MPG, I know its been covered BUT!!!, do you guys in the states not run on LPG,
In the uk our LPG costs about 40% less than petrol which per $ gives you a lot more miles for cost, you would get the equivalent of say 28MPG now that is a huge improvement and i know you lose a little power but for those of you who are concerned about MPG i guess you wont worry over a little power loss.

your thoughts please

Cheers

 

I know for myself living in Alberta, Canada, the weather gets pretty cold here in the winter months. Our LPG isn't that less expensive here, and the cost of converting our trucks to run off of LPG is pretty pricey. Plus, LPG vehicles sometimes don't run or start that great in cold weather.

 

What do you pay for Gas in the UK? It's just under $3.00 a gallon for 89oct.

 

I didnt even know you could run that stuff in these

 

It hit a record in the last week of $7.27 a gallon for gas in the UK. Mind you, much of that is taxes and fees as somebody has to pay for all those surveillance and speed cameras!

LPG is not economical for cars in the US. It's not even legal for the vast majority of modern vehicles as the EPA decides if specific conversion kit for a specific car is allowed. They are more interested in subsidizing ethanol sales for powerful Senators from Iowa. Many states have additional laws restricting conversions too.

Conversion is expensive, the LPG is not that much cheaper in Winter, range is reduced, and filling stations are farther apart. (Some propane companies are reluctant to fill consumer vehicles.) Overall, very hard to make it pay back the $4000-$5000+ conversion cost on a privately-owned vehicle, assuming there is even an EPA-approved conversion kit available.

It's a shame because propane makes a pretty good automotive fuel.

 

Every once in a while someone will run an article over here in the popular car/truck magazines about LP conversion, usually about when gas gets near $4 a gallon.

Most times they end up saying in the last paragraph that the problems are 1) No company over here makes a conversion kit so they'd have to be imported from Europe and 2) The availability over here just prohibits it.

It IS a viable alternative that really has just not caught on. From what I've read in these articles, LPG is a by-product of manufacturing gasoline from oil and there is pretty much NO COST in producing it, so ANY price they sell it for is pretty much ALL profit.
I have also read a study where a conversion company had a Mercedes engine that was converted and after 350,000 miles had LESS WEAR internally than if that same engine ran gas for 50,000 miles. Makes me scratch my chin and say "HMMMMM"...

 

the station I have been getting my e85 from also sells compressed natural gas and a few companies have converted fleet vehicles for that

Thats ridiculous, I bet owning a truck in the UK almost sucks

 

I have been informed that you don't start your vehcile on LPG but you start and warm on gas thus eliminating the start problem, i also appreciate that we don't get the servere cold that you do in canada.

Gas in the uk is £5.49 per UK gallon 95 octane $8.67 in your language and yes its made up of over 60% taxes, LPG on the other hand the last time i looked was £2.98 per UK gallon ie 4.45 ltrs, I have been quoted as little as £999.00 and up to £2700.00 for a conversion, i have found a place that will convert my 5.7 hem for £1700.00 fully certificated with an auto switch over from gas to LPG, auto valve oiler and a 225 ltr LPG tank fitted into the rear of the truck bed between the rear window and the 5th wheel hitch. You do lose about 10% on your MPG and power is slightly reduced, to run my truck on LPG for 6000 miles in fuel it would cost me approx £900 to run the same mileage on gas would cost £1650 so there is a huge saving to be made. As for being legal it only has to have a certificate by the governing body and your there.

Matt
i was surprised how much mpg i am getting out of my hemi, with my overhead console set to US on a run ie highway driving im getting 20 MPG granted around town small trips etc its down to 13, even towing my 5th wheel trailer im getting 11 and if you add abbot 17% to that thats what i get for a UK gallon

 

Neil, sounds downright economical to convert to propane in the UK! The gas fuel mileage you mention for your Hemi is almost exactly what I get in mine. I get 12-13 in-town, 14 on a mixed off-highway commute, 20+ at steady speed on the highway, and 13 towing my 5000+ lb loaded open-trailer on the highway.

Matt, CNG conversion generally has the same EPA and state restrictions as propane, and seriously cuts range. Nice thing about propane is it liquefies at about 150 PSI, so a lot more can be packed in a simple tank. CNG doesn't liquefy so it has to be tanked at very high pressure, and even that doesn't get near as much range as LPG or gasoline.

Hammer, there are companies out there selling kits, but only for old carbureted engines as they are not restricted by the EPA.
http://www.gotpropane.com/p4.html

There is some work on injection systems for liquid propane, but only for very few specific fleet-type vehicles.
http://www.cleanfuelusa.com/vehicles.aspx
I bet they are very expensive.

 

Good to have another brit on here!!

I haven't done the LPG conversion, not really worth it for the mileage I do, but the prices I have seen do vary wildly. I get about the same MPG as you, the one I would like to do is get a programmer and make the most of our slightly higher octane rating.

There are quite a few Rams and other US pickups round this way, do you see many others?

Paul