The economics of propane

I would not call it dense.

I would also nto say that Americans are ignoring propane.

There are issues, such as taxes when using it as a motor fuel, and installation issues. There are (at this time) few places where you can 'fill up' a propane vehicle.

FWIW, fleet users have been using it for 30+ years here, very successfully. Generally cheaper, cleaner, but lower range (fewer miles or KM) per tankful.

How about these reasons:

Availability of propane is slim, converting some vehicles over to run it is very costly, you are limited to a smaller range of travel between fill ups, engines are much more finicky running on propane, marginal engines and high mileage engines need to be constantly tuned to run it, the engine has less power, which is an issue for trucks that pull trailers and equipment. A small leak in your garage can be deadly. Just a few initial issues that come to mind.

Works great in a rock climber when you're upside down, though.

Spdloader

A local jeeper did this conversion to allow his Jeep to run at any angle.

And here I thought we did it just to provide a personal affront to this Ludwig guy...

lol, that's way better than what I had.....

Spdloader

The modern propane tech is very dependable and once set up needs little adjustment. The engine has in practice just as much power. You are thinking of 1970s dual fuel installs. Range depending on tank size can be even better.

Buy a diesel. Way better performance, fuel economy.

Not only that, you can feed propane to the diesel for a serious power boost. :)

Actually, I'm thinking of the fleet of Fords, Chevy's, GMCs, and Dodges I worked on before moving away from WV in 2003.

Spdloader

Bret - Speaking of dense ..... Perhaps you would like to share with the group what part of the world you live in. It would be great fun to make generalizations and assumptions about your culture and society.

Paul - one of the good ones :-)

The modern propane tech is essentially yesterday's non-renewable answer to tomorrow's questions. Useful for stationary engines, not overly efficient for ones housed in moving passenger vehicles, and not in the same ballpark as a modern high pressure direct injected gas or diesel engine--themselves just stopgaps on the way to obsolescence. But thank you for playing.

Best older tech hauler engine I was ever lucky enough to sample was a turbine. The slower the speed, the more torque.

And I'll be stopping every mile to puke my guts out! I'm R*E*A*L*L*Y unable to tolerate diesel fumes.

PS. Don't tell me about this vehicle or that vehicle, I've ridden or driven most of them and been sick every time.

Then add propane injection :-)

OK, we won't tell you that there are modern diesel engines, just not on the leftpondia terrain yet.

In which I've been just as sick as any other diesel.

Now were talking! Drove a Cummins' Diesel powered Dodge Ram 3500 with LPG injection. A real treat! And people say Diesels are "Gutless" and smell bad... Maybe they should brush their teeth and wash their asshole more often!