Truck appearance, performance and 4x4 accessories, for your Ford, Dodge, Chevy or import.

With all of the talk about natural gas conversions, it’s easy to overlook another conversion that is available right now, propane conversions for pickup trucks. Roush Performance, a builder of well known, high power pickups like the Roush Nitemare, among others, has created both the ROUSH® Liquid Propane Injected F-150, a fully-assembled and government-certified pickup truck and also the ROUSH® Liquid Propane Injection Kit.

The kit has an estimated install time of 8 hours and can be installed on any 2007.5 or 2008 gasoline-powered 5.4 liter, V8. There is no loss of power, torque or towing capacity. One difference between this conversion and bi-fuel natural gas conversions is the truck will be dedicated to propane without the ability to switch between fuels.

The complete conversion kit includes a new fuel tank with multi-valve fuel pump, stainless steel fuel lines, billet aluminum fuel rails, an upgraded custom ROUSH® PCM calibration, and all necessary wiring, hardware and instructions for install.

Jack Roush has come up with an excellent array of fully assembled vehicles and high performance kits with factory level fit, finish and vehicle integration and made them available to everyone. Propane conversions are targeted to fleet owners who will more likely have a fueling station on site. Propane costs at least $1.00 less per gallon than gasoline plus there is a $0.50 per gallon tax credit for using the fuel. The kit has a suggested retail price of $8595.00 so payback could come quickly.

A further advantage to running on propane is a reduction in emissions, 20 percent less nitrous oxide, up to 60 percent less carbon monoxide and fewer particulate emissions.

Fast install, affordable, low emissions, no loss of performance, … what’s not to like? The kits will be available in September.

Link: Roush Performance

After our article on natural gas conversions for pickup trucks, many of you had questions about where to get kits for specific trucks and how to go about the whole process. I’ll try to answer some of those questions and lay out the information in a series of articles so you can decide what will work best for you. This information will apply to cars, as well, so you might want to bookmark us now and follow along no matter what you drive.

Important!
The actual process of installing a CNG system is within the capabilities of an experienced and knowledgeable vehicle technician, BUT, there are regulations regarding the process you need to be aware of. I would hope this process is going to get easier in the future as natural gas becomes more popular, but right now, it’s cumbersome.

Dedicated or Bi-Fuel
To begin, compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles are of 2 types, dedicated and bi-fuel. It’s pretty easy to figure out what that means, a dedicated CNG vehicle runs on CNG only, a bi-fuel system allows you to run on CNG or gasoline at the flip of a switch. This is important because tax credits to offset some of the cost look at each type differently, something we’ll get into later.

EPA and CARB emission rules
CNG conversion systems fall under vehicle emission rules from both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB). EPA rules apply to everyone in the U.S. while CARB rules apply to California and those states which have decided to adopt those rules for their own use. (Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont and Washington). Only EPA and/or CARB certified conversion systems can be installed on vehicles manufactured after 1994. Although non-certified systems are available, the EPA considers installation of those systems to be tampering with emission controls and punishable with very hefty fines.

Who and what gets certified?
Small Volume Manufacturers (SVM) offering retrofit conversion systems must go through the certification process for each model year and engine family they are going to sell kits for, a time consuming and expensive procedure, so, though many engines will run fine on natural gas, kits are only offered when certified on a particular engine.

Who handles the installation?
EPA and CARB certified systems are not sold to unapproved installers. A qualified system retrofitter (QSR) is someone who has been trained to properly install the components and who has all of the documentation necessary. Some kit manufacturers do the installation themselves, others use a QSR. Any service facility that would like to become approved can contact the kit manufacturer for details.

The next part in our series will cover costs and tax credits, … stay tuned.

How many times do you need to put a $100 dollar bill in your gas tank before thinking about the alternatives? CNG, compressed natural gas, is something to consider if you drive a lot because CNG will burn in your engine just like gasoline and you can fill up with your usual tank of regular when natural gas isn’t available.

T. Boone Pickens, famous as an oil man, has presented a plan to build a lot of wind farms in the central U.S. to take advantage of the wind there. The electricity thus produced can be used to replace a portion of our electrical power generation, roughly the amount produced by natural gas, and the natural gas thus freed can then be used for transportation, like in your truck, for instance.

Natural gas is already used in lots of trucks and buses and cars like the Honda Civic GX. It’s clean burning and there’s a lot of it in the U.S. plus the price is lower than gasoline, … a lot lower. Buying a CNG vehicle brand new is one option but converting existing gasoline vehicles is what makes this fuel so appealing, you still have a gasoline powered truck but you can also use CNG as long as you have a filling station available. If you have natural gas at home, you can install a pump and refill your truck right there.

Conversion kits are available to make your truck an NGV, a natural gas vehicle, and no, they’re not cheap, but again, how many $100 dollar bills do you want to put in your tank before trying to cut back on the financial bleeding? You install high pressure cylinders to hold the CNG, the proper fuel delivery equipment to inject the gas into your engine and there’s a switch to use gasoline or CNG depending on which tank is full.

The PickensPlan isn’t necessary for you to do something right now but it could be something to help all of us over the near future. Sounds like a plan to me.

Part 2 of this article is online now.

Link: PickensPlan
Link: NGV America Natural Gas Vehicles for America
Link: FuelMaker Refueling equipment
Link: TransEco conversions