NG powered new GM truck

[heehaw]

saturday afternoon, i saw a GM truck getting off the freeway, with a sign on the side that said, powered by clean burning NG....by the time i got turned around an tried to find it, it had disappeared....i did a bunch of research on this subject a couple years ago, when gas prices were so close to $4 a gallon..an all the research came up with basicly nothing good about trying to put a conversion on a fuel injected new truck: sure wish i could have found that truck, an hopefully got newer an better info about converting a newer model truck to NG...
heehaw

 

[WM75Guy]

Cities were mandated in Texas to convert a percentage of city owned vehicles to alternative fuels. LNG (liquified natural gas) was one option. It did not work out for most. You get about 100 miles on a tank. There were few commercial fueling stations. It works for cities that put in their own fueling stations and the vehicle never leaves the city like buses or inspector cars.

LNG is also dangerous. There is no odorant in the gas requiring sensors for leak detection. Sensors detect a leak, vehicle immediately shuts off. One incident occured when a mechanic bypassed the sensors working on a bus to try and start it. Blew out the windows in the vehicle, blew the doors and windows off the garage.

If you want an alternative, LPG is the way to go. Better mileage and you can find fueling stations anywhere. Lots of farms used to have dual fuel farm trucks. You flip a switch to go from gasoline to propane.

 

[heehaw]

what you have said is pretty much what i found a couple years ago in my research...but some of the drawbacks must have been overcome, because there are no NG fueling stations within 100 miles of here, an that truck exited the freeway...what i found about LP was they don't have setups for fuel injected vehicles...or at least i couldn't locate one a couple years ago..
heehaw

 

[not2old]

There's no advantage to propane in the US as it's near the same price as gasoline. My last truck had a 460 with 450hp and 550ft lbs on propane. It had way more power than any diesel in it's day and cost less to drive but I had to build the motor and convert it myself. Propane here is 75 cents per litre while gas is $1.12. It is sometimes available for about 45 to 50 cents in the summer. It is available for injected motors but I don't know anything else about it.

 

[Hooked_on_HP]

There's no advantage to propane in the US as it's near the same price as gasoline. .

Even if price per mile is close to the same there are other advantages. Less polution, less maintence since the lp burns clean and most of all keeping money in the USA.
Bill

 

[Toddao]

Navistar is working with LNG on some new trucks. limited but they are out there

 

[zzvyb6]

GM designs and sells NG vehicles mainly for sale in Canada. I even worked on a NG powered Cavalier a while back. The cost equation is all loused up by the TAXES on fuel. There certainly are some BTU differences, but, like Diesel, its a tax thing.

There are also some safety concerns about crash protection and EMS dealings with a non-gasoline vehicle. Not that its any more inherently dangerous, its a question of tow truck operators, police, fire and rescue tactics. Just like the electrics and electro-hybrids.

 

[two_bit_score]

It will be a great day in America when we finally realize the benefits of making CNG a primary transportation fuel.

Clean, abundant and domestic. And safe.

Every car, truck and tractor in American can be operated on CNG. Not that they all should be.

 

[heehaw]

i don't know how much the taxes would add to it, but generally, we can do the pre-heating season buying of propane for around $2.25 a gallon..sometimes less sometimes more....but thats still a little ways from the $3.19 gas is here now...
heehaw

 

[heehaw]

i just found a cng powered 2004 GM 3/4 ton truck on ebay: it says it runs on cng until empty an then automaticly switches to gas: has over 100,000 miles on it: the buy it now price is about $15k: it has a 20 gallon cng tank and a 30 gallon gas tank: so i guess it can be done...for the right price..
heehaw