Conversion To Propane

You're right. I don't see many propane powered vehicles anymore. Seems like natural gas became more popular. Propane drops when set free, as opposed to natural gas which will dissipate more easily. CNG may be safer in that regard.

However, I visited Zion Nat'l Park earlier this summer, and the shuttle buses are propane powered if I remember correctly.

-Kirk Matheson

Loads of them in Europe, mostly UK and Netherlands. Propane+butane mix is about 2x cheaper than regular gas, mostly due to tax difference. As a result I can enjoy my 5.9L Durango absolutely guilt-free ;)

CNG is not as popular due to storage problems.

Peter

So not paying your fair share of road tax while driving a MONSTER makes you guilt free! Very strange outlook on society.

Geez, the tax is lower on propane because it's environmentaly friendly and reduces dependence on oil imports! It's not like I'm evading road tax or something!

Peter

Ahh - a true socialist. A tax is enacted, and you're supposed to feel guilty for legally doing what isn't taxed? Who is Peter to question the wisdom of those who apparently feel it is their duty to incentive and disincentive certain behaviors - so they incentive doing one thing - he does it, and he's supposed to feel guilty? So it's not use of gasoline that bothers the modern liberal - it's the use of a large vehicle. Hey if it bothers you so much, then lobby to get propane and butane taxed at the same rates as gasoline - and good luck convincing your liberal buddies. Get a life.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Interesting. Calling the person "names" as though socialist or liberal are synonyms for the devil. Generally "evil" and the "devil" come from the conservative and religious right? You need a god around to have an evil. In any case, oil is a problem, maybe a cause for the iraq war, since no weapons of mass found. I'm not sure about propane. That burns cleaner than oil. Not sure about bigger vehicles. When I see short, young women, alone, driving these huge, empty suv's talking on cell phones, making turns, distracted, i'm not happy, unless i were driving a tank :)

A lot of folks can't understand

how we came to have

an oil shortage here in our country.

~~~

Well, there's a very simple answer.

~~~

Nobody bothered to check the oil.

~~~

We just didn't know we were getting low.

~~~

The reason for that is purely geographical.

~~~

Our OIL is located in

~~~

ALASKA

~~~

California

~~~

Coastal Florida

~~~

Coastal Louisiana

~~~

Kansas

~~~

Oklahoma

~~~

Pennsylvania

and

Texas

~~~

~~~

Our

DIPSTICKS

are located in

Washington DC

Any Questions?

On 08/23/05 03:49 am Peter tossed the following ingredients into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

So as soon as this propane-butane mix becomes popular, the gubbermint will increase the tax on it.

Perce

Of course. This is very likely to happen already with LNG in the UK in the near future. The Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) has already indicated that the especially favourable tax regime will end.

Even though it is not that popular yet.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

WOW! Talk about your extrapolations! The name of your post should be "Incoherency".

I see - so let's get rid of God and there will be no more evil. Ummm - yeah!

Oh my - you use those terms as if they were synonyms for the devil. Makes about as much sense as what you posted. And how dare those women be short!!

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

"Let me tell you how it will be There's one for you, nin'teen for me

Cause I'm the tax man Yea I'm the tax man

"Should five percent appear too small Be thankful I don't take it all

Cause I'm the tax man Yea I'm the tax man

"If you drive a car I'll tax the street If you try to sit I'll tax your seat If you get too cold I'll tax the heat If you take a walk I'll tax your feet Tax man

Well I'm the tax man Yea I'm the tax man

"Don't ask me what I want it for If you don't want to pay some more

Cause I'm the tax man Yea I'm the tax man

"Now my advice for those who die (tax man) Declare the pennies on your eyes (tax man)

Cause I'm the tax man Yea I'm the tax man

"And you're working for no one but me

(The Beatles)

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

As an aside, in the seventies in the UK the marginal rates of tax on "unearned" income (i.e. income derived from savings) reached 83%!

So, that's almost the 95% of the Beatles.

Fortunately that's long gone.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

Peter,

Did you make the transaformation yourself? How did you do it? Is there a site for that kind of thing?

Mike

I had a professional installer to do the conversion (two, in fact... both my trucks run on propane). This is booming business in Europe now, there are tons of suppliers of LPG stuff and DIY kits. Check out uk.rec.cars.fuel.lpg newsgroup, and googling for 'lpg'/'lpg kits diy' will give you more results than you can process...

A quick primer: there are open loop, closed loop and SGI systems. Open loop is basically equivalent to good ol' carb, closed loop is equivalent of carb

• lambda sensor and computer (although it works much better than carb + lambda systems ever did), and SGI (sequential gas injection) is multi-point injection. SGI is best, of course, but expensive.

Peter

How long will it take to break even?

And when the chancellor (UK) reduces/eliminates the tax advantage? Then what?

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

Not all countries are as unlucky as UK. Worst case alternative is to tap into propane supplies used for heating...

For me the break-even point was after about 10,000 kms (6000miles). I've recovered the cost of LPG system three times over.

Peter