4.40 A Gallon..or 2.99 A Gallon? What Whould You Buy

YA*AM*A*HEAD

YA*AM*A*HEAD

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well guys with the cost of gas i know next season wont be cheap on fuel.. i have been reading on the e85 which is pretty common now and a dollar something cheaper..can this be ran in a srx they say it is like 110 octane...a srx should love this fuel ??? will it damage the motor or any fuel system parts? anyone ever used it for a prolonged period of time ,,season ?? any thoughts good and bad i would like to hear thanks
 
Even if you could get a high enough octane rating to where the engine didnt sieze, E85 would eat up the fuel lines.
Vehicles that are "flex fuel" have different fuel lines which are more resistant to the corrosive nature of E85.
 
ExpertXViper said:
Dont plan on E85 being around much longer either.
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Why would anyone make that statement. With the number of ethonal plants going up and the increase in demand, what would be the reason for it to dissappear. Maxdlx
 
maxdlx said:
Why would anyone make that statement. With the number of ethonal plants going up and the increase in demand, what would be the reason for it to dissappear. Maxdlx
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Corn doesnt FEED just us humans, it also feeds the livestock we eat everyday. The more and more we use corn for fuel the demand will end up lying somewhere else, like the Grocery Store so well end up seeing increase there. I also dont know how big E85 has hit in Iowa but here in MI I dont see to many gas stations with E85, Velaro is about the only place I see carrying it. Plus for what you pay and the MPG(which isnt great) you get with E85 its basically a wash if not a loss. Im sorry I cant see it getting that big that it would support our demand for fuel, I really dont but thats how I see it.

H2O should be one of our main sources of ENERGY end of story. No Pollution and we obviously have a mass supply of it.

You long haul truck drivers will hate me for this one but Trains need to be used more for mass transit of products and people. Their much more fuel and energy efficent than any semi truck and will haul much more product.

Just my .02
 
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ExpertXViper said:
Corn doesnt FEED just us humans, it also feeds the livestock we eat everyday. The more and more we use corn for fuel the demand will end up lying somewhere else, like the Grocery Store so well end up seeing increase there. I also dont know how big E85 has hit in Iowa but here in MI I dont see to many gas stations with E85, Velaro is about the only place I see carrying it. Plus for what you pay and the MPG(which isnt great) you get with E85 its basically a wash if not a loss. Im sorry I cant see it getting that big that it would support our demand for fuel, I really dont but thats how I see it.

H2O should be one of our main sources of ENERGY end of story. No Pollution and we obviously have a mass supply of it.

You long haul truck drivers will hate me for this one but Trains need to be used more for mass transit of products and people. Their much more fuel and energy efficent than any semi truck and will haul much more product.

Just my .02
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Ok, well trains do alot the way it is, not every supermarket, gas station, etc is conviently located right off the tracks... Trucks need to bring it locally, tell that to the millions of drivers, yea it costs 1200 bucks to fill each of them up. Lets just tear down the highways and have every one take a train to visit relatives, not logical. Its cheaper to Run food in a reefer then it would be to get it all on the train, would cost the supplier a $hit ton more to get it on a train.... Railroads are becoming extinct, Diesel technology in Big rigs a is getting more and more advanced, and can only get so fuel efficient, The trucking companies are setting the governers lower to about 55-60 mph now to get the best fuel efficiency.

There is no shortage of fuel, oil companies for some reason feel the need to jack up the prices.... Things are no different now, then they were 10 years ago when fuel was 1.50 a gallon.... Now everyone wants to go green.... 2010 is going to be a mile stone for truckers, new ceramic filters are being fitted to the exhausts... and everything will be EUI or HEUI.

Trains have 16 cylinder Diesel engines in them with 1000 gallon tanks, that costs a bit to fill up, They are so efficient because once they get goin the half mile long weight is pushing them along.
 
Ok, well trains do alot the way it is, not every supermarket, gas station, etc is conviently located right off the tracks... Trucks need to bring it locally, tell that to the millions of drivers, yea it costs 1200 bucks to fill each of them up. Lets just tear down the highways and have every one take a train to visit relatives, not logical. Its cheaper to Run food in a reefer then it would be to get it all on the train, would cost the supplier a $hit ton more to get it on a train.... Railroads are becoming extinct, Diesel technology in Big rigs a is getting more and more advanced, and can only get so fuel efficient, The trucking companies are setting the governers lower to about 55-60 mph now to get the best fuel efficiency.

*Note that I said "long haul drivers" which in my eyes is someone that is on the road for days possibly weeks at a time running state to state, not a 12-14hr shift(day run).

*Your bit on trains being extinct and not efficent, read your facts bud. CSX has been around for many many years and going strong. CSX runs through 23 states(but what about the other 25 main land states????) and have spent 1 billion dollars to upgrade thier fleet to reduce fuel coonsumption and air pollutant's. CSX have increased fuel efficiency 80% since 1980, seems pretty damn good IMO.

http://www.csx.com/share/media/media/docs/GenSet_release-REF24333.pdf

*^^^^Note that the GenSet Loco will be used for switching loads, thats actually where the most energy is needed since there constantly throttling up and down.

*Also most trains nowadays have diesel engines but thats not what actually propels the train, they used the d-engine to drive generators turning that energy into electricity which can be stored and used.
 
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Back to the question, Im curious myslef to know, although I will probably see E85 in the UP where I ride.

I imagine you would have to get some differnt fuel lines not to mention how bad it would eat up the rest of the fuel system. I sure you would have to go up about 5 jet sizes. it would be a pain to get it right
 
Ethanol has only about one third of the energy potential of an equal volume of gasoline. If you have to buy that much more are you really saving money?

All of these new ethanol plants are a bad idea. They will be outdated before they're even built.
 
E85 Is as bad a pollutant as petrol is and may prove soon to be worse. Even the environmentalists are turning against it. The estimated oil reserves of the US is 420 years worth at our present consumption rate. It will take 10 years to increase our supply from drilling and building new refineries, so it is time to expand. Using food resources that are supplemented by the government to power a snowmobile/car/anything just seems really stupid IMO. The only people that love E85 are the farmers, they are getting rich off government supplements and selling corn at a premium $.
 
Im really not a fan of E85 either. As was said, it raises the cost of corn which raises the cost of other foods (especially animals who get fed corn). Also, the plants which product E85 cause more pollution than does the emissions from vehicles that run on gasoline and you dont get as much energy from E85 as you do from gasoline.
E85 is nothing more than a band-aid for our long-term energy needs. Hopefully they will find a way to make hydrogen affordable in the not-so-distant future.
Id agree that there isnt really a shortage of oil, its just that its in such high demand right now because you have countries like China and India that are having higher standards of living nowdays, so you have more and more people owning cars and more and more oil being consumed.
Sure, the OPEC nations could increase demand, but seriously, if you were them, would you? Why would you increase production and drive down the value of oil when you could maintain the current rate of production and rake in the money. Someday, when the oil is all gone, those countries are going to be screwed, so they are going to make as much money as they can, while they can.
Sorry, about getting off-topic here, but I felt it needed to be said...
 
Ethanol is not the answer for the U.S. right now and it never will be. I'm not a fan of that stuff. All the farmers here are in favor of it(it's good for them) but it is just a short term half *** solution to a bigger problem.

Brazil is fully self sufficient running their vehicles on ethanol, they bring in no imports and all their vehicles run on 100% ethanol. The U.S. will never get to that point, we have too many people and don't have the climate to grow as much corn as they do. Ethanol is not the answer for the U.S.
 
I heard on the news radio the other day, they said gas prices will be 12-15 dollars a gallon by the year 2015. WHY!!! everyone Buy crotch Rockets! their fast, fun, and easy on fuel!
 
GREAT POSTS EXPERTXVIPER!!!!! E85 puts TWICE the 'CARBON FOOTPRINT" on the world and it is an ABORTION of all ABORTIONS!!! it was designed to get the ILLINOIS FARMERS filthy rich and did a REAL GOOD JOB in 2007!!!! The Illinois corn crop is HURTING REAL BAD because of this COLD weather that has been going on lately... Buy a chicago newspaper and look at the futures!!!! it's self explanitory....E85 will NOT BE AROUND much longer if the TREE HUGGERS get ahold of the DAMAGE and destruction it causes!!! GASOLINE is a LOT more "earth friendly" than E85... yes,, I have studies to PROVE IT!!!!!!
 
We farm 1200 acres here in s.e michigan and we aren't getting rich doing it let me tell ya. Take a look at fertalizer prices, they have tripled in the last year. Then put fuel prices on top of that. About 12-14 thousand to fill our fuel tanks at the farm. Last year we put in about 800 acres of corn, this year about 300. This is because its so damned exspensive to put in corn now. E85 is doing nothing for us and it never will. We went through this whole thing back in the early 80's and it was a flop, now its on a bigger scale. Lots more money wasted.
 
I don't mean to hyjack(I will start my own thread if you want) but what are people's thoughts about taking off the fuel tax during the summer months? John McCain and Hillary Clinton both seem to think it's a good idea. This is one area where I agree with Obama, I think it's dumb to be blunt and will only give us cheaper gas for 2-3 weeks before the price goes up again. Many roads are already crappy, where do people think the money is going to come from to make up for the lost fuel tax money?

It sucks but I think the only way we're going to get away from this fiasco is with cars that run on something other than oil. Water, hydrogen, solar, whatever it may be. We should've been doing this 10 years ago but we were all taking the $1 gas for granted. Not to put politics into this but I don't think the situation is going to get any better no matter who is elected.
 
Brazil is fully self sufficient running their vehicles on ethanol, they bring in no imports and all their vehicles run on 100% ethanol. The U.S. will never get to that point, we have too many people and don't have the climate to grow as much corn as they do. Ethanol is not the answer for the U.S.[/QUOTE]


Agreed. But brazil uses soy to make their ethanol, which yields more ethanol per ton than corn does. So the big question is, why don't we use more soy to make more ethanol? Corn industry lobbyists. There is a lot of money to be made from and by corn farmers, maybe not in Michigan, but definitely in other places in America. Maybe Iowa or Nebraska? As for other technologies, such as water or hydrogen, personally, I don't like the idea of running around with a high pressure hydrogen tank strapped to my car, and if we did get the technology to run cars on water, then we'd probably figure out too late that we f**cked up our water supply to where we can't get it back. Electric cars will just put more burden on the power plants and we'll whine about their pollution. I just don't see any long term solution to this other than going back to the horse and buggy. Maybe we could reverse engineer that car from Back to the Future with the fusion drive that runs on trash.
 
shortstop20 said:
I don't mean to hyjack(I will start my own thread if you want) but what are people's thoughts about taking off the fuel tax during the summer months? John McCain and Hillary Clinton both seem to think it's a good idea. This is one area where I agree with Obama, I think it's dumb to be blunt and will only give us cheaper gas for 2-3 weeks before the price goes up again. Many roads are already crappy, where do people think the money is going to come from to make up for the lost fuel tax money?

It sucks but I think the only way we're going to get away from this fiasco is with cars that run on something other than oil. Water, hydrogen, solar, whatever it may be. We should've been doing this 10 years ago but we were all taking the $1 gas for granted. Not to put politics into this but I don't think the situation is going to get any better no matter who is elected.
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IMO, McCain and Clinton were just trying to buy votes with that idea. Taking away the gas tax is only going to drop the price of gas by about .15 per gallon. That equates to $2-$3 per fillup. IMO, it wont make much of a difference.
People dont like to hear this, but its really in their hands. For years you had people who didnt need a big SUV driving big SUVs. They drove them because it was a status symbol and because it made them look cool. Now you have gas around $4 a gallon and you are seeing a lot of people trying to trade their gas guzzlers in on smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles. IMO, this is a real common sense wakeup call that has made people reevaluate the kind of vehicles they drive.
For most of us on this site, we really dont have much of a choice. We need a bigger vehicle to haul our sleds. Id love to be able to get by with a Camry, Corolla or even a Yaris; but those just arent practical vehicles for me.
Im planning on downsizing to a Tacoma (or whatever small truck Toyota comes out with) when it comes time to retire my F-150, but my options in terms of saving gas by downsizing the vehicle I drive are pretty limited.
Like it or not, I think life as most of us know it is over. I believe that the days of cheap gas are gone.
 
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