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HocusPocus
09-04-2005, 10:39 PM
has anyone here converted a gas vehicle to run on propane or know a place that can do it? i found a website in Canada that said they could convert any gas vehicle to run on propane for approx $2500.00. i know that propane is a higher octane then standard pump gas, i believe it was rated at 105 so performace is suppose to be equal or greater then pump gas. i have also read that you would loose approx 20% fuel mileage on average. right now my price on propane is $1.33 a gallon as compared to $3.00+ a gallon for gas, even if fuel prices fall i doubt we will ever see prices much below $2.00. this would be in a truck so im not real concerned about taking up some bed space.
just a thought. :idea: :idea:

YeLLowBoaT
09-04-2005, 10:55 PM
My dad had a 1 ton GMC that ran on propane for years. He picked it up cheap form a gas comp down in socal.( mainly for pulling his boat) It had a 350 and a auto in it he got about 12mph on the street. It had a 100g tank that by law you can only fill 80%. so basicly if you drove it around town it was a 1 fill up a month. Only reall prob the truck had was that it didn't have AC( why he got rid of it) I really did not like having the huge tank in the bed, it made the long bed into a short bed. I would bet that DMV would be a headache.

HocusPocus
09-04-2005, 10:58 PM
why would the DMV be a headache?? propane is cleaner burning then gas.

ECeptor
09-04-2005, 11:09 PM
How about a propane fueled boat? (http://www.joypropane.com/BOAT.jpg)
Here's the tank. (http://www.joypropane.com/boattank.jpg)
Were you looking at the joypropane website?
I'd be interested in the conversion if I could also run gas through when needed.
They also claim propane has a 104 octane rating...could build a boat engine with super high compression ratio but could never run pump gas if needed.

YeLLowBoaT
09-05-2005, 01:02 AM
why would the DMV be a headache?? propane is cleaner burning then gas.
true but we are dealing with dmv here......it only took me a year and a half to get my truck reg with them and it was stock. then there was my boat that was reg in AZ but at the address that I bought in from in CA. Th treailer was reg to were I got in from in CA the whole time. the CF # off the boat according to dmv was a 40 ft sailboat.....then there was the whole thing where dmv though i wa dead back when I was in HS... I figure I have spent 2 months in dmv offices trying to fix all the probs that I have had.

Wyoming
09-05-2005, 04:13 AM
My uncle had a work truck that ran on propane & he hated it. He said he lost a lot of performance out of the truck. But hey the price being half as much it might be worth it.

Man-de-lone
09-05-2005, 06:35 AM
A lot of the fleet city vehicles and many of the busses here run on propane or LNG. Might be worth looking into...
Can we pressurize our on natural gas? Not that kind of gas, I mean from the utility...Hmmm interesting thoughts here. I saw a site that showed how to brew your own biodiesel....
:idea: :idea: :idea:

cc322
09-05-2005, 07:31 AM
We use to do it at the Water Dept I work at and after driving them imo they suck. Sometimes the thing would POP and shut off on the freeway, scary when you have no power. After many attempts to fix the city gave up on the propane. These were the one's that were converted from gas to propane.

HocusPocus
09-05-2005, 08:40 AM
How about a propane fueled boat? (http://www.joypropane.com/BOAT.jpg)
Here's the tank. (http://www.joypropane.com/boattank.jpg)
Were you looking at the joypropane website?
I'd be interested in the conversion if I could also run gas through when needed.
They also claim propane has a 104 octane rating...could build a boat engine with super high compression ratio but could never run pump gas if needed.
yes.. thats the link i found that seemed to have the most info on it. i called a few older relatives who have used propane as fuel, the only problem they reported was sometimes finding a place to fill it up. thats why it would be great to be able to use either gas or propane at the flick of a switch. propane does go up in the winter months but even last year the highest i paid was $1.65 i think.

Sleek-Jet
09-05-2005, 11:08 AM
A lot of the fleet city vehicles and many of the busses here run on propane or LNG. Might be worth looking into...
Can we pressurize our on natural gas? Not that kind of gas, I mean from the utility...Hmmm interesting thoughts here. I saw a site that showed how to brew your own biodiesel....
:idea: :idea: :idea:
I looked into CNG at one time. Greely Gas (my gas utility at the time) would alow you to use their facility at the office if you had a dedicated vehicle, to fill up. Some good advantages, high octane, clean, and at the time, cheap. Disadvantages is the BTU ratting, you arean't going to get any more MPG, but the fuel won't cost as much.
The problem with CNG is getting it on the road. So you have to keep your truck, or whatever, dual fuel, and not be able to take advantage of the increased octane rating.
Alot of propane vehicles suffer from the same problem, from what I can tell. Dedicated, they will run like a raped ape, but if you have to keep the ability to burn gasoline, you are going to lose performance. It's easier to find propane, but there is no self serve, so you have to plan fuel stops when gas stations are open.
In AZ, a dedicated propane vehicle qualifies for cheap liscense plates, though you still have to run emmissions. All it takes is an inspection once the conversion is done.

Dusty Times
09-06-2005, 09:22 AM
My grandfather ran a propane business in the 70s and 80s and had a few trucks, cars, and a motorhome that ran on propane. The biggest drawback I could remember was trying to switch to gasoline when you ran out of propane. Propane wasn't very available back then for vehicles. Once you got it to pick back up on gasoline you were fine.
I thought I remember something about being harder on valves also.

RiverToysJas
09-06-2005, 09:29 AM
I worked with a guy that had a propane fueled car. He had it because his Dad worked at a propane company. After a few years he had it converted back to gas. He said the propane was cheap enough, it was pain in the butt. Not as easy as pulling into any gas station when it's time to fill up.
RTJas :D

Excessive Force
09-06-2005, 10:03 AM
Great. all we need is to have half the population to convert to propane so that the feds can tax that too, soon ill be paying $100 just to BBQ :lightsabe :lightsabe :D

canuck1
09-06-2005, 10:42 AM
2500 is too much for a system. used ones go for 2-500 bucks plus install. we still have trucks that have run prop since 1982