Attached to my...... car????

[Hilary B]

Waste veg oil needs treating because of the contaminats from food, plus there will be water in the oil which will not be removed when just skimmed or filtered.

Even running it 50/50 with straight veg oil leaves deposits in the engine due to the heavier molecular structure of the veg oil. This can damage the engine to the point of it being irrepairable.

I know a chap at a garage who deals with this problem, he says even a bosch (the recommended injection system) system won't prevent it. He runs his recovery truck on converted waste veg oil. He wouldn't put unconverted WVO in any engine.
When using WVO or SVO goes wrong, it gets expensive.

The poster who first mentioned using old veggie oil was talking about an old land rover. They are a lot more robust, and rather less fussy, than a modern diesel.....
It does need thorough 'cleaning' but I am far from convinced that the 'additives' are vital in an old, pre-turbo engine.

[Paul Wagland]

Whoever said that this country isn't set up for non-car users hit the nail on the head. I live bang in the middle of Colchester, yet still need a car most days. Granted, some of that is due to habit (and laziness on occasion) but if I need to move a load of timber from B&Q to the allotment, with camera, puppy and packed lunch in tow, I can't do that on a bus. It used to be the case that there would be hardware stores, grocers etc every few miles, and most would deliver for free, but now everything is in the same place - three miles out of town on what used to be rolling farmland.

Jeannine and I have two vehicles. One is a camper van which is used rarely and helps persuade us not to fly when we have holidays. The other is a four-year-old Audi A4 estate - a workhorse. I used to drive a 1990 Ford Escort estate, thinking that I was saving on carbon by reducing the demand for new cars. I did my research and in fact embodied energy is only about 5% of a car's lifetime carbon footprint - it's actually more 'green' to update to a newer, cleaner vehicle and let the old car be recycled. A case in point - my 2litre Audi gives 8 more MPG than my old 1.6litre Escort.

I'm looking for a way to move heavy loads by bike - does anyone know anything about bike trailers? Maybe even battery assisted ones? Maybe I can build my own....

[Cloud]

I have worked in the motor trade all my working life.I love cars the flashier and faster the better[I know its not very eco friendly].I love watching Top Gear it's my fave.
.I knew someone who ran their rover diesel purely on used chip fat without any problems
apart from the smoke!