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I have a company that i work with that is starting to put propane conversion kits on truck fleets. Propane is cheaper, cleaner, and more environmentally friendly than gasoline. Last I saw the price per gallon was about $2.25. Just wondering what everyone thought of this idea. A conversion kit runs roughly $3500, but will pay for itself in 18 months in gas savings. Here's an article that backs this up.

http://www.npga.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=623

wonder if everyone starts using it will the price go up to around $3 + dollars??

well i used to work for a propa ne company and the way we worked it was the more gas you bought the less it would cost per gallon, if you have a business buy a large bulk tank and get on a monthly or weekly plan, the only problem i would have doing this to a personal vehicle is it limits times of day you can drive, but for company trucks who might be going withing driving range of office/shop they can just come fill up when they need to

farmers I know used to run gas burners on propane...mostly for convienence since bulk propane tanks were already on the farm...however they all had large tanks in the bed of the pickup to store the fuel

seemed to have worked fine and the trucks ran clean, if memory serves the conversion is relatively easy

dont remember how the switch impacted mpg though

the doc

I may be wrong but if this was widely implemented across the country would the price of propane go up a little and the price of gasoline fall due to decrease in demand? I mean if the price of gasoline was actually set by the laws of supply and demand.

I bet this would be good for fleet vehicles.

I dont know if I remember correctly but arent some school buses run propane, or atleast some were back in the 80's and 90's?

H20fowlkiller wrote:well i used to work for a propa ne company and the way we worked it was the more gas you bought the less it would cost per gallon, if you have a business buy a large bulk tank and get on a monthly or weekly plan, the only problem i would have doing this to a personal vehicle is it limits times of day you can drive, but for company trucks who might be going withing driving range of office/shop they can just come fill up when they need to

the customer actually is a propane dealer. The use would be company fleets with their own storage tanks for filling. I think there are some tax benefits also for using it since its eco friendly. Last year propane was $1.20 but has esculated to $2.25 with the rise in crude oil. Its also a product of oil. Propane dealers generally sell their products during about four months of winter for home heating. They are looking for other uses to sell during warm months. Global warming hasn't been real good for this industry.

we used to run it in farm trucks....runs good and clean, higher mpg than gasoline...storage in vehicle is an issue

I know a guy that used to run it and got his booty blew up . . . that tank in the bed of the trunk got punctured somehow and boom . . . I had lunch with a lady who owns a propane company in cleveland a few weeks ago and asked her if she thought people might start converting to propane with the high gas prices. She said she didnt think so because of all kinds of enviromental regulations, etc that are in place today, but werent 20 years ago when a lot of the farmers ran it.

I have heard that it is not that good for engines long term. It has no lubricating abilities. I dont know this for a fact just what I heard.

blue31 wrote:I have heard that it is not that good for engines long term. It has no lubricating abilities. I dont know this for a fact just what I heard.

And you think gasoline does? You ever tried jacking off with 87 Octane? Dries up so quick and burns like chit. At least thats what Dukbum and Quackers told me.

Propane is hard on valves and seats. You will have head problems if you run it long enough. I had a 1980 Elcamino on propane for about 3 years it was cheap back then but I don;t know if you will save anything now. If your vehicle gets 20 mpg on gas it will 10 on propane and you don't have the same power either.

to run propane in a truck you have to buy liscense or have some type of sticker on the truck saying it's been checked every year.....last time I check into it, it was 100's of dollars.(and that's per year) would eat up what you were saving to start with

I would be concerned about safety more than anything. A pressurized propane tank is very deadly and may not be worth the "savings" if someone dies in a wreck from one. Propane may burn hotter, thus the toughness on valves and seats. Then look at what you do when you run out of propane on the road? Much easier to find a gas station unless you keep multiple tanks. Then multiple tanks are multipe potential bombs. I'm sure there is also a limit to how much can be used before the state will start wanting their road tax from it too. I know there is a limit on homebrew biodiesel. Your allowed to make so many gallons before you need to start paying taxes on it. Raod taxes help maintain roads among other things.

Gumbo wrote:we used to run it in farm trucks....runs good and clean, higher mpg than gasoline...storage in vehicle is an issue

I haven't studied up on it, but I thought it got less MPG. Shows you what I know.

I remember from what seems like over a hundred years ago, a gentleman from Memphis who deer hunted at TN Bar hunting club that drove an old Toyota pickup which had been converted to run on propane. The thing that I remember was how quiet the engine was. It really didn't seem to make any noise.

In addition to being quiet, this Toyota did not have power steering. The fellow who owned it drove it hard through the ruts at TN Bar. When Mr. H. would get sideways in the ruts over there, that steeting wheel would spin out of control from left to right. Several wheel spins from one side to the other. The steering wheel would literally spin violently all the way to the left, and all the way to the right. When this happened, you had to thrust your hands away from the wheel as fast as possible to avoid hurting yourself. That truck was completely out of control.

I remember learning sometime after it actually happened that Mr. H. broke both of his thumbs while operating that propane powered piece of macheinery because the steering wheel decided to spin out of control in the ruts. It was a death trap and he just couldn't get his hands out of the way of the spinning yolk in time. The worst part was he was stranded until someone came looking for him. You can't drive an out of control truck with two broken thumbs.

This is all I remember about propane powered automobiles. I'm sure they've been improved since then.

You can get all of your propane and propane accessories down at Strickland Propane.