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
HELLO! I’am lookin for a kit convertion from regular Gasoline to Natural Gas/ for a 1998 CHEVY 3500 7.4 Liter.
I am looking for the same – have you found it?
I have a truck in our fleet, that at current fuel prices does not make sense to operate
I am looking for a way to convert my 2003 GMC SIERRA 1500 5.3 liter, any one know a website where i could find one?
I am looking to convert a 2005 F150 to CNG any Ideas, Leads or Links would be helpful!
Hey there all who think this is actually a good idea…. think again.. look at the calculator at the following website: http://www.transecoenergy.com/pages/calculator.htm. I plugged in my info and this energy monster Pickens is right you can save considerable at the pump.. I would save nearly $400 a year at the pump.. wow right… not really… by the time I buy the conversion kit, install it, and start saving at the pump… it will take me over 38 years to get my “investment” back… this is just as effective as Carbon offsets… putting money in liberal left’s pocket… I would rather put money in the oil companies pockets who will then put that money into drilling in the ANWR or cost lines and we would see our oil/gas prices drop again… (if that incompetent speaker would ever allow a vote… that right she has nothing to gain from allowing the vote.. only lots to lose as she has invested heavily in the Pickens plan and his “wind farms” that would take farm crop lands from multi-generation farmers so she can make millions… look it up for yourselves) than give my hard earned money the the crazy, people hating left.
The cost of conversions can be pretty steep, if you want a CNG truck or car, it’s probably best to buy one already set up.
EPA regulations are keeping the cost of conversions high, if the regulations were changed, an accomplished mechanic could install a kit at reasonable cost and you could get your investment back in a much shorter time.
The current interest in CNG and demand for conversions may help things change for the better.