there are two propane powered trucks in my area for sale, one is a 22re toyota, needs a clutch flush and alternator, and is $120 away. and on is a 4300 v6 85 gmc that needs new shocks. i would have thought that with rising gas costs people would take their time to fix their alternate fueled rides.
btw both are up for 500, i am seriously thinking about getting the gmc, and ratting it.
Is propane any cheaper than gasoline? Any differences in miles per gallon?
where i am it is half the price, and you are supposed to get 75% of the power of gas, sometimes more.
my ex-brother-in-law did a propane conversion on his toyota rock crawler because there are no fuel starvation issues. he can lay it over in a ditch, cut the front wheels so they dig in, and back his way back onto his wheels. he is possibly oil starving the engine, but it doesn't die like a gas burner normally would.
I am a fork lift tech, so I know a bit about this. what type of conversions are these? what brand and what type of vaporizors are they using? some are definitly better than others. conversion made by impco are reliable and usualy cheaper to maintain. vaporizors, some times also called fuel pressure regulators do frequently go bad, and some also require maitance, which if neglected will lead to premature and expencive failure. Over all propane power is pretty simple and I am surprised that more people don't try it. Propane doesn't like real high compression ratios, most of the industrial engines designed with propane in mind are under 10:1 usualy 9.5:1. Also be carefull where you get your fuel, not all propane is the same, HD5 grade is what is recomended for forklifts.
Its the 70's all over again. Gas is expensive, alternative fuels are all the rage , and electricity is cheap. Solar is back, and people are heating with wood. Watch for propane conversions to get popular. I got a pamplet today from my hydro company touting 'geothermal' heating units, their efficiency, and cost savings. Didn't everybody throw out their heat pumps in the 80's because they didn't work?
suprf1y wrote:Its the 70's all over again. Gas is expensive, alternative fuels are all the rage , and electricity is cheap. Watch for propane conversions to get popular. I got a pamplet today from my hydro company touting 'geothermal' heating units, their efficiency, and cost savings. Didn't everybody throw out their heat pumps in the 80's because they didn't work?
The freon to air heat pumps are typically crappy. Freon to (well or ground loop)water are great as far as efficiency and effectiveness, but you add the extra system of well water or ground loops which gives you another system to repair. More money up front and systems that are unfamiliar to the average repair person can cost lots of money in the long run. The concept is good, but sometimes the implementation can bite you.
geomiata wrote:there are two propane powered trucks in my area for sale... i would have thought that with rising gas costs people would take their time to fix their alternate fueled rides....btw both are up for 500, i am seriously thinking about getting the gmc, and ratting it.
Try living with one for a little while, and then let me know how much you love it.
First is refueling. In most areas, that's a real hurdle to get over. Here for example there is one (1) refueling station for several hundred miles. That killed my thoughts on the propane turbo conversion I had partway completed. Being unable to go anywhere because I couldn't refuel was just no good. And don't go thinking it's really cheap, it's not. Especially if you start playing with emergency refueling via gas grill tanks.
The other is performance. While a lot of performance can be had from a propane conversion most of the time there is serious performance loss instead. I know of one (1) single solitary case of performance increase with propane in a conventional spark ignition engine. And that's in a blown engine specifically set up for propane. Other than that one single case, every conversion I've seen, been in or driven ran worse, frequently much worse.
Re the refueling issue, are the trucks you're looking at running dedicated propane? In Australia, propane (well, LPG) is readily available, but most converted vehicles still run a 'dual fuel' setup. It does tend to kill performance somewhat, but not enough to outweigh the economy benefits, in my experience anyway.
I had a gas/propane f350 crew cab dually for a awhile (460 ci) ran fine on propane but I rarely used it. had 60 gallon tank in the bed, in the hot weather it would vent like a friggen steam whistle and scare the crap out of me. the p/o said he ran it on propane about 80% of the time, and i have to say, the engine had 150k on it and still ran like brand new with no major work done to it. The idea of the propane tank lighting off 5 feet behind me didnt sit well with me though and I sold it, but i got twice what i paid for it... :)
I was thinking of doing a dual fuel conversion (gasoline / propane) on the Samurai, but it looks like it would be pretty complicated...not like a regular propane conversion which is pretty straightforward.
On the Sammy it would be easier than on most, the fuel injection computer didn't control the timing, only fuel. Figure out how to switch the EFI and fuel pump off while leaving the spark control activated and turning on the flow of propane and you're ready to swap on the fly.
i am going to see the gmc on saturday, and will see how it works.
do challenge rules cover propane?
oldopelguy wrote:On the Sammy it would be easier than on most, the fuel injection computer didn't control the timing, only fuel. Figure out how to switch the EFI and fuel pump off while leaving the spark control activated and turning on the flow of propane and you're ready to swap on the fly.
Well mine doesn't have any computers at all, it's carbed 
Cutting fuel to the engine would be easy, the problem is hooking up a propane carb upstream of the gas carb that will fit under the hood. If there was one I could install at the opening of the airbox on top of the carb (sammies have two airboxes, the first houses the filter and the second just routes air into the carb) that would make things a lot easier...I'd have to pick out all the parts online so test fitting isn't an option.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ford-F-150-F-150-7700-2000-Ford-F150-XL-7700-Natura...
Not GRM price but this is a better idea. Its a dual fuel F150. It can run the 5.4 off of CNG or regular petrol. The CNG can be fueled @ home with a kit, but will only yield 200 miles or so on each tank. The last estimates that I saw said that CNG was around $0.60/mile/gallon equivalent unit. Now I ave heard that the CNG equipment is kinda maint intensive, need to do more research there....
