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Diesel Explorer: Sold

January 02, 2020 | 1 Minute Read

In the spring of 2019, after roughly 11 years and 80,000 miles of operation, I decided to sell the Diesel Explorer. It was hardly being driven since moving to Boston from Michigan, and I figured it would be better to find a new home where it could be put to good use. The eBay listing caught the attention of some Cummins diesel enthusiasts out west, and shortly thereafter, the Explorer’s new owner flew out to Boston and drove it all the way back to Montana, picking up a boat in Minnesota along the way.

At its core, the goal of this project was to reduce my energy consumption. From my records, I saved about $4,000 in fuel, which equates to roughly 24,000 lbs of CO2.

However, that initial guiding principle remained, and the concept of using a bicycle for transportation kept emerging in my head as a better solution. I bought my first road bike in grad school, after seeing one of my lab mates commute on one year-round (in New Hampshire.) Seeing someone ride a bike in the winter was a bit of a shock at first, until realizing that people do plenty of other activities outdoors in the winter, e.g., skiing, sledding, snowshoeing, walking. It also began to feel more and more wasteful and impractical to move around 4,000 lbs of heavy machinery with me every day simply so I could live farther away from the places I needed to go.

I’m not sure where the path towards energy efficiency will lead next, but it will most likely be traveled by bicycle.