Alberta bound on the Vegematic

Rattlenbang · Post by **Rattlenbang** » Fri Jul 26, 2013 5:05 pm

A few more cubbies and I'll have enough veg to make Red Deer and back. A lot of weight hanging off the ass, but it'll drop as I mosey along. The rack is rated for 500 lbs.

konadog · Post by **konadog** » Fri Jul 26, 2013 8:07 pm

Rock n' Roll Man - have a great run!

Rattlenbang · Post by **Rattlenbang** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 7:08 am

I hope so. With any luck I'll make it past Osoyoos without blowing a head gasket like the kids did

Crap that's a lot of weight hanging off the hitch. The math says it's fine, but I'll be glad when I've burned off a few of those puppies.

thedjjack · Post by **thedjjack** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 10:44 am

do you use the wood to start a small fire under the injector pump and tanks so you do not need to start on diesel?

yojimbo · Post by **yojimbo** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 12:05 pm

I hope that hitch weight is really well spread on the chassis/floorpan!

Rattlenbang · Post by **Rattlenbang** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 1:04 pm

thedjjack wrote:do you use the wood to start a small fire under the injector pump and tanks so you do not need to start on diesel?

I always have fire material on hand in case of zombie apocalypse.

Rattlenbang · Post by **Rattlenbang** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 1:08 pm

yojimbo wrote:I hope that hitch weight is really well spread on the chassis/floorpan!

Unfortunately, it's a homebuilt job and not a very good one at that, it turns out. I'm glad I wasn't towing anything. What a gong show. The weight of the veg broke it after only a few blocks, requiring me to rope it all off to the roof. We picked up a pair of tie-downs in Sidney. But as I was replacing the rope with nice heavy duty ratcheting straps, I noticed the poly rope was fraying, so I decided to torch the end to melt it. But I ended up burning myself with melted end and dropped the torch in the van, right next to a jug of veg. It immediately burned a hole through the jug, and dirty old veg belched into the floor of the van. I then hurled the jug out the door, splattering me and everything around me with stinky oil. This holiday has been running less than two hours. Delica adventures are never dull.

Anyone suggest a place I can get a proper hitch installed when I get back?

Firesong · Post by **Firesong** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 1:18 pm

Whoops. When it rains it pours...

yojimbo · Post by **yojimbo** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 1:42 pm

Ouch, it might even be overloaded for the roof, generally they arent meant to take an awful lot of weight.

Guess its a long drive smelling like a deep fat fryer too eh.

Glenn Delwood · Post by **Glenn Delwood** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 8:17 pm

Rattlenbang wrote:
yojimbo wrote:I hope that hitch weight is really well spread on the chassis/floorpan!
Unfortunately, it's a homebuilt job and not a very good one at that, it turns out. I'm glad I wasn't towing anything. What a gong show. The weight of the veg broke it after only a few blocks, requiring me to rope it all off to the roof. We picked up a pair of tie-downs in Sidney. But as I was replacing the rope with nice heavy duty ratcheting straps, I noticed the poly rope was fraying, so I decided to torch the end to melt it. But I ended up burning myself with melted end and dropped the torch in the van, right next to a jug of veg. It immediately burned a hole through the jug, and dirty old veg belched into the floor of the van. I then hurled the jug out the door, splattering me and everything around me with stinky oil. This holiday has been running less than two hours. Delica adventures are never dull.

Anyone suggest a place I can get a proper hitch installed when I get back?

Bummer man! I was thinking of the same setup for trips. I had my hitch made by a Delica specialist around here and don't know what its rating is. He said I can tow as much as my car van tow.
Where do you get your fuel? Are you filtering yourself?

thedjjack · Post by **thedjjack** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 6:52 pm

there is not much 'frame' back there to attach weight to.

When I did my bumper/hitch/tire mount I removed the stock bumper and put square tube inside the frame rails up to the shackles and then used the existing holes for the stock bumper across the back...

2.5 something years still holding up...lots of rough miles and trailer pulls...
http://www.delica.ca/forum/l300-swing-b ... -9154.html

I would be a little concerned about a rear'ender but the oil should soak up energy nicely!!!

Yokohama · Post by **Yokohama** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 8:28 pm

You should install an large fuel cell so you don't have to mess with the extra jugs. Maybe a plastic cell hung into a metal enclosure under the van floor.

One has to wonder about the benefits of carrying extra fuel versus keeping the weight down to maximize economy. You only really get the best fuel economy as you get to almost empty.

konadog · Post by **konadog** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 8:34 pm

Bummer! That stuff is nasty. I had a little bit dribble out of an "empty" cube once and was dealing with it for ages. Good luck.

Rattlenbang · Post by **Rattlenbang** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 9:00 pm

Glenn Delwood wrote:
Bummer man! I was thinking of the same setup for trips. I had my hitch made by a Delica specialist around here and don't know what its rating is. He said I can tow as much as my car van tow.
Where do you get your fuel? Are you filtering yourself?

I got the oil from a buddy who makes biodiesel. But I do run it through a 10 micron filter when I pump it into the tank.

thedjjack wrote:there is not much 'frame' back there to attach weight to.

When I did my bumper/hitch/tire mount I removed the stock bumper and put square tube inside the frame rails up to the shackles and then used the existing holes for the stock bumper across the back...

2.5 something years still holding up...lots of rough miles and trailer pulls...
http://www.delica.ca/forum/l300-swing-b ... -9154.html

I would be a little concerned about a rear'ender but the oil should soak up energy nicely!!!

There really isn't much back there but the PO was pretty creative, and it looks beefy. Just a bad weld let go. That, plus the guy installed it pointing down on a 45 degree angle, presumably so he didn't have to buy a drop-tongue for a trailer. But anything like this or a bike rack needs to be modified to work, as they need a horizontal hitch tube. Modifying the cargo rack to work with this crazy hitch weakened it as well. If I was going to keep the hitch like that I would have the rack welded to compensate, but I want the thing made proper or replaced with another hitch.

Yokohama wrote:You should install an large fuel cell so you don't have to mess with the extra jugs. Maybe a plastic cell hung into a metal enclosure under the van floor.

One has to wonder about the benefits of carrying extra fuel versus keeping the weight down to maximize economy. You only really get the best fuel economy as you get to almost empty.

There's really no space for a couple hundred litres in the van. It's this, on top, or pull a trailer. This option provides the least wind resistance and no trailer drag. But in the future I'll put the cubbies in a couple of big plastic totes from crappy tire or something. One of the jugs (the one I burned a hole through) dripped a bit on the ferry deck and they weren't happy at all. I came down to the car deck and they had a bunch of pads under it, and a boom around the thing.

Of course carrying oil is less efficient than sourcing as you go along, but at least it's a sure thing, and it's still better than burning fossil fuels (and the oil was free).

For some reason veggie oil is almost sinister in it's ability to spread around. Fortunately, I plan on replacing the rear carpet like I did the front.

Post by **BCDelica** » Mon Jul 29, 2013 5:04 pm

But glad you were close to home when the hitch broke! Would have been something else in the middle of nowhere.

Correct that a trailer, under, or inside the van is the best way to carry totes. I believe a boat is the best way to carry veggie totes, well because boats are fun to use at your destination. I also have carried over 400 lbs of WVO totes inside the L300, and was terribly worried about my spills. I had bought a van cargo mat with deep sides at a garage sale, and only carried the totes inside of this - though the deep mat full of totes would likely overflow with just the contents of leaking tote. Maybe one of the importers has one kicking around as a spare?

It was a little insurance, short road trips only need 1-4 totes, and not certain what these cost new?

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