converting to Natural Gas

considering i have never seen any of the nat gas pumps open or working at any of the truck stops yet im gonna guess noone has one yet

 

I've seen it done for medium duty trucks for companies such as Schwan's, and for bus fleets. You won't see it on a tractor-trailer. The performance loss alone would make it not worthwhile - there's a big difference between running a 26k truck on it on city streets and an 80k truck on it in varying terrain. Even the forklift at our shop doesn't perform as well it did prior to the conversion - it's a 1975 Caterpillar which originally came with a gasoline engine.

 

Any of the new trucks running on natual gas is not a compression ignition/diesel type engine but an spark ignition/gasoline conversion.

Any compression ignition or diesel engine can not run more than 40 percent propane or natual gas.
There is some guys that have coverted to a propane mix with great results.

 

Ruan runs a bunch of CNG engines here. They normally refuel at a small local station.

 

I've seen a PAM truck that runs 35 between Waco and Austin that is CNG.

 

I make my own natural gas.

 

That took 5 hrs for some one to say, longer than I thought!

 

Converting isn't practical . You'd have to buy a new truck built that way . Fleets can do it because they get tax credits

http://www.afdc.energy.gov/laws/laws/US/tech/3253
Scwan's was mention as a company using propane . They received grants and tax credits to equip their vehicles to run that way and dropped their fuel costs considerably . Then they added a $1 FSC to every customer's bill .

 

The 6500/7500 Chevrolets are usually the ones which get converted to LPG (referring to Schwann's here). The smaller Isuzu NPR/Chevrolet W series are cargo van conversions typically don't.
My Schwann's guy back in North Carolina let me open up the hood and check the setup out. It was a gas engine, and the LPG line bypassed the fuel pump and went to an atomizer, which then went to the injector lines. Not really different from our forklift in the shop, except on a grander scale. Our Schwann's rep here in Colorado runs a Chevrolet W series, and that just uses diesel.