $200k to make that happen. "that's why we need sponsors" was their excuse on some article I read somewhere.

I know a few bands always tour in veggie-oil powere vans. I think I Object uses a biodiesel van.

Oh yeah, and anything manufactured post 2005 should burn bio diesel as long as you do a slow switch:
first tank 1:3 (1 part bio to 3 parts diesel)
second tank 1:1
third tank 3:1
and fourth all bio.

My boss' husband did it that way with no problems and said he didn't notice a difference in performance. Plus...no emissions! And it smells like french fries...mmm'm.

edit: "anything" above...means any diesel engine.

Seasick and Zhenia Golov bought a small bus for their tour this summer with a plan to convert to biodiesel. Unfortunately, the bus ended up having a ton of problems (not related to the conversion, which they didn't even get to do) and broke down before the tour could even get underway. But Jay from ZG is pretty knowledgable about the conversion process.

I've always been interested in this process. Some people actually complain about the idea of their car always smelling like fries, which I find absolutely mind-blowing. I mean, cart exhaust...or delicious fries?! Sounds like a no-brainer to me!

I've always been too broke to give this a go . . . my paychecks all get eaten by rent and (ironically enough) gasoline. Does anybody have any stories of bands on tour with grease? I just imagine shenanigans would ensue while snatching waste grease from a McDonalds or something.

this is kind of off topic but if I had a van I would drive it up north somewhere and just pick up random people going to the Fest for cheap and tour down stopping at different shows every night. would be an insane amount of debauchery

you'd bring a camera, so maybe you can write it off as a legitimate business expense.

damn you already know my plan for this year!

I'm betting Mose Giganticus (& The Emotron?) will be arrived to play the Fest via a converted tour bus they recently took all the way to Alaska!

http://mosetrontour.blogspot.com/2008/03/info.html

Check out this awesome and informative video Mose and Emotron made:

Touring to Alaska on Vegetable Oil!