 All right, so it's been a couple of days. Yesterday I went out and did some headshots for my aunt, who is a new writer, has a book coming out. We'll chat about that later. Yeah, just kind of sorting up some things. Obviously I'm not in the bus anymore. Today I saw some pictures. Brian was posting in the bus doing some work on the cruise control, which I never turned on. And I was like, man, I miss traveling around. So I wanted to finally let you guys know the direction I'm heading. And if anybody can guess right now, throw it in the comments. But the reason for getting out of my bus is because it was so darn expensive for the diesel. So I have another idea of a way to make getting around the country a lot cheaper. For anyone who's a business type person, cash flow. I was having negative cash flow, basically the whole time, except for the Virgin Mobile part, which was just the first six months. But after that, over a year, just negative cash flow, which for any business is not good. And I look at my channel as a business because I'm trying to have it, it's basically my full-time job as far as my activities during the day. And I would love to get to the point where it can just sustain itself and just make movies and videos nonstop. That would be amazing. So I'm over here at my buddy's place and we're gonna get a tour of his rig because he has a great way to operate a bus with very, very little costs. So if anybody has a guess of what I'm thinking about doing with a full-size bus, with a diesel engine, hint and throw it in the comments because we're gonna go for a tour right now. All right, so if you guys saw my video back in October at the Tiny House Festival, you guys met Kyle before. Kyle is a bus converter by trade and the proud owner of the giant zombie apocalypse bus which is really dope. So we're gonna get a quick explanation of a vegetable oil and you've been running Veggie now for like 10 years. Yep, pretty much. That's awesome. All right, so what do we got here? So the system is a basic two-tank system. I've got an auxiliary veg fuel tank underneath the bus and it has a coolant heat exchanger in it. So I start up on diesel. That engine coolant warms the veg tank and once you get up to operating temp, you can basically flip the switch over and the selector valve goes and starts pulling fuel from the veg side of the system. So it brings veg fuel up to the engine compartment in a bundle that's all taped together with the coolant line. So it stays hot. It comes up here and it goes through this RayCore 900 series diesel water separator. It's got a 10 micron filter down in there and so that gets all of the small particulates out of the veg and then it gets run through another coolant pad heater. That's right back there tucked away behind it just to make sure that it's extra hot before it gets sent right into the injection pump. So it's a pretty basic system but it does really well on this engine especially. It's very simple to work on and yeah, that's basically it in a nutshell. All right and where's the injection pump? Can we see it from here? The injection pump is on the other side. On the other side? Yeah, it's in line. Let's, I want to see all the components. So after that, after that, it goes through that filter and that pad heater then it brings it over here and it goes into this lift pump right here which is what puts it into this beefy in line injection pump and that's what sends all the fuel off into the cylinder heads. Awesome. So yeah, and this over on this side you can see this right here is my sight glass. So this actually will show you, gives you a view of what exactly is going through your fuel line. So if you have any issues, you can see exactly what the engine's burning. But you use that to time the return system. So once you have an idea of how long it takes for a certain piece of fuel to get through your entire engine, you can see that, you can tell exactly how long it does take by looking through that sight glass because that sight glass is actually on the return side of things. So you use that to adjust the timing for the selector valve on the return side because with the diesel engine, not all of the fuel gets burnt. So it has to send the right fuel back to the right tank. This is the send line for the fuel, the veg fuel. It comes up here and it goes into this. This is the selector solenoid valve that goes between diesel. I've got my diesel line here and my veg line here. Okay, so you have an electronic switch. Yep, so that's just a manual switch on the inside. As soon as I'm up to temperature, I flip that switch and this goes from bringing diesel into the main fuel line which is on the other side here to bring a veg in. Okay, sweet. But then back here behind the injection pump, I've got a little purge valve. It's just a little Schrader valve that you can push down. And that helps you to, like when you're priming your system, getting any air bubbles out of the lines or if you have any mishaps where you like forget to tighten the filter down or you can introduce air into the system in any way. Run out of gas. Yeah, you run out of gas exactly. You can purge the air out of the fuel line with that little thing and it's super handy. So this system with the DT-466, the way that the fuel filter housing is built, it took a little bit more bypassing to get, because you don't want to put the veg fuel through the diesel fuel filter. Right. You want to keep the fuel filters separate. So this exact engine had a diesel fuel filter housing that was a little bit, it was a little bit more built in. So I had to, that was like really the only thing that took a little bit of brain power was just to sort of just schematic out on a piece of paper how that was going to get bypassed. And it was just a series of, getting a couple extra pieces of fuel line and some extra plumbing fittings to create a bypass for that. But that was really the only thing that was a little bit of a head scratcher on this one just because of the way that it was, the filter housing was built. But it's a very simple system. It's just separating these two fuel lines, these two fuel systems and having a switch that goes between the two. And the whole system's based on heat. So that's why it goes through this series of heaters. Keeps everything nice and warm because that's how you lower the viscosity of the veg fuel is by heating it up. Whereas like biodiesel is, is veg oil that is run through a chemical process to make it less viscous and enable it to be run in it. To make it thinner and yeah, all that stuff. Yeah, to be running an engine without modification. Whereas the straight veg system is based on heat. And estimate a cost that I'm looking towards to convert. This is all stuff that you can do yourself. I mean, it's stuff that you can put together at the hardware store. And I think one of the most complicated things about it is just getting the wiring set up for the solenoid valves, for the selector valves, the return and the supply valves. And I went through a company down in Corvallis called Enviofuel. And they basically what they do is put everything together for you and give you a manual. It's like an installation manual. So you can just follow the steps with these schematics. And that was most handy for the wiring side of things. As far as like everything else, it's all like really basic stuff that you can put together yourself. But it was nice to have a wiring manual to follow through and stuff like that. But as far as price-wise, I mean, it just depends on how much you wanna do yourself. I'd say probably somewhere with the price of a tank, if you're doing an interior tank that you can just use a repurposed old diesel tank. Or if you're gonna do a custom tank that's gonna be mounted underneath the bus somewhere, that's gonna cost you more money. But for a couple grand, you could have this whole system, which includes a refuel kit, which is like an on-board filtration system you can pull vetch from. A pump where you can take it out of the bins. Yep, exactly. You can pull it from waste bins behind restaurants. And probably spending a couple grand gets you that entire system. So look at it as an investment that's gonna pay itself off within a couple thousand miles of driving, really. Yeah, and for me, especially for this bus, we get about what, 10 miles per gallon. So depending on the capacity of the tank, you're probably looking at maybe 15 fill-ups at the price of diesel right now, which would pay for the whole system. And then at that point on, you're saving money pretty much. So can we look at the oil tank in the back? Yeah, exactly. This is actually the tank down here. Okay. It was a custom welded aluminum tank that I actually had to move a couple of things out of the way this compressed air tank right here for the brake lines. I had to move that forward. I had to move my air dryer forward a little bit to free up this space right here. So it took a little bit of just monkeying around down there, but this thing holds about 120 gallons of veg fuel. And I've got the heater lines coming in through the top of it, and they drop down into the top of the tank. So that like little stick. Yeah. And I also have a like a fuel sender. So I've got a regular old fuel gauge for my veg tank, which is super handy. So there's no guesswork. So you know how much you have? Yeah. And then you have some extra on the back, is that? Back here on my rack, I've got two auxiliary stored barrels, 55 gallon barrels. And this is actually my veg pump right here. Oh, sick. So that's the refuel kit for biofuel. Okay. So they sell this whole pump sucker thing, huh? They put this whole thing together for it. Is that another ReaCore filter, just some Micron filter? That's a GPI like standard like biodiesel or diesel fuel transfer pump. And then it has hose on both sides of it. This is the filter wand that you drop down into a dirty grease vat. And it has a mesh, stainless steel mesh filter on the end that part, filters out a certain amount of particulates. And then the pump itself also has a strainer and then they put on another barrel filter down here that has another smaller strainer on it. So that's like your main initial filtration system. So as you're pulling that fuel out of that vat, you're filtering it of particulates. So you get... So it's essentially, once it goes through this system here, it's clean enough to throw on the... It's relatively clean and it goes in the tank and then it goes from the tank through that Micron filter, which gets out. The ReaCore. So yeah, the ReaCore through all the smallest particulates and then it's ready to inject. So this thing, it's a pump that works on a dual switch, a dual directional switch. So you get to a certain point where you're done filling up your tanks and then you just back flow it in the other direction and that blows out with the liquid that's in the line. It blows out the stuff that's caught in the filters. So you're basically cleaning out the pump every time you use it. That's filtration system. That's pretty awesome. So yeah, so I've got these two barrels back here at 110 gallons of capacity combined and then I've got the 120 gallon tank back there. So I've got the ability to travel about 2,000 miles when I'm fully loaded with veg fuel at a time. So that's so cool. That is so cool. And then worst case scenario, you run out of oil or you can't find any oil and then your diesel system is still intact and so you just put diesel in the diesel tank. The diesel system's fully intact at all times and then you can also put diesel in the veg side too if you wanted to because heating up the diesel is not gonna cause any problems. I mean, actually the heater system that you use for the veg is actually a diesel system. It's for like keeping fuel temps up in very cold climates and keeping the tanks from gelling and stuff like that. So you can always fill your veg side with diesel too if you wanted to, you know? So you have a lot of flexibility and not limited. That's awesome, so yeah. Wow, look at this guys, what do you think? Throw in the comments below. This is a similar kind of system that I want. And like I said earlier, this is about correcting my cash flow and if I can get my hands on oil it's gonna be a lot cheaper to drive around and I'm sure tons of people who have restaurants or extra oil or places where they don't collect it as much with the biodiesel manufacturers or, you know, I'm sure people are gonna come out of the woodwork and offer me their oil because it's basically garbage in the unfiltered state. And then so inside the bus you have a little oil setup in here, could you explain that? Yeah, so this is the dashboard here and this is the veg system control center kind of. This is the fuel gauge for the tank and it just works like a normal diesel fuel gauge level. And these two switches control, this one on the left is the pad heater that is on the RayCore micron filter. And so when you start up the bus I basically just flip on that switch and that heats up the oil that's actually in the filter housing of that micron filter. So it just keeps everything up at the same temperature so that when you get up to temp you flip this switch on the right here and that is actually the control to flip the intake of the oil, right? Yeah, exactly. So that switches like down as diesel and up is oil or something. Up is oil, exactly. So that is like the selector for the intake. So you flip it up and then you're running veg. And I actually wired in a veg oil temperature reader over here, but I have found that that is pretty much completely unnecessary because I found that as long as the coolant is up to temperature, which you have a water temperature gauge on your dash and as long as the coolant is up at temp it just does its job. So it doesn't warrant like actually like viewing the oil temperature or like trying to like maintain the oil temperature via a temp gauge because you're basically your engine temp gauge is what's telling you what you need to know. Right, gotcha. And then how long does it take to start up the bus and then switch it over to oil? It depends on how much you're driving. I mean, so like if you were to just start the bus and let it idle, obviously it's gonna take a lot longer to get up to basically operating temperature for this bus is about 190. And that's like where you flip the selector valve. So, you know, you'll get there a lot faster if you drive, you know, I found that like in the dead of winter, you know, when the outside temperature is much colder, it's you're not gonna get up to temp until you get on the highway and start driving, you know. So it's like, it takes a little bit longer to warm up the engine when it's cold outside, but it really just depends on like how what the outside temperature is and how much you're actually driving. That makes sense. Yeah, yeah. So, but it's just, you know, pretty much, pretty straightforward, you know, as far as the engine temp is concerned, just as soon as your engine gets hot, then then you're switching over to veg because that means your veg is hot as well. Right now we're gonna get a brief tour of Kyle's bus. By the way, Kyle is a bus builder and if somebody wants a custom bus or an ambulance like the one in the back which you haven't guys seen yet, where can everybody find you and hire you? You can visit my website, kylevolkman.com V-O-L-K-M-A-N Yep. Sweet. Yeah, so this is the interior of the bus. I've got, actually got a roof raise in here and that's what gives it the interior headroom space. We were talking earlier about the benefits of that. I did it so that I could insulate to the maximum degree on the floor because this is something that I live in full time in the cold winter months. Roof raise was an expensive part of the bus conversion but it was definitely worth it in my opinion. But it is the single largest chunk that you will put forth. That's crazy to think about. Yeah, but that's what gives it the space. Like this cabinet is like sort of up above my head because of that if it wasn't raised, it would be a lot lower. So got my little bedroom back here with some closet space, shelving, you know what not. Down below here is a, this step folds up and it's like an access door that's main storage areas underneath the bed. My little bathroom here, I've got a dry composting toilet, super efficient and it doesn't use any water for your flushing so you're conserving water in that way. This is a tiny wood stove brand, dwarf four kilowatt wood burner, super efficient. Check those guys out. They've got great products and they're based in Idaho actually, met Nick at the Portland Tiny House Festival that we actually met at. I'm super, super happy with this product. It's very efficient, puts out a lot of heat. You put chips in there or pellets? You could burn that stuff. It's not a pallet stove though. It's just like a regular old wood stove. So it takes like 10 inch lengths of log. You can put in Presto logs, I guess maybe coal too if you wanted to go that route. Hey, they bring a coal back. Works really good, super happy about that. Yeah, and then this is just like the living space. I've got a little, you know, this is like the main table functions as the kitchen table and my desk space and everything like that. I've actually got, I inlaid a little map of the Pacific Northwest. Oh, nice. It's actually a hand drawn map from the 40s that I got at a map store and I put it underneath the glaze for the tabletop. That's super cool. Yeah, all the storage underneath the benches and the couch pulls out into a bed. It has storage underneath in the back as well. And yeah, you know, basic kitchen, three way fridge, water heater, cabinet space. This is a propane cooktop and oven combo. Did you get that out of an RV or? Yeah, this is like an RV grade. It's an Atwood brand. It's pretty common for RV applications but it's super efficient, you know. It, you go months and months and months without draining a five gallon tank of propane. I bet, I bet. Yeah, it's really nice. That's super cool. Yeah. Well, dude, thanks for the tour. Thank you so much for all the oil info. Absolutely. I am gonna try and meet up with your buddy and pick his brain a bit too. And also Kyle has a lead for me for buses which is super cool too. It's not too far away. What do you guys think? You like this layout? You like the oil bus idea? This is what I was kind of keeping, not really secret but this is what I was thinking of to continue, you know, the videos and the trip and stuff like that. So, what do you think? Let me know. It's up to me, I can't help it.