Propane fueled vehicles?

[mgbinspect]

Is anyone currently running their vehicle on propane or considering a conversion?

[homnspector]

I thought about it years ago, but around here it is not much cheaper than gasoline. It is supposed to be easier on the engine. Theoretically, you can't buy the propane from your local propane dealer because it bypasses the road taxes. (duhhh, thats the idea isn't it?)

Also, it takes up alot of room in your truck.

[mgbinspect]

I'm really thinking it might be time to go to a little 4-banger pick up as much as I'd miss the room. $60.00 fill ups are a sobering event.

[hausdok]

I dunno,

My little 4-banger costs about $42. a pop to fill.

OT - OF!!!

M.

[mgbinspect]

Well, right now I have an F-150 six cylinder (19 MPG) and a 2005 Hemi Durango (14 - 16 MPG) gulp... That's a lot of senseless gas guzzling.

[StevenT]

I recently walked in on the tail end of a documentary about a car(could be a truck)that ran on processed, recycled french fry oil.

Although, I don't think there's enough of it to serve the mass population, I'd love to go that route. Does anybody know what it would take to do that?

... Time for a new thread.

[hausdok]

Hi,

Try these: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/ren ... iesel.html

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/

Back to the original question,

For about 4 - 5 months in late 1973 early 1974 I hired on as a heavy equipment mechanic in Turner & Seymour Manufacturing Company's foundry in Torrington, CT. They had a whole fleet of various industrial vehicles in that plant - forklifts, platform trucks, payloaders, sweepers, etc. - that were all powered by propane.

The technology was/is very simple and used a small condensing unit before the carburetor that circulated coolant through it to liquefy the fuel. I'd never seen one, had never even been taught about them in the 2-year high school mechanics course I'd attended, but it took me about five minutes to figure the things out.

Unfortunately, the trade-off for the simplicity is a very flat acceleration and delay similar to what one experiences with a turbo-charger when you punch it. With conventionally aspirated vehicles and regular fuel, the engine will pretty much continue to pile on RPM's until it tears itself apart. Not so with L-P - at least that was my experience. There's a point where acceleration simply bottoms out, because that's all that the pressure-of the L-P tank can deliver, and it's like there's a governor on the engine. Anyone used to fast highway cruising would probably feel like a horse wearing a hobble driving an L-P fueled vehicle.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike