convert your truck to run on natural gas

   / convert your truck to run on natural gas #1  

heehaw

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2000
Messages
2,058
Location
russellville, arkansas
Tractor
Kubota M4900, B7510 and RTV
theres a dealer in Conway, Arkansas, that's installing kits to make trucks run on natural gas: cost is $10,000;
and for a mere $5k more, you can buy a filling station to install at your house so you have a place to get NG: i REALLY want to do this, but not at anywhere near that price...
heehaw
 
   / convert your truck to run on natural gas #2  
theres a dealer in Conway, Arkansas, that's installing kits to make trucks run on natural gas: cost is $10,000;
and for a mere $5k more, you can buy a filling station to install at your house so you have a place to get NG: i REALLY want to do this, but not at anywhere near that price...
heehaw

May work in Arkansas, but it doesn't work in the north country. LP won't vaporize or flow when it gets cold and the vehicles won't start. One of the local school districts spent thousands of dollars converting their buses to find this out. Then they spent thousands more converting them back.
 
   / convert your truck to run on natural gas #3  
Ever tried grilling on the front porch when it is only 15f? :D
 
   / convert your truck to run on natural gas #4  
Ever tried grilling on the front porch when it is only 15f? :D

Works in any temperature. :licking:

coal-briquettes-1.jpg
 
   / convert your truck to run on natural gas #5  
Its NOT LP (propane) its high pressure (natural) gas. They have fleets of vehicles running on this stuff in Canada. GM makes/made production vehicles for running on this fuel. Mileage isn't so good because nat.gas doesn't have the energy content per unit that gasoline does. And of course there's the safety aspect of it should you be involved in a collision. Not sure what you would do if you run out. Range is limited to short hops.

$10,000 buys a LOT of gasoline.
 
   / convert your truck to run on natural gas #6  
what kind of milage do you get out of it?

what is a reasonable storage capacity of a vehicle in respect to space requiremnts and miles ( ie.. we all know how big a 20g gas tank is, and how far it gets ya in the family truck / car )..

power issues with pulling? acceleration?

turbocharged?

soundguy
 
   / convert your truck to run on natural gas #7  
They are putting a few stations in a county above us that has a whole lot more natural gas wells in place.
 
   / convert your truck to run on natural gas #8  
I'll throw my .02 in FWIW...I have 3 friends that have converted their vehicles. One is a Ford Super Duty V10, another is a Ram 2500 Cummins diesel, and the last is a Chevy Avalanche. They each spent around $3k for the conversion. I guess the big ticket item is a computer-controlled valve that does the fuel switching. They installed everything themselves, in fact, they are all good mechanics. They each have a 50lb tank located under the truck, between the frame rails...this gets them around town daily. They also have a pallet containing 3 horizontal 100lb tanks in case they need to take a road trip.
As far as fuel economy goes, the equivalent mpg is roughly the same for the gas engines...a little less in the Ford, a little better in the Chevy. The overall fuel cost however is about 50%! It's different for the diesel, they supposedly get better mileage on the CNG due to how it's mixed. I looked at the oil in the Ford and at 5k miles, it was as clean as it was new. The tailpipe was absolutely clean too. I'd consider doing it if we had more CNG filling stations around me. The closest one at this time is about 20mi away.
 
   / convert your truck to run on natural gas #9  
I knew he meant NG over LPG as well. However, there are quite a few obstacles concerning NG for fueling engines, most noteably is the pressure at which NG has to be stored for use versus LPG. LPG is about 80 PSI whereas NG is a couple thousand.

My hunting partner owns the LP company I buy from and he runs his vehicles on LP, including the Ford gas pickup we take up north hunting (read cold) and it starts on gasoline and automatically switches to LP. Has a heated intake system to vaporize the LP in cold weather.
 
   / convert your truck to run on natural gas #10  
i've worked on a few tractor engines that were lpg engines converted to gas later in life or when I got them.. and they were always cleaner than regular gasser engines.. etc.

soundguy
 
 
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