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Studebaker ethanol trucks

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  • Studebaker ethanol trucks



    This ad brings up a lot of questions:
    1) Has anyone heard of this before?
    2) If ethanol is bad for old cars, then why were they able to use it in old trucks? I thought the rubber used back then couldn't withstand the alcohol.
    3) If these really saved 45% in fuels costs, why haven't we been driving things like this since then?
    4) What engines were being used?
    "Madness...is the exception in individuals, but the rule in groups" - Nietzsche.

  • #2
    I would imagine that gasoline was very expensive in the Phillipines as it would have been literally shipped in, whereas the sugar cane was grown locally and is the most efficient crop for converting into alcohol due to it's very high sugar content. I am guessing that the trucks were identical to the gasoline burning trucks but with the carburetor adjusted to run more rich. I suppose if the rubber components disintegrated, they would simply replace the parts. That's my two cents anyway.
    sigpic
    In the middle of MinneSTUDEa.

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    • #3
      Someone correct me if I'm mistaken, but wasn't there an article somewhere - some time ago - about a FLEET of Stude cars that were fielded - set up to run on ethanol. Am I dreaming??? W
      No deceptive flags to prove I'm patriotic - no biblical BS to impress - just ME and Studebakers - as it should be.

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      • #4
        Alcohol, in various forms, has been used for automobile fuel in many places. It is not as good a fuel as gasoline, but it will work. The price of fuel often is very dependent on how much tax is placed on it, not actual cost.
        My dad told me of seeing cars in France during WWII that burned wood and captured its gasses to run their cars. Not very efficient, but it worked.
        "In the heart of Arkansas."
        Searcy, Arkansas
        1952 Commander 2 door. Really fine 259.
        1952 2R pickup

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        • #5
          In around 1939 I was with my parents in Elkhart. There was a guy using a poker in an access in the rear of his car. My dad made comments about it, as he had been a steam engineer on the NYC and was good with any thing mechanical. I believe he mentioned coke. I was maybe a first grader and always looking out of windows at anything that had wheels.
          "Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional." author unknown

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          • #6
            In WW2 in the Pacific theatre they used coconut oil as fuel in tractors...
            Ethanol burns much hotter and is much less effecient than regular gasoline. That said... Ethanol was one of the original fuels for the auto industry. The big problem is that you cannot go form gas to ethanol except in small concentrations. We all know that situation... Some original vehicles and their fuel systems were designed for ethanol use.

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            • #7
              I found a good article that shows advantages and disadvantages of alcohol fuels plus some history: http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/farmmgt/05010.html
              "Madness...is the exception in individuals, but the rule in groups" - Nietzsche.

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              • #8
                There not have been much rubber in the fuel system then. The fuel pump would have been the only place I can think of. Maybe they replaced them locally with vacuum tanks to get around that.

                Terry

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