SEMA 2008: Making Green Cool Zone trucks
Click above for high-res gallery of Making Green Cool Zone trucks from SEMA
We are so used to huge trucks with outlandish paint jobs at SEMA, that we barely noticed these monstrosities in one corner of the upper level of the South Hall. But then we spotted the "Making Green Cool Zone" banner hanging over them and decided to take a closer look. Along with the dozen or so cars and bikes on display there were some seriously non-green-looking trucks. Their carbon footprints might be small, but godalmighty were they huge.
There was an enormous 2006 Chevy Dually done up by eXtreme-Biodiesel to showcase their 4-hour, 40-gallon portable Extreme Green Machines that make biodiesel just about anywhere they want to. The truck itself gets 25 mpg, which might not seem too impressive until you read that the turbodiesel engine pumps out 1,000 hp and 1,200 ft. lbs. of torque.
Dino Fuel Alternatives (DFA) was also on hand with not one, but two veggie oil trucks. They had a Vegistroke Ford, which we already know is one fast truck, having won the Thundertruck drags with a time of 15.81 seconds, but they also claim it gets 144 mpg. DFA's Vegistroke system has been available for any PowerStroke motor, but the company just finished its new VegiRam system for the Cummins diesel engine also. It was displayed in a VegiRam Dodge dually painted up like a NASCAR Craftsman truck series competitor.
Johnathan Goodwin had another super-efficient Hummer in Vegas, this one an H1 model with E85, Biodiesel, and water boy stickers on it. We already told you about the other Hummer H1 at SEMA that has been converted by Zero South with tracks to do a South Pole run next year. Right now it's a rolling education center with video screens facing in so passengers can see project presentations. Wild Gator Racing brought out a specially-prepped E85 Chevy Silverado that looked trail-ready.
Then we saw our favorite vehicle of the day, Baby. It's an old Japanese fire truck that was converted to run on natural oils and has become an ambassador for alternative fuels and environmental issues as it made its way around the world. Baby was featured in the award-winning documentary Oil + Water, and is now on the Kavu Elements Nature Propelled educational tour. Besides being able to run on just about any kind of oil, Baby also uses vehicle motion, sun, wind and water to store and use energy so the team can run off the grid when parked. The whole thing opens up too, with sleeping areas and a stage for movie showings, concerts and presentations. Very, very cool. See it in the gallery below (of just click here).
Gallery: SEMA 2008: Green trucks
Photos copyright ©2008 Frank Filipponio/Weblogs, Inc.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
me2 1:45PM (11/10/2008)
Where do you guys have your heads to think that a 4 ton truck making 10 MPG is cool or environmentally friendly ?
Wow, it burns biodiesel, aka cooking oil. :shakeshead:
Reply
Gordio 4:07PM (11/10/2008)
The CO2 from Biodiesel came from the atmosphere. For crops to grow, they extract CO2 from the sky, so when you burn it, it returns it. So it's carbon neutral (in theory, provided the nitrogen emissions from the bacterial is low)
So biodiesel (with that assumption I mentioned) is eco freindly, whether 10mpg or 20 mpg or 50 mpg.
Reply
gulags 6:57PM (11/10/2008)
Because those "crops" just magically go from the ground into the gas tank, right? There couldn't be any energy expended by other vehicles to harvest it, and process it into fuel, and transport that fuel. To say nothing of the additional waste if these were food crops that had been chemically fertilized.
You're right, it couldn't get any greener!