Which biggish veggie caravan hauler ?

[uk_vette]

Hi all,

I am soon to be looking for a biggish car that can run quite easy on veggie oil.
Estate, hatch or saloon, makes no difference.
Veggie oil wise, well either the new stuff out of Costco, or the cleaned filtered used stuff.
It needs to be pretty powerful to tug a twin axle caravan that I would be able to borrow from a menber of family.

I don't do that many mles, so a biggish engine is fine,

Ideas please ?

vette

[jackthelad1984]

omega 2.5td (bmw diesel engine), iv got one, have only experimented with chucking some oil in with diesel but it ran ok, it tows a treat to and they are fairly cheap.

[morgrp]

Original "100" shape Audi A6 or the Volvo 850/V70 TDI - both run the VAG 5pot TDI I believe this lump can run on oil - good tow car and decent poke too

[RichardD]

E300 TD Merc or some 4*4 ?

(What would the minimum vehicle weight be to pull a twin axled caravan?)

Edited by RichardD on Monday 26th March 13:14

[Ozzie Osmond]

uk_vette said:

I don't do that many mles....

So why feck about with vegetable oil???

[bakerstreet]

The 200TDi and 300TDi Land Rover Discos can run on Veg oil and they make excellant tow cars

[GreatGranny]

Budget?
Weight of caravan?

If its a 20'+ twin axled van you'll probably need a 4x4, the Jeep CRD are pretty cheap to buy. No idea how they run on veggie oil.

[uk_vette]

Caravan weighs 1800kg and is just over 7 meters long, so unfortunatly an Astra or Vectra isn't going to cut it.
The Omega or BMW, or a 300 Merc ? or a 4x4
How new can these be before they went to being unsuitable for veggie?

vette

[freecar]

By my calculations you'd want a car that weighs in at over 2100Kg (caravan 85% the weight of tow vehicle) so LWB Shogun or Pajero (pajero definitely does veg, or mine does) Discovery or some other such large wagon.

If you go by the manufacturers max weight it doesn't take into account towing a giant sail, if conditions get bad you ARE screwed!

[Crazysteve]

I had one of these for 6 years, pull down a house.
TOYOTA HILUX SURF 3.0 SSRX TD
Ran ok on veggie, with regular filter changes.
Milners at matlock pretty good for spares, and cheap.

[uk_vette]

Hi Steve,

I quite like the Surf.

Which one did, or have you still got?

Any down sides to running on Veggie?

Any good forums about Surfs running veggie?

vette

[bakerstreet]

Crazysteve said:

I had one of these for 6 years, pull down a house.
TOYOTA HILUX SURF 3.0 SSRX TD
Ran ok on veggie, with regular filter changes.
Milners at matlock pretty good for spares, and cheap.

Good shout! Very tough cars. Loads of space inside too. Shocking on fuel if memory serves.

[RichardD]

uk_vette said:

Caravan weighs 1800kg and is just over 7 meters long, so unfortunatly an Astra or Vectra isn't going to cut it.
The Omega or BMW, or a 300 Merc ? or a 4x4
How new can these be before they went to being unsuitable for veggie?

vette

The merc would be "TURBODIESEL" in the model, old school not commonrail (CDi), so mid/late 1990s.

With a proper twin tank conversion (starting on diesel from a startup tank, switching over to the main tank when the coolant is up to full temp), you are supposed to be able to run veg (SVO) on higher pressure fuel systems, but I've not encountered anyone doing this.

[300bhp/ton]

What's the current legalities of running on veg oil? And is there any difference between veg oil and sunflower oil?

[uk_vette]

Hi paddy,

Which Troopers? what years ?

vette

[RichardD]

300bhp/ton said:

What's the current legalities of running on veg oil? And is there any difference between veg oil and sunflower oil?

There is another thread on GG that gave a link for legalities, but it is 2500 litres a year.

"Veg" is a just a general term, sunflower is one of the best types of oil as it is liquid even in winter.

[300bhp/ton]

RichardD said:

There is another thread on GG that gave a link for legalities, but it is 2500 litres a year.

"Veg" is a just a general term, sunflower is one of the best types of oil as it is liquid even in winter.

Thanks, think I must have missed the other thread. Do you have to register with the HMRC or anything? Or have to keep record of the veg oil you use?

[sinizter]

300bhp/ton said:

Thanks, think I must have missed the other thread. Do you have to register with the HMRC or anything? Or have to keep record of the veg oil you use?

Not for the first 2500L.

But if you use 2501L, you have to register and pay duty for the whole amount.

[eltax91]

A LR product with a 200 or 300 TDi, job jobbed.

[RichardD]

300bhp/ton said:

Thanks, think I must have missed the other thread. Do you have to register with the HMRC or anything? Or have to keep record of the veg oil you use?

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

(That got a bit surreal with the OP claiming they could get oil for 20p a litre by the container load!)

and

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/ch...