Have canola, will travel

EMERALD - Did you hear the one about the guy who drove across the country on eight bucks worth of fuel.
It's no joke.
Hamilton native Paul Wallace recently completed a trip from Beiseker, Alta., where he now lives, to a relative's home in Emerald for around $8, in a diesel-fuelled truck.
Wallace's 1996 Dodge Cummins is also equipped with a canola-oil fuel tank that he used to power the truck for most of his journey.
"I get about the same mileage with canola oil as you get with diesel and maybe a little less power - about 10 per cent less," he said. "I started off about six years ago with an old Datsun, just to try out canola oil. It doesn't seem to hurt the life of the engine at all. It's still working really well."
Wallace was able to put about 180,000 kilometres on the Datsun with the canola before purchasing and converting the Cummins diesel, which now has logged about 35,000 km of travel.
"I live outside Calgary and if I want to go into the city for something, I just go. I don't have to think about the cost of fuel at all," Wallace said. "If I need to, I can just fill up on diesel and run off that. There're no major modifications to the engine at all."
Wallace converted the Dodge himself, simply by adding another tank into the rear bed for the oil and adding a selector valve to switch back and forth between the two tanks.
The fuel costs he's had to cover driving across Canada have been entirely from diesel, because the truck's engine needs to warm up on the fuel for a few kilometres before the canola can take over.
Otherwise, he gets the canola for free from an Old Dutch factory in Airdrie, Alta. and filters it himself.
While it is a low-emission and inexpensive solution to high gas prices for Wallace, he admits canola travel isn't accessible for everyone. He also has to rely on diesel for most of the winter because the oil will freeze in the cold weather.
Even so, Wallace estimates the modification saves him $5,000 to $6,000 a year in fuel costs.
It also generates lots of interest for an otherwise average-looking truck.
"Unless someone smells your exhaust and it smells like an over heated fryer, nobody really notices, but as soon as you tell people about it you get quite a bit of interest."