Range and independence

My wife’s little car doesn’t have great range. After around 300 miles I start to look for a gas station. Of course, what do you expect for a vehicle with a 9 gallon gas tank?

That’s in huge contrast to the diesel/veggie vehicles we drove. Even the van got pretty good extended range. Of course, it got good range due to having two fuel tanks even though it wasn’t very fuel efficient. The all time winner for range was our old Mercedes 240D. We had the normal diesel tank plus another 19 gallon veggie tank. One year I towed a small utility trailer filled with veggie jugs and went over 3000 miles before having to get more fuel.

Of course my veggie/diesel days are over. Waste veggie is much harder to get and the new diesels are difficult to convert to veggie use.

However, I’m still attracted to vehicles with a lot of range. These days I’m not thinking about range on land as much as range on the water.

Sailboats, theoretically, have limitless range. Theoretically. In reality they have diesel or gas engines and their dinghys often have powerful outboards. The fossil fuel engines are not necessary.

There are people traveling the world, successfully, in full sized sailboats without engines. Plenty of people still row or sail their dinghys.

My little 19 foot sailboat can be pushed along about 3 knots using a simple electric trolling motor. A small solar panel keeps it charged up. My dinghy is a two person inflatable kayak that paddles fairly well. There are larger sailboats out there with larger electric motors. They too use solar and/or wind generators to keep the batteries charged up. When your fuel station is the sun and wind range really is unlimited.

Then the limiting factors are other consumables, big ones being water and food. Many boats now have reliable water makers on-board that turn salt water into fresh. Throw a fishing line behind your boat and fresh fish can greatly extend your food stores.

Eventually you’ll have to stop somewhere for other consumables and to replace broken or worn out parts. However, that might not be for many miles and months. That’s true range.

-Sixbears