The Feral Green Fuel System

Feral Green is an overland green surf expedition passing through Mexico, Central and South America. We are driving a Ford F-350 diesel and towing an Adventure Trailers, Chaser Trailer.

The trip started as a desire to surf the breaks down the pan American highway, but the team wanted to bring more depth to the trip. While everyone worked in various industries, they all had a common passion for the environment, and a concern for raising awareness about pollution levels in the ocean.

In order to add more meaning to the trip, the Feral Green Team coordinated with WetSand and Joel Harper to distribute children's books discussing the harmful effects of littering and pollution in the ocean. It was also decided to make the entire trip Carbon Neutral.

Feral Green installed a Vegetable Oil conversion on the F350 truck from LoveCraft Systems. This conversion allows us to run our truck on used vegetable oil from the deep frier's of restaurants throughout Central and South America. The LoveCraft conversion uses the stock gas tank, which allows us to use both vegetable oil and / or diesel. Our goal was to run 100% Veg oil, but when we traveled to remote areas, we were glad we had the ability to purchase diesel and run that as well.

The Veg Oil conversion is very simple. It works by removing the existing fuel filter and replacing it with a LoveCraft fuel filter and heater system that mounts right next to the alternator. The LoveCraft System uses a 10 micron filter bag and a heater core that heats everything that passes through it to 180 degrees. Whether it is Veg Oil or Diesel, everything exits the fuel pump, passes through the 10 micron filter bag, is heated to 180 degrees and then goes through the fuel injectors and into the motor. You see, Vegetable oil heated to 180 degrees has the same viscosity as diesel and functions exactly the same in our Ford 7.3L diesel motor.

The first diesel motor, which was invented by Dr. Diesel, functioned using peanut oil. As the petroleum industry grew, cars were changed from peanut oil, to the abundant supply of diesel at the time. The motors maintained the capability to function on vegetable oil. Therefore, by heating the vegetable oil to 180 degrees and running it through a filter to remove any latent food
particles, we are able to run our truck on restaurant´s old and otherwise useless veg oil.

This oil, which would otherwise be thrown into the ground and polluting the environment, now supplies our truck with fuel for our epic 40,000 road trip to the bottom of South America. One of the great things about burning the veg is that our exhaust smells like the food that has been cooked with the veg oil. If we get our veg from a taco shop, our exhaust smells like tacos. If we score some veg from a Thai place, our Veg smells like Pad Thai Chicken.

Our truck has been making people hungry for the last 2.5 months. In addition to a wonderful smell, the veg oil is clean burning and 100% free. It is a great deal and we have been educating people on its benefits all throughout our journey.