Mountain Men Eustace's "Gasafire" Wood-Burning Truck
Posted on 08/26/2014 6:14:13 AM PDT by thackney
I was thinking of the diesel trucks with natural gas backup. I hadn’t realized it was a total natural gas truck. I think that I would prefer propane myself.
There are two types of nat gas truck engines: CNG which are used locally for fleets and LNG for over the road because they need a larger range.
I was quoted $1.71 per gallon for propane last week. It is in a more volatile but more practical where I live. I have books and can work on propane myself.
In Russia it cost no more than $1,500 to convert any vehicle to natgas. Kit+labor in a certified garage. It makes your gas bill twice shorter immediately. And if your house is connected to a gas pipeline you can invest some extra thousand dollars for uncertified equipment to fuel your car from a domestic gas heater. It is barely legal but would effectively reduce your transportation spending to an equivalent of a couple cents per gallon.
Well, sure they will. I have no idea if nat gas for trucks is presently taxed or not. But diesel taxes aren’t really a tax, they’re more of a user fee.
Since trucks cause a great deal more wear on the roads than passenger cars, they should pay more per mile in taxes for being allowed to use the roads.
There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. We have three choices with regard to roads.
1. Pay for them, largely, by user fee type taxes.
2. Pay for them out of general funds.
3. Get used to roads that are falling apart.
Some have suggested privatizing the roads and allowing private companies to charge user fees. That would be simply a variant of #1, possibly more efficiently run.
Maybe they will have to add some kind of colorant like they do with commercial diesel fuel versus what they put in fishing boats. That way they can tell by the color of the exhaust whether you have paid your highway tax.
It seems like most road taxes go to buying pork. Then they have the excuse they want to raise taxes. Too many Al Capone types in government.
$50k more to produce a Natural Gas engine is absurd. Price should about the same and with large scale production less expensive as a NG engine does not need to have the mass for strength a diesel engine has.
——What happened?——
Like the Global warming models, the analysts models were wrong.
Since the projection is taken as reality, there must be a reason to be blamed on others
There should be zero interstate trucking, that should ALL be via rail. Any trucking should be intrastate and done by LNG powered trucks.
And when this happens we’ll have a lifetime supply of snowballs from hell.
$50k sounds like a price based upon what the fuel cost savings might support for the initial market, rather than a production cost. But there is R&D expense to recover and more to yet do.
Some local fleets use LNG as well. I did work for a LNG Metro Bus fueling station in Houston.
Just keep in mind propane leaks tend to accumulate in a pool since it is heavier than air. Sometimes that is discovered by ignition.
Methane (CNG or LNG) is lighter than air and leaks dissipate up. If the equipment is kept in a building I would recommend a ridge vent. Actually, I would recommend outside, but ridge vent and other considerations inside.
Natural gas is not available in my area anyway. I got an old truck that has a propane kit on it. The tank took off in the flood last year so I need a new tank. I might never get it going anyway.
What is your area?
The just added one locally on my drive between the house and the stables. I looked at the economics a few years ago, I’m going to have to due that again now that both trucks are getting significant miles.
Just be careful there. Not so bad if it is all outdoors. But be aware wood gas is a lot of Carbon-Monoxide. Leaks in sufficient volume will kill you.
Mountain Men Eustace's "Gasafire" Wood-Burning Truck
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