I PASS GAS

I'm in the planning stages of home brewing biodiesel. I'm trying to figure out all the equipment I will need, what I am going to have to design/build.

Before anything can be done, you need WVO, this would be pumped from reseraunt waste tanks. I am thinking about running a 12v pump with a 7 pin plug into the trailer harness. However, I really don't know how much amperage the harness will support. Looking at the wires, it looks pretty small gauge stuff. But I do know that this is what will charge RV batteries, so I'm not really sure.

The pump I am looking at is 7.5 amps to start, 5 amps continuous.

To clear up why I would do this is because I would be carrying the barrels in my utility trailer, not the truck. So I would be disconnecting my trailer harness and connecting the pump while I pump the WVO. I would plug the trailer back in when I'm done.

On a side note, are there any homebrewers in here? I'm really trying to get this up and runnig come summer time. The price of fuel is becoming unreal.

Thanks in advance!

akghound

I have a 96 2500 4x4 that I have converted to WVO. It seems to me that brewing Bio from WVO is a lot of extra work. Check out http://www.frybrid.com/forum/ if you are interested. Good luck ... Ken

BoostdCTD

Assuming the power cable is the same gauge wire as the brake, it can handle about 15amps. I came up with this figure since a tandem axle with full brakes on a Jordan controller is a little over 10A, it is setup for upto triple axles....

I've filtered and ran some WVO before but the hassle of carrying it in my trunk and transfer with 5 gallon buckets made it less than appealing. Once I get my truck I'll either have a 55gal drum in back or get a trailer to keep the stuff in.

torquefan

If the wire is 14 gauge, it should be good for 15 amps. I can't see it being any smaller than that.

got...DIESEL?

it'll handle the amps for a while, but those posted start and run amps are at nominal voltages. You won't see nominal voltages because of the length of the run if it's only 14 ga. The lower voltage will create higher current, which DC motors REALLY don't like. Check out this site for a wire ampacity chart. This chart assumes a 5% loss to run. I like 3%, but I'm in the marine market where 5%-10% is not aceptable. Keep in mind these run lengths are ONE WAY. You need to double the run length for a ground return, unless the plug grounds the frame nearby.

http://www.skingco.com/portable_powe...size_chart.htm

Chris

infidel

If I were doing it I'd buy a 12 gauge extension cord and run to the back straight from the battery with an inline fuse up front. Pumping oil can get tough when it gets cold, the pump might start working harder drawing more amps and take out your factory wiring.

torquefan

How about one of those little pumps you can run off a cordless drill? I've used those to pump gear oil out of a differential. Just keep your spare battery on standby.

BoostdCTD

Some of the better setups I've seen encompassed a vacuum pump and sometimes pressure. Unless it is really cold out vacuum can be put on the collection tank and pressure on the tank collecting from, depending on setup there. I think the drill pump has a problem with priming but if you had a good cordless it could work out well.

Mopar1973man

I PASS GAS,

Here is a link for maximum load limits for guage of wire...

This will help out for long runs and what the wiring can take total...

Wiring Load Limit

I PASS GAS

You guys are great, great answers.

Another question:

This is going to be a pretty permanent setup, so what if I mounted a battery on my trailer and hooked the pump up to that? Let the truck charge it continuously while the trailer is hooked up?

What type of battery would I need. Would one of those break-away batteries for trailer brake set ups work?

Mopar1973man

Personally,

I would opt for a Deep Cycle Battery of some sort. Large CCA rating.

I would actually add a battery isolator or a disconnect relay (powered by the truck ignition) to the system to keep the trailer acc. from eating the truck batteries. That way you could run the trailer acc. until the battery died and not hurt the truck batteries. Then you could start the truck and recharge both sets of batteries...

Just my 2 cents on it!

roadranger

I run a 1500 lb Superwinch on one of my trailers- draws about 12 amps.
The trailer has electric brakes with a small breakaway battery, which the +12v wire in the plug charges up, and the winch is tied into that +12v line.

The winch will actually run off the breakaway battery itself, but will quickly kill it. The breakaway battery is too small.

I let the truck idle whenever actually winching my track speeder up onto the trailer, and it works fine.

If you don't want to idle you truck while pumping, a fullsize large battery should run the pump well with the engine off, and then when you're driving home the truck will re-charge the battery.

akghound

I have a Cummins that is converted to run WVO. I pump a lot WVO with a 12 volt gear pump. This pump pulls 10 amps, the always hot trailer accessory terminal on the plug seems to work just fine for me. However your second idea of using a second battery is even better. That being said, after pumping WVO for a while now I find it is a royal PITA. Using the pump I have it takes about 45 minutes to 1 hr. to pump 50 gallons. Actually the best deal is to find a place that will give you the used oil in the original cubies. I have 2 places that do this. My next step will be to build a WVO Sucker using vacuum to retrieve WVO. Here is a post on how to make one.
http://vegoilconversions.netfirms.co...(low%20KB).pdf
In fact this guy has a lot of info on collecting and filtering WVO, some of the best out there.
www.vegoilconversions.netfirms.com
Hope this helps. Ken

BoostdCTD

Looks like you have to go here first, http://vegoilconversions.netfirms.com/newpage1.htm before downloading those pdfs.

You guys ever have a problem getting sources? I asked about 4 places already, 3 of them said I was nuts and no, one said I was nuts and yes. But for all out WVO use I doubt it'd be enough and it was really filthy, in filtering 15gallons of WVO I had to empty the sock filter twice! So I'd rather find another place, perhaps with higher volume.

Anyway, ideally I'd rather either use a vacuum sucker/ pressure method or just get a "truck crane" and swap barrels. I bet a hot water heater would be a lot easier to come by than a water tank, I wouldn't want to buy one just to destroy it.

bmoeller

We use GPI pumps at the farm where I work. We just use a regular car battery to run the pump. We used to run an extention cord up to the batteries on the semi, while pumping, but this works better for us. We use the pumps for the 110gal. mini-bulk herbicide tanks. The batteries last quite a while, before needing to be recharged. The stuff we pump, is pretty think stuff, too.

What type of pump are you using? We use gear pumps. Fairly fast. It should cut the pumping time in half, or more.

http://www.dultmeier.com/search.asp?...d=yes&manu=GPI