Finding Gas Stations that Sell E85 Ethanol

I’ve been touting the advantages of E85 Ethanol-compatible “flexible fuel” vehicles for many months. I recently put my money where my mouth is, and bought a flexible fuel 2003 Ford Explorer 4WD for us here at the ranch. The Explorer replaced our not-so-gracefully aging 1989 Suburban. (It had 205,000 miles on the clock, lots of non-functional subsystems, and it was starting to lose compression on the grades.)

Assuming that you buy a Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV), where do you find fuel? If you live in Brazil or Sweden, no sweat. E85 is found at the majority of gas stations. But here in the States, E85 is just starting to catch on. (In 10 years it is anticipated that the majority of vehicles sold in the U.S. will be built to burn it, but for now, the ethanol distribution infrastructure is spotty.) Here are two different web sites that it will help you find E85: http://e85vehicles.com/e85-stations.htm  and   http://afdcmap.nrel.gov/locator/LocatePane.asp

Minnesota, Illinois, and Iowa have the highest concentrations of gas stations with an E85 pump, but Colorado is catching up quickly. For those of you with no E85 station nearby, don’t despair. Odds are that there will be within the next few years. 

If you want to store E85 (85% ethanol) at your retreat, remember that it is best to buy your storage fuel in mid-winter, when stations will have a the winter blend variety in their tanks. (The winter blend is actually 70% ethanol and 30% gasoline (“E70”), whereas the summer blend is an 85/15 mix.) The winter blend is designed to prevent hard starting during very cold weather. (And the gasoline itself in the E85 blend will be a winter blend, with more butane–again to help with cold weather starting.)

E70 has a longer storage life than E85. Be absolutely certain that your storage tanks are well sealed to prevent the fuel drawing moisture. Ethanol has a strong affinity for moisture (“hygroscopic”), and once it has been contaminated by water, it will make engines run rough and cause excessive mechanical wear, particularly when engines are warming up.

Rourke on: Establishing a Survivalist E-Mail/Cellular/Wireless PDA Alert System

How can you best avoid being caught in the egress gridlock of sheeple? The best answer to that problem is having the critical information first, allowing you to bug out prior to everyone else. If you are ready to go, or ready to do what you need to do, a few hours or even minutes may be all the edge you need.
The information age is becoming the instant information age, but the problem becomes filtering out what you don’t want (too much information, then again you can just watch major media and let them filter out what they don’t want you to see). New advances in web search tools in conjunction with email alert systems seem to be the way of the future, and for many types of useful information, are here now. The original concept of alert systems in nothing new. Remember those several weather alert radio cubes from Radio Shack in the 1970s? Even back in the late 1980s surfers in California could pay for a service that would page their phone pagers (this is before practical cell phones even) and alert them that in their area, surf’s up!
Listed below are several things you can do with email and web access for free. You critical problem is, how many hours a day or night are you away from your emails. You don’t want to log on in the morning to see a seven hour old alert you needed. The best 24/7 solution seems to be the ever present cell phone, especially if you could use an always-on distinctive ring for selected emergency incoming text or email messages/warnings. Clearly your cell phone is going to be your email link, your PDA, your MP3, personal important data, and your personal phone number that stays with you for life. So with the means to know or shortly alert yourself of danger, the final issue seems to be that there really is not a 24/7 alert system that goes beyond the mere public information sources I list below. This I believe is an open area, so I therefore offer this concept to the readers of SurvivalBlog and the results of some polling I have done on it.

Image a Survivalist paging system that on a 24/7 basis monitors serious threats regionally (where you were), and if something of a certain level of significance (risk level) came up suddenly, people in that area are immediately alerted by their cell phone (as well as email). In a fictional work I am presently writing, I pursue this concept with a 2009 example of just such a service. This service monitors everything below, international news wires, ham radio communications, certain police and fire bands, and as any professional investigator will tell you, has some inside sources in high places as well as thousands of cooperative people ready to give tips if they hear something. Most notices are sent by e-mail, but in that urgent moment, the customer’s cell phone is paged with a text message describing the warning which overrides the no ringer function. A Confidence Factor Index (CFI) is given with it, in the form of a percentage (1 to 100) of how sure the service administrator is as to the veracity of the information, based on an established set of criteria. Note that we live in a “gray” world [with nothing 100% black or white], and thus 100% certainty is not possible until after official, after-the-fact confirmation, and even then there may be doubt. Based on some polling that I did, I set the fee at $1 per month for that service (the service does other things too). A real service would have to figure the elasticity of demand on this versus how few would want it. The survival community is small and stingy, but the one buck per month seemed to be what a lot of people could part with, for a service that could of course, save your life by giving you the edge. Obviously in the story, it does, or at least helps quite a bit. Again, aspects of this idea are already up in a running in the general news service world.

Here is an example of a progressive news service that is already set up for wireless, especially if your cell phone is also your PDA: http://www.news.com.au/alerts/?from=ninews_leftnav. Meanwhile, the NOAA also has a new weather center for cell phones. See: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/wml

Listed below are some free Internet services you can use now. Enjoy these, and please e-mail mention of any additional ones that you find to SurvivalBlog.

Alerts to your email you can set for free now:
Terrorist Alerts http://www.terroristwarning.com/
News Alerts by CNN, you can control why area of news: http://edition.cnn.com/youralerts/
News or Web alerts using your own key words: http://www.google.com/alerts   (try doing “Bird Flu”, you won’t believe how many you get each day)
Severe Weather Alerts: http://www.weather.com/services/alerts.html?from=servicesindex
Weather, Alerts for your area: http://www.weathercenter.com/personalforecast/ (or find a station in your local area, this is an example)
Earthquakes in your area: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/products/services.html#email
Conditions in Space: http://www.sec.noaa.gov/alerts/

Examples of things that you can monitor on original source web sites:
Current National Weather Information: http://www.weather.gov/
National Weather Radar: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/radar/
Earthquakes – http://earthquake.usgs.gov/
The Jet Stream: (where is fall out going) http://virga.sfsu.edu/gif/jetstream_init_00.gif
Near Earth Object Program: (Asteroid/Comet Watch) http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/
Space Weather: http://www.sec.noaa.gov/
World Tsunami, Volcano, Earth quakes: http://map.ngdc.noaa.gov/website/seg/hazards_pacific/viewer.htm

As an example of real time video cameras you can log into:
Volcano camera on Mount. St. Helens http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/volcanocams/msh/
If you wish to look to the government for help (actually this is some good stuff):
Homeland Security: http://www.ready.gov/
FEMA‘s web site: http://www.fema.gov/
White House page: http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/homeland/
US Dept. of Defense: http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/homeland/
Centers for Disease Control: http://www.cdc.gov/ (Be sure to check for your local, county, municipal, and state sites too)

Some Nuclear sites:
Nuclear Targets from Bruce Beach: http://www.radmeters4u.com/list.htm (Newcomers to Survivalism should be aware of this classic site)
Nuclear Power Plants and current operational status in USA: http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/no_nukes/nukelist1.htm#MN

Having access to critical and timely information and alerts, as well as looking ahead and staying aware can give you the edge to be one of few, the proud–not one of the many, the crowd. – Rourke  (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/survivalretreat)

JWR Adds: I think that Rourke’s idea has some merit.  The crowds of grossly under-prepared refugees clogging the highways, attempting to escape Houston as Hurricane Rita approached were a prime example. Traffic was backed up for 8+ hours and many cars ran out of gas. This incident was ample evidence that a few hours extra notice could very well make a big difference in Getting Out of Dodge (G.O.O.D.) successfully. In a nuke scenario, the highways near a blast will probably look like a parking lot in short order–due to EMP effects and/or cars running out of gas, leaving many folks stranded on foot.

OBTW, I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: I am NOT an advocate of living in a city or suburb and counting on the ability to G.O.O.D. at the 11th hour! If you must live in the Dirty Big City, then at least show the foresight to pre-position 90% of your logistics at your retreat. Odds are that you will only have one trip Outta Dodge! It would be a shame to have to leave most of your gear at home!

Letter Re: Which Rifle and Caliber is the Best for TEOTWAWKI?

Dear Jim,
For once and for all, which rifle and caliber is the best for the end of days? Let the discussion begin.
Sincerely, – 2Knives

JWR Replies:  I’ll open the discussion with these oh-so subjective suggestions (YMMV):

  • United States (Except California): L1A1 or FN/FAL in 7.62mm NATO
  • California: FN-49 .308 Argentine Variant (in 7.62mm NATO with 20 round detachable magazines)–most other effective semi-autos rifles are banned
  • Central America (except Mexico)/South America/Anywhere in Africa/Oceania: FN/FAL in 7.62mm NATO
  • Philippines: M14E2, in 7.62mm NATO, selective fire. Why selective fire? Just because you can.
  • Canada: M1 Garand in .30-06.  (Thankfully exempted from their draconian “assault weapon” confiscation law.)
  • Australia:  SMLE bolt action in .303 or an Ishapore 1A bolt action in 7.62mm NATO (Sadly, virtually all semi-autos are banned in Oz.) 
  • France, Mexico, or other countries with “military caliber” restrictions:  M1A chambered in .243 Winchester. (Yes, they can be special ordered or re-barreled that way.) If semi-autos are outlawed, then get a Steyr Scout bolt action in .243
  • Sweden, Norway, Iceland, or Greenland: HK G3 or HK91 in 7.62mm NATO
  • Finland: Valmet M76, 7.62mm NATO
  • Switzerland: PE-57 in 7.5mm Swiss
  • Former Soviet Bloc Countries or elsewhere in Asia where guns are allowed:  Dragunov in 7.62 x 54R
  • Germany, Austria, and the Low Countries: Steyr Scout bolt action in .308 or perhaps .243
  • England: High power air rifle in the largest caliber obtainable, or perhaps a crossbow and/or a flare gun.  (If those haven’t been banned yet.) Hint: Time to emigrate to a free country!

I’d appreciate hearing opposing views (or legal clarifications), from folks in any of the countries cited. 

Letter Re: Considerations for Longer Term Survival

Dear Mr. Rawles,
I have become increasing concerned that many survivalists do not take longer term survival seriously and in many case appear to give it no consideration at all. They seem to be more concerned with stocking their retreats and being able to hold out against all until things return to normal.
The majority of what has been written about survival originates from the USA but there is literally none of this information that considers the longer term. By longer term I mean after surviving the initial disaster, whatever the cause. I am also talking about an event that completely rules out the possibility of a return to the way we are now and something that affects a significant section of the world’s population.
To simply survive would be to revert to a state of savagery genuine survivalists must avoid. The rational idea of survival is to make the transition from our civilisation to the next with as much benefit to one’s self and posterity as preparation can insure. It should also be to ensure that future generations do not just exist but have as reasonable quality of live as possible.
Whilst we should preserve as much of the modern technology as we can we must remember that if an item uses more energy than our home power plant can supply, or more importantly, if it will require replacement parts later on, forget it. This does not mean that we should not use all that we may have at our disposal, even if for only a short time. Use it wisely and use it to get us to a future without it. May be that future will be a little better with our planning and forethought.
When a civilization goes splat, the technologies that supported it tend to go with it. This is particularly true of systems that are based on highly interdependent technologies such as ours today. We are the generation that landed a man on the moon and yet we will not have the skill to make an iron spear head. Our reliance on technology has robbed us of the simplest, most basic skills. We have to look ahead to the time when we do not have the convenience of modern civilisation. There’s no doubt in my mind that when the crunch comes we’re going to regress very quickly.
Much that has been written on survival is useful into the long term but much of that written also assumes that things will get back to normal. Survivalists seem loath to discuss or even contemplate that things will not ‘get back to normal’.
The real survivors will be the ones who come through what will follow the collapse. Those of us who come through and there may not be many of us, will be left to face the aftermath and it will be more terrible than we can imagine.
You got to your well-stocked retreat replete with manuals, plans and procedures, and you survived. Now, what are you going to do?
This is not a moot question; this should be the true objective of your preparedness efforts. One must prepare for the “afterward” as thoughtfully and thoroughly as preparing for survival.
This is where you must also assess your post-survival requirements so that you and your family can not only survive but also prosper. This effort will also impact all the goodies you can buy and the skills and knowledge you need. It may also affect how you plan your short term survival. It will also have a very definite effect on future generations.
As an example, you have a wood stove for heating your retreat. If there is no source of gasoline and oil, how are you going to cut the firewood you need? Ever use an axe and bow saw to cut a season’s worth of firewood?
What about food when the “Year’s Food Supply” is gone? What about your water supply? Your assessment must provide for the recommended skills, plans, procedures, equipment, and spare parts to these and a host of other “afterward” issues and questions. And where are is all this going to come from?
To do this properly requires a well thought out approach and process that leads to an integrated preparedness plan with the specific objective of surviving and prospering afterwards.
There is a lot of information available on various parts of the preparedness equation but it must be integrated into the whole equation of your preparedness based on the threats with the prime objective of living well beyond bad times.
Too many today who call themselves survivalists look no further than preparing to get through the initial stages of any crisis. In most cases this may well be sufficient. But is it a question of the misplaced faith and expectations that are commonly placed on technology. One problem with placing too much faith in technology is that nature will always provide an event greater than the specified design criteria, at some point in the future. That “some time” could be tomorrow. Another problem with technology is that it sometimes fails-after all, it is designed by human beings and mistakes can be made in design, materials, or construction or even in the operation of any system by those same human beings.
Is it not time that survivalist discussed more concerning longer term survival rather than concentrating on short term subjects that although valid and needed to help get us into the longer term are themselves going to be of no use once we reach the long term. Yours truly, – Norman.

Odds ‘n Sods

The Memsahib and I have nearly finished watching the late-great science fiction TV series Firefly, on DVD. I must say that it is some of the best television that we’ve seen in years. Parenthetically, I should mention that we don’t even own a television. We just watch movies on DVD on our computers–we have three Macintosh computers at the Rawles Ranch. The folks over at The Claire Files were positively raving about Joss Whedon’s Firefly, so we took the plunge and bought the entire series on DVD at Amazon.com. The series is set in colonized/terraformed outer space, sans aliens, a few centuries hence, shortly after a civil war. (The good guys lost.) It is sort of a cross between George Lucas’s Star Wars and John Ford’s Stagecoach. We soon understood why folks were so profuse in their praise for the series: Great acting, imaginative storylines, above average special effects, and some very quirky music and cinemaphotography. The series is subtly pro-firearms ownership, and overtly pro-self reliance and pro-Libertarian. It is too bad that the TV studio executives never understood the series, and axed it before the first season had been completed. OBTW, Firefly is definitely not suitable for children to watch. There is way too much gunfire and minor surgery…

…

With a web search I found a reference to SurvivalBlog at an interesting web site:  http://www.BibilicalAgrarianism.com Check it out.

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Today marks the winter solstice in the Northern hemisphere.The days start getting longer tomorrow! Those of you that are serious gardeners are probably already looking at your seed catalogs.

…

The Memsahib is presently writing her magnum opus on the nascent National Animal Identification System (NAIS).  She generally shies away from politics, but this issue really got her blood boiling.  If any of you have any insider info on NAIS, please forward it to the Memsahib via e-mail, so that she can include it in her forthcoming article.

Jim’s Quote of the Day

“… Mr. Clinton, sir, America didn’t trust you with our health-care system. America didn’t trust you with gays in the military. America doesn’t trust you with our 21-year-old daughters, and we sure, Lord, don’t trust you with our guns.” – Charlton Heston, in a June 6, 1998 speech at a NRA Convention

Note from JWR

I heard from a reader that he found our scrolling advertising distracting. Sorry, but when I started the blog my two alternatives were paid subscriptions or paid advertising.  I chose the latter, which has made SurvivalBlog available to an unlimited number of readers, free of charge. We now have 17 advertisers, which requires ads that scroll so that they all come into view.  If you’d like the scrolling function to pause while you are reading an article, just position your cursor arrow over any of the ads.

OBTW, when you patronize any of our advertisers, please be sure to mention where you saw their ad. And if you know of anyone that sells preparedness related products or services, please ask them to advertise on SurvivalBlog. We need more advertisers to make this level of effort worthwhile. Thanks!

Critical Capabilities for Retreat Defense: “Move, Shoot, and Communicate”

As an Army officer, I learned that in order to be effective, and army must have three key abilities: To move, shoot, and communicate. Take away any one, and you are ineffective. But if you get all three right, and you can absolutely devastate an opponent–even one that has superior numbers. The same principles apply to defending a survival retreat in a TEOTWAWKI situation. In the context of a static retreat position, movement is not as crucial, but don’t overlook the need to conduct commerce, and even the need to move between retreat buildings safely. And in an absolute worst case, consider the potential need to vacate your retreat in a hurry.  Always have a “Plan B”!

As for the other two factors:  If your correspondence has been any indicator, I’d say that most of you have the capability to shoot well in hand!  😉 But be sure to consider:

1.)  Engagement at all ranges within line of sight.

2.)  Engagement at night. See my previous posts on tritium sights, tritium-lit reticule scopes, and Starlight Night Vision gear. Also consider getting some military surplus trip flares. (Unfortunately these are scarce an expensive, but they have a very long shelf life.) There is also a nifty gizmo made for chemical light sticks that works much like a trip flare: It is a metal light stick holder that can be nailed to a tree or a fence post. It has a spring-loaded mechanism that flexes a five minute duration ultra-bright light stick.to activate it. Clever! Here is something something even more clever that was mentioned to me by a friend who was recently in the Special Forces:  Use infrared chem lights, and the bad guys won’t even know that they’ve illuminated themselves. (“I pity da fools!”)   (To explain: Infrared light sticks throw off a glow that can be seen only through starlight night vision goggles or a starlight rifle scope.)  The chemlite trip flare gizmos are available from several mail orders dealers including Nitro-Pak, Spruce Mountain Surplus, and a gent on Craig’s List (I haven’t done business with the latter two.) Just keep in mind that because of their relatively short shelf life, your stock of chemical light sticks should be kept refrigerated and rotated once every two years!

3.) Taking game without making noise. Consider snares, traps, and archery.  See the Buckshot’s Camp website (http://www.buckshotscamp.com) to learn about trapping and snaring. Buckshot has some incredibly educational DVDs.)

Now on to communications:

1.)  Plan for communications with your neighbors to coordinate security.  Obviously the phone systems will be down (both land line and cellular) When The Schumer Hits The Fan (WTSHTF) and the utility power goes out.  Most telephone company offices have large backup banks of “floating” batteries, but don’t depend on the phones to work for more than a few days after the onset of a long term power failure.

By now, you should have at least three or four military surplus hard wire field telephones (such as the venerable TA-1 or TA-312) and plenty of commo wire. Those are available from a number of vendors including Ready Made Resources (one of our advertisers) and Fair Radio Sales. Both of these companies are very reputable. Remember that if you use FRS, GMRS, CB, 2-Meter, or any other radio-based communications system that you should consider it non-secure (vulnerable to interception). Also be advised that most of these bands have line-of-sight limitations. 

The capability for really long range communications (such as HF transceivers) may be a huge morale booster in the event of TEOTWAWKI.  Odds are that you will have relatives living at the other end of the continent, or perhaps even overseas.  Being able to relay messages back and forth to them will be very reassuring. WTSHTF that sort of reassurance will be crucial to keeping everyone at your retreat sane.

SurvivalBlog Survey: What are the Top Three Threats That We Face?

I’m curious to know what you think are the three most likely threats that we face?  Pick and choose from the list below–or perhaps you recognize a threat that isn’t on the list.

Please e-mail me your top three, in order of likelihood. I plan to summarize the results of the survey in about a week. Special thanks to SurvivalBlog reader that prefers to be anonymous who provided the list below.

NATURAL THREATS
Natural Disasters on Earth
Short Term and Regional
-Severe Storms
-Tsunami/Tidal Waves
-Hurricane/Typhoons/Cyclones
-Tornado
-Floods
-Fires – Forest/Brush
-Landslides
-Sinkholes
-Drought (Dust Bowl)
-Earthquake
-Volcano
-Animal caused famine (i.e. locusts)
-Microbe caused disease (i.e. malaria)
Long Term / Climate Change
-Global Warming
-Ice Caps Melting, Oceans rising
-Ozone Loss/UV Damage
-Gulf stream changes, climate shift
-Global Cooling/Ice Age
-Global Pole Shift
-Super storms (likes of which never seen in modern times)
Disease, Plague, Pandemics coming from nature
Asteroid or Comet Impact
Solar Flares/Coronal Ejections
Alien Invasion – non-intelligent (Andromeda Strain, virus, bacteria)
Alien Invasion – intelligent life (War of the Worlds Scenario)
Religious End of the World (Anti-Christ, Second Coming, etc.)

MAN MADE THREATS
Man-made Accidental Disasters
-Nuclear Reactor Disaster
-Chemical Disaster
-Biological Disaster
-Fires
-Global warming as shown above if cause in part or whole by mankind
-Genetic Engineering gone wrong – GMO fears
-Nanobots gone wrong – the gray goo, replicant, or the Blob scenario
Wars or acts of Terrorism
-Nuclear weapons
-Biological Weapons (smallpox, anthrax, ricin, etc.)
-Chemical Weapons (nerve gas, mustard gas etc.)
-Conventional explosives/weapons
Economic Collapse – all versions thereof, breakdowns for any reason, depression
Social or Government Collapse/Revolution
GLAZIS – World socialism or World Government take over

Letter Re: How to Find Ethanol Compatible Vehicles

James:
I enjoy your blog and its part of my daily reading. I have a 2004 GMC Yukon XL that is a flexible fuel vehicle. We recently had a station start selling E85. This last fill up was at $1.66 per gallon versus the $2.08 of unleaded. Nice savings even with the station being a little out of the way. You can go to several of the ethanol web sites and many have complete list of vehicles that can handle E85. Keep up the good work and Merry Christmas. – "SEMO"

Letter From The Army Aviator Re: .45 ACP Stopping Power and the M1911

Jim:
I’ve listened to your advice and digested what you’ve written over a number of years now. You are a confirmed Model 1911 [.45 ACP] individual. (Gee, ya think?) At any rate, I thought I’d pass along what locked me into .45 ACP 1911s and the results. I know, I should start this out with “Now this is no sh*t”, since it’s a war story from Vietnam.
I had been supporting an A team, [of the] 5th SF Group for 8 months or so. The guys took pity on the poor pilot and would occasionally take me out on a patrol with them. (What a hoot!) Anyway, we were doing a trail ambush and when it triggered, this huge NVA comes charging across the clearing straight at me and totally charged up on some fun drug. Using my favorite Swedish K [Karl Gustaf M45 9mm Parabellum SMG] , I hit this guy with 29 rounds center chest of aimed fire and he didn’t even slow down. The “old guy” Team sergeant (my Nanny) hip-butted me out of the way and dropped the NVA with three rounds from a M1911 [.45 ACP] center chest and, I swear, it stopped the guy dead in his tracks and laid him down backwards. That [Swedish K] was the last 9mm I ever carried out of CONUS. While I was in southeastern Mexico working with the group stopping the Cuban insurgency, I acquired my Detonics Mark VI .45 and have carried it ever since. Now I carry a pair [of them] and they are still my only handguns without Tritium [sights]. I just don’t trust any gunsmith not to screw up my slides. Just won’t. While in Brazil and Chile, my Detonics reliably did what the SF team sergeant’s 1911 did in RVN …. more than a few times. I like 9mm but work is work and remember, SAS does carry Uzi’s … but, little known fact, they are chambered in .45 ACP, just like the Secret Service’s. Actually, I prefer Mitch Werbell’s M10 and M-11. Regards and enjoy the snow. Want some more? I’ll send ours south. 🙂 – The Army Aviator

Jim’s Quote of the Day

“King Arthur: I am your king.
Woman: Well I didn’t vote for you.
King Arthur: You don’t vote for kings.
Woman: Well how’d you become king then?
[Angelic music plays… ]
King Arthur: The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. THAT is why I am your king.
Dennis: [interrupting] Listen, strange women lyin’ in ponds distributin’ swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.” – Monty Python and The Holy Grail

Note from JWR

We woke up to a foot of fresh snow this morning.  It is nice knowing that we have a well-stocked house and a couple of fully snow-capable four wheel drive rigs. Our kids had great fun sledding. But I’m not looking forward to the toboggan run down the mountain tomorrow morning.  I commute to a “real job” as a technical writer five days a week.

 

How to Find Ethanol Compatible Vehicles (SAs: Alternate Fuels Ethanol, Survival Vehicles, 4WDs, SUVs, E85)

I recently had a SurvivalBlog reader contact me, bemoaning the fact that he was unable to find a 4WD pickup or SUV that could run on an E85 ethanol blend at any of the car dealerships in his area. He told me: “I’ve called them all and had no luck. They say that those are really rare.”  He offered to pay me a consulting fee to help find him one. I told him that consulting wasn’t necessary. I just referred him back to the ethanol articles in the SurvivalBlog Archives, and I mentioned that he should do a search at Edmunds.com, (http://www.edmunds.com), click on the “Alternative fuel” check box in their Used Cars search window, and select a 200 miles radius for the search. The reader e-mailed me again just an hour later to thank me and to report: “Success!’. There were lots of listings, mostly in the nearby metropolitan region. He said that he planned to buy a flexible fuel 2003 Ford Explorer with a tow package. “And it’s even olive drab!”

To reiterate from some of my previous posts on the subject, here is a little background information on finding a comparable vehicle: The only vehicles that seem to do very well running the E85 ethanol blend are those that have been specifically designed for it. This is because they include an electronic sensor to detect the relative flash point of the fuel.  This adjusts the fuel/air mixture “on the fly”–even if you pump a tank full of regular unleaded gasoline, or all E85, or anything in between. (Most likely this will be dictated by what is less expensive on any given day.)

Your average car salesman is not well educated about ethanol-compatible vehicles. So if you ask about them the right question in the wrong way, you are likely to get a negative answer or dumb looks. If you ask about a “E85-compatible”, or “ethanol-compatible”, or “alternative fuel”, they might be stumped. You should ask if they have any “flexible fuel” vehicles in their inventory. (A few years back, the different American car makers use a variety of terminology, but more recently that have reached a general consensus to call them “flexible fuel vehicles” or FFVs.)

I’m confident that E85 compatible rigs will become more commonplace in the next few years, once Detroit’s engineers get some common sense in Post-Katrina/Post-fuel price shock America. For survival use, the ones that look the most promising to me are:

  • 2005-2006 GMC/Chevrolet Suburbans, Tahoes, Yukons, and 2500HD Pickups with 5.3 liter Vortec engines.
  • 2003 and 2004 Ford Explorers with 4.0 liter engines.
  • 1998-2003 Dodge Caravans with 3.3 liter engines. (Yes, I know that they have marginal ground clearance and towing capacity, but they do make a 4WD version, they are reasonably priced. More importantly, Caravans get 21+ MPG, which is important these days.)

Not all of the above mentioned models are FFV. You must look closely at the vehicle specifications of a prospective purchase before you buy. (A buyer’s guide in PDF is available for download from the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition.) In many cases it is just selected “fleet purchase” vehicles that can run on E85, so you have to look at specifications right down to a particular digit in the VIN number to be sure. As a visual indicator when you visit dealer lots: Some vehicles have a special sticker inside the gas cap door, indicating that they are E85 compatible.

Off-Grid Power Basics, by “James Dernier”

Electricity 101:
Electricity is fundamental to our first world every day life. We know electricity mostly in one of two forms in the home, from the wall, and in a battery. The electricity that comes out of the wall is high voltage (~110-120 volts [JWR adds: alternating current (AC), in North America–except Mexico, which uses a more macho 127  volts] AC), relatively low amperage, and alternating current. The electricity that is stored in batteries comes in a variety of voltages and amperages but is always direct current (DC). Size AA batteries are 1.5 volts, along with most other battery types, with the notable exceptions of 9 volt and your car’s 12 volt. Batteries can be split into two categories and many subcategories, but all will either be single use, or rechargeable, with the difference being the chemistry of the battery. Since the topic of my essay is alternate power, I am going to concentrate on rechargeable battery banks, and the generation of electricity.

Batteries 101:
Rechargeable battery banks or “house” banks are collections of batteries that can be charged and discharged as a group to lengthen battery life. Most modern battery banks are lead acid batteries, although there are various types. Deep cycle batteries are different from the lead acid battery in your car. The difference is the thickness of the lead plates in the battery. As a battery discharges, the lead plates become dissolved in the acid solution, and when it is recharged the lead plates reabsorb the lead in solution (not quite but close enough). If there the battery becomes too discharged, or is discharged too deeply too often, the lead plates become worn enough that they can’t reabsorb the lead onto the much depleted plate, and the battery needs to be replaced. This is why your car battery dies eventually, especially after a long period of disuse where it is slowly self-discharging, or after it becomes too deeply drained. Deep cycle batteries are less affected by those abuses because of their thicker plates, but they will eventually be destroyed by the same process as their chemistry is the same. Although the advantage that car batteries has is by having a greater number of thinner plates their cranking amps, or amps available all at once, is much higher. By linking many batteries together, the same amount of power drawn total is split more ways and is less per battery, which translates to a longer life for all of the batteries. Since all batteries are DC, you need a device called an inverter to change DC into AC, which is what most plug-in [household current] devices use.

Advantages of off-grid power:
Off grid power is power generated off of the electrical grid. The electrical grid is the power we get through the walls, and the power that is lost for a few days, weeks or months following a natural disaster. Off-grid power is power you generate so that if following a natural disaster or black out, or just if you are in the boonies, you still have power. There can be a mix of the two, so in case of emergency, or just for small amounts of power generation, you can have an inter-tied system in which you can have most of your power or regular use power from a utility company. Off-grid power’s primary advantage is if the grid goes down permanently or electricity becomes very expensive you can still generate your own. Charge Controllers let you put the optimal charging voltage into your battery bank. For optimal battery life, varying voltages should be used during the different phases in the recharge cycle. For all parts of the cycle you need more than 12 volts in the case of a 12 volt batter to recharge your battery, and the amount more will vary based on the type of battery you use.

PV Panels:
Photovoltaic (“PV”) panels generate power from the sun. They generate DC voltage at small amperage, but they are very low maintenance; they are mounted on racks, and these racks can be connected to [passive or clock drive] trackers. This system lets you control the wiring, and trackers let the panel’s track the sun, as the sun travels across the sky, the angle at which the panel would optimally face changes. So to let the panels track the sun, you need a rack on a tracker. This increases the amount of sun hitting the panels, and thus the amount of electricity generated. [JWR adds: Unless you live in a equatorial region, you will also want to seasonally adjust the angle of your PV panel rack, to roughly match the sun’s path above the horizon.]

Living with an Alternate Power System:
This can be a tricky thing, since we waste a lot of power every day. Phantom loads, or power used by devices that are not in use is a big contributor. TVs, VCRs and many other devices draw a substantial amount of power even when off, because they are in a state where they can be turned on right away, and draw power. Similar to when a car is idle, it might not be moving but the engine is on, and the car is using gas, just so it can move right away. Other things to avoid are incandescent lights, which draw several times what their fluorescent equivalents draw. Cooking and heating with electricity is also a big draw, microwaves, toasters, ovens, and space heaters are big electricity hogs with easy alternatives. Refrigeration is also a big draw, but there isn’t really an easy equivalent. There are other forms of preservation, but there is no substitute for refrigeration. [JWR adds:  Propane refrigerators are still made. Odds are that you can “size” your PV system much smaller if you use a propane refrigerator.] Most forms of electronic recreation can also be big draws, most notably the computer, followed by the television, and on to stereos.

Letter from “Hawgtax” Re: New Years Resolutions

Merry Christmas All,
As 2005 draws to a close, I look back and ask myself “Am I better prepared than I was at this time last year?”
Quite honestly, a lot of what I accomplished was attributable to “SurvivalBlog.com”. A fine bunch of folks who trade practical information. Anyway, here’s what I did/added during 2005:

1. Installed a wood burning stove in the house.

2. Insulated and dry walled the outbuilding which functions as reloading area, ammunition storage and shop. A separate room within a room provides climate controlled food storage area. (8 below zero this morning outdoors, but in the pantry, a balmy 45.)

3. Installed wood/coal stove to provide backup heat to the outbuilding and pantry.

4. Installed 500 gallon propane tank and 100 gallon diesel fuel tank as emergency fuel storage.

5. Added 500 rounds of 12 gauge buckshot to the ammo storage. (Got a good deal on Hornady Light Magnum.).

6. Put a semi load of logs in the field for firewood. That is a good 2 or 3 years worth, even when used as primary source of heat.

7. Added some silver to the “silver supply”.

8. Found some Merino wool pullovers on eBay at a heck of a price. Bought a dozen in mixed sizes.

9. Put two cases of canned butter in the spare freezer.

10. Added a case of WW2 surplus bore cleaner, two dozen German military magazine carriers, a dozen German military G3 cleaning kits, a case of MRE heaters and a few pints of cheap booze to my bartering area.

11. Rotated the flour by donating six 25-pound bags to senior citizen center and replacing them at COSTCO.

12. Adopted a Blue Heeler named “Baxter” who is one heck of a watchdog.

13. Bought a spare pair of Meindl cold-weather hunting boots.

Now that looks like a pretty expensive year, but I traded and bartered for a lot of it. I bought one stove from an outfit that was getting out of the stove business. The other I salvaged from a house that was being demolished. I have a brother who is a HVAC contractor and I traded him an elk hunt for the stove installations, dry walling, etc..

Now for 2006…

My biggest project for 2006 will be replacing the stove in the outbuilding with a coal burner. Reason? They just re-opened a little “Mom and Pop? coal mine 20 miles from here and they get $35 a ton. I’m studying for my “Ham” license and hope to get that done. Give my son the rest of the Buffalo meat in the freezer and order another whole Buffalo. (Cut, double-wrapped and frozen for $1.99 a pound)… average about 400 pounds of meat. Get Lasik eye surgery. Lose another 10 pounds. Donate more to the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. Write my elected “representatives” about the direction the country is headed. Buy American. Remember the words of Thomas Paine: “It is the duty of the Patriot to protect his country from its government.”  Regards, – Hawgtax