Posted on 02/08/2009 11:25:33 PM PST by earmarksrus
I briefly pointed out the stimulus project for the $600,000.00 Crown Victoria police cruiser in Arizona.
Now, someone has the bright idea of asking for $1.4 million dollars to convert 50 police cars over to natural gas.
It is estimated that the project will create 12 jobs. What type of jobs? That remains to be seen. It could be mechanic jobs to fix the mechanical problems that happen with the conversion.
Here is an article on what happened when Dallas converted 100 police cars over to natural gas.
First, what stands out from the article is; the city of Dallas converted 100 police cars over to natural gas for about a million dollars. In Athens Georgia, they want to convert only 50 police cars for $1.4 million.
It has been a few years since the conversion in Dallas, but I would think that the cost hasn't risen that much.
Beside the cost of the conversion, some of the problems that plagued the Dallas police department were; the cars were not suited for police work and the cars were a maintenance headache.
According to reports, one third of the fleet was out of service due to mechanical problems.
Other problems were; police officers claimed that acceleration was not what was needed. So it must of been tough trying to catch a driver speeding in a Geo. And they had to fill up multiple times during a shift. So the mileage must have been lousy.
Even with these misgivings, Dallas City Manager Mary Schum stood behind the decision.
So I have to ask, why do we keep throwing good money at bad ideas? The answer is obvious.
The answer is obvious.
America has total idiots in elected office.
Propane or LNG are “fluffy” fuels - ie, the density of energy in the fuel tank is much lower than gasoline. Gasoline is “fluffier” than diesel fuel, and so on.
Compressed NG is even worse.
So it isn’t an issue with the mileage, per se, it is a factor of the fuel caloric density.
they had to fill up multiple times during a shift
Where? Back in the 90’s I worked for a tuxedo delivery company that had reconverted vans back to gasoline after trying natural, guess some folks have no memory of the failures, and will continue to waste tax payers money
Don’t you guys get it? Throwing a bunch of taxpayer money at an unproductive, uneconomical venture that ALSO results in cops not being able to catch thugs is win-win for them.
Oh yeah those LNG cars are great. Cops have to fill them up 2 or 3 times per shift or run out of fuel. Genius!
Cheez. Propane and LNG have been used in tractors forever, with zip problems. If the Dallas police had problems, it was probably due to crappy workmanship in the conversion. Cars have been running on propane for decades, with no problems (and in actual fact, due to the cleaner nature of the fuel, they last far longer).
Pish tosh! What are the laws of physics compared to a politician?
And he will respectfully request campaign donations be made to his uncle, and when you delivery the plasma TV, can you include wall mounting on a swivel arm?
You can take the SOB out of Chicago, but you can't take the Chicago out of the SOB.
Yes, I know. However, those tractors had larger fuel tanks than the gas or diesel variants. Look at pics of the 1960’s Deere LPG tractors - they have this tank coming up through the cowling in front of the operator’s position:
http://underwoodequipment.net/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/100_0368.175194832_std.JPG
Or check out any Schwans’ truck:
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/00CJ2prbMeaLj/610x.jpg
See that big white tank on the side, rear of the cab? There’s another one just like it on the other side too. If it ran on diesel, they’d have the same range with just one of the tanks.
The problem in a cop car is likely this: they can’t sacrifice their trunk space for a larger fuel tank. They have radios/computers/emergency supplies/tactical equipment in the trunk of a cop car. So they’re likely stuck with the volume that they had in a gasoline tank. Now fill the volume of a gas tank with LPG or CNG and you have a pathetic range.
Other than that, I agree with you. There are guys running irrigation engines on LPG or NG and they run forever, need only about 1/10th of the oil changes that a diesel needs, and overhauls about 1/10th of the hourly rate of a diesel.
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