Diesel vs. Natural Gas

Response was to Jim

 

Cause natural gas won't "Roll Coal"!!!

 

Fear, and rightfully so. The last fifteen years of being beta testers for engine manufacturers has spurred the glider phenomenon. I'm not personally against NG, and I think it's the future, but I'm not interested in jeapording my future by being a guinea pig.
You also have just plain old not wanting to change as you can see with the popularity of drum brakes

 

Darn good answer right there.

 

Not only would natural gas have to be cheaper but the cost of converting a truck over would have to be also. I doubt very much it is. Nothing is cheap with trucks especially retrofitting cantankerous contraptions.

That aside I would actually prefer a diesel engine over natural gas, all things equal, simply because diesel fuel is the most efficient fuel there is.

Two fully loaded trucks 80,000 lbs both spec'd exactly the same pulling the same grades diesel will get to the top first every time. Who wants to shift gears if they don't have to? It's not efficient.

Simply put diesel is the superior fuel and there is nothing out there that tops it. As things are natural gas trucks from what I hear are a maintenance nightmare and many fleets that have tested them have decided they are too expensive.

 

A brief example of a recent change in the industry:
3 letters for you: DPF.
3 realities from that implementation:
Incredibly unreliable. Negative ROI on new equipment. Fire hazard.
3 results: Higher cost of ownership. Shorter engine life. More shop time.

You might think your technology doesn't have anything to do with the above example. You'd be wrong. It would have at least one:

Poorly trained service professionals. Which in turn will extend my shop time, jack my overhead and extend the ROI period in a time when it is already sky rocketing.

We all want clean air. But our customers want their freight. If we can't deliver because we have to absorb yet another poorly thought out, costly "upgrade", they'll find someone else who can.

And he'll be running a diesel.

 

http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/bu...al-gas-trucks-after-fire-sues-maker-1.1925859

When it is proven to be safe, cost-effective, and widely available, I'll switch. Until then, I'll let others test it out...

 

I would never convert a truck over to NG, but I would consider a new buy as NG if the availability of fuel points would become considerably more numerous. I pretty much keep my running inside of the Upper Midwest, but even then, I frequent the more rural areas away from the normal traffic lanes. Given the short distance between refuels that are typical for NG over diesel, it isn't practical for me yet. Most NG set ups I have seen have tanks that give the equivalent of 80 gallons of diesel range. Then there is the dilemma of going with CNG or LNG. Each has it's positives and negatives.

 

I have seen Paper Transport running NG sleeper trucks...quite a few around the Midwest.