GM plans to offer full-sized trucks powered by compressed natural gas

[moulin6801]

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"GM plans to offer full-sized trucks powered by compressed natural gas
General Motors Co. has plans for its full-sized trucks to soon be powered by compressed natural gas. Within two years, van, pickup and chassis cab models with “a green presence” would be available.

Rick Spina, the vehicle line executive who oversees GM’s full-sized trucks, said that a number of fleet operators want to be recognized as green companies, particularly those on the retail side. At the National Truck Equipment Association’s Work Truck Show, Spina said the conversion can be made with few changes to the engine. AT&T Corp. is reportedly adding as many as 8,000 vehicles that run on compressed natural gas. This includes mainly Ford E-250 Econoline vans. Spina added that GM would have to harden the valves as well as other things “for durability reasons” but it would still be “pretty much” a gasoline engine. Since the power curve is different, the transmission would have to be recalibrated. GM has yet to decide if it will do the complete conversion, let another company do it or let the fleet operator find a converter. Roush Enterprises, a Detroit area engineering company, does Ford’s conversions. On a gasoline-equivalent basis, the fuel economy of a natural-gas vehicle is slightly lower than that of a comparable gasoline-powered vehicle."

That is great news, in fact, in Brazil they are already using natural gas to power Taxi cars in the big cities like Sao Paulo.
I was there 2 years ago, and my cousin is a Taxi driver and he was showing me his natural gas cilinder in the trunk of his car.(special design re-enforced &crash tested)
He told me that it still uses gasoline to start the engine in the morning, and some other times. He had a switch inside of the car, that with a flip of it, he could control if the car would run on natural gas or gasoline. I can't remmember what the average MPG was that he told me, but it was a rediculus # like in the high 40s!!
Cheers,
David

[jmsiowa]

WTAMU vehicles back in the mid ninety's had conversions to CNG. Thay had a law back then that state vehicles had to be dual source. So a lot of propane and cng conversions running around. The CNG ones took forever to fill, and the LP one ran a little hotter. Did increase the range of the vehicles just because you had a third tank to switch to. Also home fill stations are expensive and take all night to fill your tank.

[howam00]

We have some CNG buses here and the gas company also runs its fleet of trucks of CNG (go figure?!) I doubt this catches on too many places since it can vary in price quite a bit and you have to burn more of it to go an equal distance. At least it does burn cleaner than regular petrol.

We won't see these as John Q Public though, only fleet commercial users.

[graydonblair]

My dad & two of my brothers own Ford F-150 Dual Fuel CNG pickups & love them!
They actually call them F-7700's. It's an F-150 body but with an F-250 rear end and tranny. Ford built a bunch of them for gas companies; which is where all 3 of these came from.

Running on CNG, they're a little slower to accelerate and take longer to start too. When you switch over to gasoline, you can tell. They accelerate much better.

Besides the fact that their Fords (and have all the problems that Ford pickup trucks of those years have--ie. wheel bearings, transmission issues, spitting spark plugs--that'll scare ya with CNG!) the trucks have done well.

Here's a shot of all 3 of them.




Utah has the 2nd largest CNG refueling infrastructure in the US and it's CHEEEEAAAAPPP!!! (like $0.87/GE - Gallon equivalent). They do take forever to fill up at the filling stations and are difficult to get a full tank in the summer with the heat because the compressors at the filling stations can overheat.

But, when gas was north of $4/gal, they were loving life!

[blue7.3]

So Gray, what is the equivilant miles per gallon? Ur giving up power so hopefully ur actually saving $...

-pete

[graydonblair]

I'm not sure. I know it's less though. They usually get about 200 miles to a tank of CNG vs. about 300 to 350 to a tank of gasoline. Definite BTU difference though of one vs the other.

I think when you figure everything out, the mileage is about the same for a gasoline gallon equivalent, but I know it was saving my brothers & dad quite a bit of money over the long haul.

Utah even has a sweet $3K tax credit if you buy a CNG car; which is sweet!

[blue7.3]

Sounds cool to me, tnx Gray!
-pete

[Bugman]

I was just reading on another forum about the diesel/cng kits, said to be easier and cheaper to install. They called it misting the cng into the intake which burns both at the same time, and cuts back on diesel 80% ?? Sounded good to me??

[blue7.3]

Originally Posted by Bugman

I was just reading on another forum about the diesel/cng kits, said to be easier and cheaper to install. They called it misting the cng into the intake which burns both at the same time, and cuts back on diesel 80% ?? Sounded good to me??

Uhhh, running CNG and diesel together is NOT always a good idea. (think *BOOM* as a connecting rod starts richocheting around inside the block if ur mixture isn't just about perfect...) But the "after" pics would be a great discussion starter...

-pete