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Hank Hill won't be happy about Roush muscling in on the propane accessories market.

 

^^ lol funny thing all my dads friends call him hank hill

yep roush has been making propane vehicles for some time now and you can get almost any gas engine converted to run off of it. my dad's 08 f-250 and almost all of his work trucks run off LP. it helps a lot that he owns a few propane companies too haha.

awhile back when gas prices skyrocketed he was looking for a place to convert my truck and found a few but gas prices went back down before we got around to doing it. the government also gives you 50 cents i believe back for every gallon you burn because it is an alternative fuel.

 

We've got a guy, I think he lives in Uvalde, that races an econorail at the drags. He's turning in the low 8 second bracket but he's also run the dragster at full power and blasted thru the clocks just over 5 seconds. Best part about it, he only has to tear the motor down twice a year for a rebuild. That sure beats the drag team I was on. We did a rebuild after every weekend. But propane will not be the fuel of the future. While it's environmentally friendly, tanks must be huge and stations are far apart. Even if supply was better, there are a lot of issues with propane that most are not going to deal with.

 

many people in canada have used propane for years as it's my understanding that it's available at a bunch of gas stations up there. why do the tanks have to be huge?

 

Because you have to go out of your way to refill them? Gas stations are all over the place, propane stations aren't that common.

 

oh well that makes sense i thought he was saying that the actual tanks couldn't be the same size as a gas tank. if you just found one place locally that would fill it up it would make it worth it though because you could run about 1500 miles or so on one fill up with around a 100 gallon tank. on my dad's f-250 his propane tank is in the bed and only takes up about a foot and a half of it.

 

Propane has about 75% of the energy of gasoline so the tanks have to be larger to make the vehicle cover the same miles per tank full. Fuel mileage is less with propane because of it. Propane is a dry gas and it does not provide for the cooling effects of gasoline and combustion temps are generally higher which can lead to motor oil issues of coking. Propane is a much cleaner burning fuel and engines will generally last a little longer due to the combustion debris of the gasoline engine not being there. There will be less power using propane unless you know how to tune exactly for it but most conversions are just that- a converted gasoline engine. Most women will not be able to fill a propane tank unless they come up with a new way of filling them. Women just do not have the strength and they're not about to get their hands dirty screwing the valve in the car/truck. Propane would also have issues in an extreme cold environment. It is a liquid at -44F and some folks get to see those types of temps annually. Propane is also not as plentiful as you might think. There have been shortages for a home heating fuel before and using it as a vehicle fuel would just make the conditions worse. Propane prices around here are about $3.00 a gallon and remember, fuel mileage is worse with propane. That price does not include any state or federal hiway taxes so you can add about $.60 to that. In the winter, that price will go up as demand goes up. So propane is not going to be the fuel of the future. There just isn't enough of it to go around and it's a lot like ethanol- just not worth the effort. The fuel of the future- expect a transition to biodeisel made from garbage and then a transition in your lifetime to electric. NASA already has in space solar collectors that function 24/7 and the energy is transmitted to earth via microwave energy. It's just a matter of time before it becomes a common thing.

 

fuel economy is basically the same running off of propane for what it's worth. yeah i agree that a better filling up method would have to be created too. back when gas was $4+ a gallon if my truck was converted to propane i could have gotten it for about $1.50 or less a gallon. the government actually gives you money back for every gallon you burn because it's an alternative fuel.