Family Ventures Across the Country in Grease-Powered RV

There's no question that it's extremely expensive to travel in an RV. With the rising costs of fuel, most families cannot afford to take that classic American trek across the country. The typical RV averages just 3 to 8 miles per gallon in even the best of driving conditions.

Even the hybrid models that are set to hit the market next year only get slightly better mileage. Fuel costs are prohibiting many RV enthusiasts from hitting the road this summer. One family is seeking to change that.

Steve Adler had experimented with waste vegetable oil vehicles before in the garage of his Rhode Island home. He bought a diesel Mercedes and implemented a WVO kit produced by a small Portland, Oregon company called Frybrid. Within just a few weeks, he was up and running on grease. Steve was very excited about this new venture. Fast food joints became the new gas stations.

The technology is rather simple. Large fuel tanks are filled up with filtered waste vegetable oil. A small amount of diesel fuel is used for the initial engine start up so the grease can be heated. Once it reaches the proper temperature, a switch in the fuel system transfers the lines over to nothing but waste vegetable oil.

The vehicle will continue to run on the grease for the remainder of the ride. Most fast food joints and restaurants are more than happy to give up their waste oil for free. They have to pay special waste disposal companies to come and haul the stuff away, so they'll be more than happy to have you do all of the work.

The Adler family had enjoyed RV trips in the past. On a number of occasions, they rented a large RV and traveled different areas of the country. They began to consider another trip, but the rental and fuel costs made it financially difficult. After brainstorming, Steve and his wife came up with a crazy idea. What if you could eliminate the fuel cost completely by running an RV on recycled vegetable oil?

After consulting Frybrid and shopping around, Steve located an RV for sale in Oregon. The family got one way plane tickets and their journey began. Though the family was faced with a number of hurdles in both the conversion process and on the road, they managed to get their dream up and running and back to Rhode Island. In order to help recoup some of the costs, the grease guzzling RV is now available for rental.

By : E. B. Chuong