First 1500 miles with a compressed natural gas truck

We just got our compressed natural gas trucks. After the first week with them I am impressed. I read a lot of rumors about cng trucks being under powered. Not true. it is not a 600hp engine but does just fine. My first load out of the box was a load of logs with a GVW of 85k lbs and it did well. They do run a little higher in the power band than a diesel. My Cummins N14 would pull well at any rpm above 1000 with the exact same gearing. These start in about 1200 and run really well up to 1800. Ideal seems be 1200-1600. This is comparing a 12l engine to a 14l engine. The truck runs 1350rpm at 65mph and 1580 at 75mph. I set the cruise at 65. Not real sure about the mpg yet. Some of the pumps are set for gas equivalent per gallon and some are set at diesel equivalent per gallon. The cost per mile is running .40-.44 cents per mile vs .58 in my diesel. We are a local company so neither diesel or ng are going to get great mpg. Ours have tanks for 112 gallons. They have tanks much larger but they stick up above the cab. We are in the woods a lot so that would not work for us. Saddle mounted tanks are made by a company called agility. They are crap. Trillogy makes the best fuel system hands down. I went to a class for a week to study different systems and we covered every nut and bolt on the fuel systems.

Truck Specs:
Kenworth T800
isx12 G 400/1450
eaton/fuller 10 speed .75 tenth ger
disc brakes
220 inch (I think)
3.91 drive axles
11r22.5

Pros for the natural gas:
very quiet, and the Kenworth cab is well insulated
no lines at the pumps, no jerks blocking the pumps to get a sandwich. There is no store (yet)
cheap 2.11-2.46 at the pump. We are installing our own pumps for a cost of 1.80 per gallon. Up north I'm told it is .83 per gallon
american made fuel.
only epa crap on the truck is a egr.
simple waist gated turbo
safe, I flew to Indiana to get certified as an inspector for CNG vehicles. most failures are in unregulated countries.


Cons for the Nat gas:
hippies at the fuel pumps
There is plenty of filling stations north of Houston but few going south.
huge, heavy fuel tanks. Congress is working on a 2000lbs exemption for nat gas trucks
most are un-attended fuel stations, if anything goes wrong your on your own. Training is a must.
finesse in the low rpms is very hard. Not sure if that is the gasses fault or Cummins programming, huge boost surge.
Spark plug changes every 30,000 miles. Easy to do, but to frequent for long haul drivers. (every 6 months for us)

What I would change for the next truck; no ones fault but ours:
13 speed in place of 10 running 1200-1500 rpm would be nice.
boost and pyro gauges. The computer sees both but the driver doesn't. It would be nice to see how much load the engine is under.
Better storage boxes for the flat bed work. lots of frame rail now the tanks are behind the cab.
No hood mirrors. I sit low, cant see them anyway.

 

Not sure what we use more of gas or diesel. I would be happy if the epa would back off. I wonder what kind of fuel mileage we would be getting if the trucks did not have all the emissions crap. I was pushing for gliders for new trucks. A aerodynamic truck with proper gearing and a 6x2 drivetrain might get 10mpg if driven right.

 

We covered this very accident in the class I took. The driver loaded a forklift into a van with out securing it down. The driver hit the brakes and the forklift forks penetrated the tanks and the cab. The tanks where pressed against the cab and when the tanks vented into the cab it blew the passenger out and they where not sure if the pressure killed the driver or a run away forklift. there was no fire. http://www.ngtnews.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.9624#.VAyIODxdWSo

Flying J jumped into lng. Huge mistake. Very few companies are going with lng for now. Cummins was working on a 15l direct injection motor for lng and has stopped plans for now. The marked moved to CNG for now.

Another death was from a guy that tried to convert a propane bottle to cng. LP runs up to 800 psi cng is up to 4000, and the cng tanks are rated for 8000-8600. The propane bottle split in half where they are welded together. Hank Hill would not approve.

The picture I posted the head rack behind the tanks is no visible. I wasn't driving a flat bed unless they put one on.

 

The epa has "out of usable service life" Trucks four years old with more than 452k miles can be retofitted with dual fuel, all the dpf, src, and egr can be removed from the truck with approved systems. They advertise pay off in a year or two. I would love this if I had my own truck. No range anxiety and no unplanned down time in a shop. I'm told 100hp gain if you so choose.

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/consumer/fuels/altfuels/altfuels.htm