Posted by Bob Fetters on March 17, 2000 at 08:08:36:
In Reply to: Propane (pro-pain?) posted by DAvid on March 16, 2000 at 19:10:55:
David,~~~ My son bought a 1983 1 Ton Chevy Crewcab Dually a few years back that was a straight propane truck. It had a turbocharger that helped cover the lower specific energy of Propane. Some states have rules about how many propane tanks you can have in such a system. His truck had 5, one of which was a dual tank set up. The resulting range was somewhat greater than a dual tank gasoline setup. Propane tends to run a little hotter in exhaust and the propane carb (vapor box) was not as precise as a gasoline carb. Empty or lightly loaded the performance was near that of gasoline power. Heavier loads on the gooseneck trailer and the power was less. The engine was very clean burning and passed Colorado emissions even though it did not have the required airpump or catalytic converters. Those had to be added as did the charcoal canister eventhough there was no tank vent to connect the canister to. Colorado has a special fuels tax on propane, but no provision for the emission setups for straight propane. Traveling across country on propane is tough. We have waited in Wendover Utah 4 hours to connect with a propane fuel truck as he was out making rural deliveries. San Francisco was even worse. Hard enough to get gas without getting mugged in Richmond let alone finding Propane. Finally found some at a Marine RV place that cost twice the price of gasoline. My son finally gave up and converted the truck to straight gasoline. I think propane works great and makes the most sense in a dual gasoline/propane system. Particularly in a farm operation where you have storage tanks on hand and can use the rig off road to avoid any of the special taxes. If you are thinking of cross country then propane is indeed pro-pain. Bob