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Looking for all practical purposes like a typical quasi trailer queen, this Chevy can actually pull a large trailer. It can also go 128 mph or get 14.8 mpg (when driven more sanely) and do it all on vegetable oil.

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Cradled in the Line-X-equipped bed is a 99-gallon Transfer Flow auxiliary tank that holds the vegetable oil, heated by engine coolant. Behind it are the attachment points for an 18,000-lb. Reese fifth-wheel, used to tow trailers for the Adventure Highway TV series.

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There is a bit of extra clutter on the driver's side of this 6.6L Duramax, with the fuel selector valve by the intake, a heat exchanger to its right, an electric fuel pump at the firewall, and the top of the veggie-oil filter visible at the lower right. In Tom Holm's latest rendition, a 2006 Silverado, the Golden Fuel Systems conversion is practically undetectable.

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With the Fabtech 6-inch lift, there is ample room for the 34.3-inch tall 265/70R19.5 Toyo M-143 tires on 19.5x6.75 MHT wheels. Made for medium-duty trucks and low-platform trailers, this commercial tire has more than enough carrying capacity for a pickup. Interestingly, Toyo does include customized duallies as an application for this tire.
This truck ran from the California Coast to Coney Island, and back, for $320.

Originally built for the "Adventure Highway" television series, this '05 Chevy ended up with a deceiving appearance and enough accoutrements to stand out even at the SEMA show. Part of a  flock of diesels driving across the U.S. to different destinations for the filming of the TV show, this crew cab's main tasks were to tow a 35-foot trailer and then serve as a crowd gatherer at the many stops along the "Adventure Highway" tour.

As most vehicles displayed at SEMA, the Silverado has an alphabet soup list of aftermarket suppliers' products applied, including Fabtech, APE Wraps, Katzkin, Phantom Electronics, Bully Dog, Reunel, Hambeck, Transfer Flow, Line-X, Toyo, Warn and others. But in reality, there's more to this Silverado than meets the eye.

It wasn't until the series' producer, Tom Holm, an avid outdoorsman, got annoyed with the pollution produced by the traveling TV show that this 4X4 dually got its most meaningful modifications.

Specifically, beneath all the extras and eye candy is an advanced fuel system that Golden Fuel Systems cooked up, which allows the pickup to cruise very happily and entirely on renewable resources. Tom had the TV show's flagship hauler modified to run on 100-percent vegetable oil, new or used, through a separate fuel system working in parallel with the factory setup. He tells us that even in sunny California, the vegetable oil needs to be heated, even if it's new out of the box from Costco. To help with this, all the lines between the tank in the bed, engine, and filter are heated by coolant hoses running bundled with the fuel oil hoses. So is the 99-gallon tank itself. It's a matter of getting unrestricted flow of fuel to the engine. Once it's there, it automatically gets plenty warm.

Part of the trick is to use a Racor filter capable of removing not only chunks of fries, but other impurities all the way down to two microns. The Racor filter lasts between 30,000 to 40,000 miles with new oil, but (conservatively) only about 2,000 to 3,000 when siphoning soon-to-be-fuel out of the roadside eateries' free waste supply. Unless those filters are painfully expensive, that still sounds like a darn good deal.

Also good, the engine runs both better and smoother on vegetable oil, because of its improved lubricity and better burn characteristics. Averaging 14.8 mpg on the cross-country return trip doesn't sound bad either, especially considering the very dirty aerodynamics of the lifted pickup. Not so good, the use of vegetable oil does void the warranty on the engine, Tom admits. Merely a technicality we hear, but worth keeping in mind.

That risk hasn't kept Tom from trying to spread the use of alternative fuels. At this point, the crops in the U.S. wouldn't support widespread use of vegetable oil for fuel he says, but he's hopeful that switchgrass will once again become a readily available source. It'll grow even on the moon and has a much higher yield per acre, according to Tom, so there should be plenty of Godforsaken places here on Earth where it could be planted or replanted. Even vegetable-based motor oil is on Tom's menu, so his future may well be, uh, even greener.

Tom has recently sold the 3500 to a large nearby ranch, where the prospect of literally feeding it off the land is a distinct possibility, and started on a replacement 2006 Silverado.

About that Guinness record? Apparently nobody had done an official coast-to-coast roundtrip on 100-percent vegetable oil before, so the 6,600-mile trip was noted as a first. And it would've been 100-percent free, too, as far as fuel costs go, had it not been for some characters - similar to those portrayed in "The Sopranos" - who strongly suggested that leftover cooking oil in New Jersey was not up for grabs.

Specifications:

Basics
Vehicle: 2006 Chevy Silverado
Builder: Tom Holm, Newbury Park, CA

Engine
Model: 6.6L Duramax V-8
Extras: Golden Fuel Systems dual fuel setup, Bully Dog programmer, MBRP exhaust.
Output: Up to 150 hp over stock, far fewer emissions.

Drivetrain
Transmission: Allison automatic
Transfer case: NV 261 HD

Axles, Differentials
Front: Stock, 3.73:1 gears
Rear: Stock, 3.73:1 gears

Suspension
Front: Fabtech 6-inch with reservoir shocks and a HD steering upgrade
Rear: Fabtech 6-inch and Goodyear air bags

Wheels, Tires
19.5x6.75 MHT Don
265/70R19.5 Toyo M-143

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