Anyone done an LPG or Natural gas conversion to a Ford van?

[NRL]

I know we're talking about CNG conversions.. which I eventually gave up myself in searching for an easy and economical way.

In the end, I did consider getting another van that had CNG already and found a site that had a good collection of CNG vehicles. Sometimes that have a lot of CNG Vans and sometimes they only have a few.. ocassionally I've even found duel fuel vans.

http://www.gobestauto.com/

http://www.gobestauto.com/ViewDetails.aspx?VID=1933

[Viejo]

EMrider wrote:

But IMHO, the bigger factor is availability of CNG refueling sites. In LA I know of just two that are available to the general public.

Exactly! In the places we take our vans it's hard enough to find diesel or gas. Forget about CNG.

CNG could make a lot of sense for an urban vehicle but even trying to drive cross country on the interstates would be a logistics problem. The national map of CNG stations looks like the map of cell phone coverage did 20 yrs ago.

[witoke]

I think that there are two separate issues to consider: first, you can equally convert a gasoline engined vehicle to run on propane as CNG. Propane, while not as available as gasoline is certainly not difficult to find in most places. The other thing is that personally I would not have a single fuel system but would set it up for dual fuel.

Maybe I'm grasping at straws here and should just sell my van. Since my kids are growing and don't want to go anywhere with me these days and my wife works weekends and cannot go anywhere with me either, I find it very hard to use just for me. I enjoy exploring on my own but have a hard time justifying the size, weight and fuel use of a full sized 4wd van for just one person.

[Ultrasport12]

I am not sure where you live but I was just at Pick and Pull, San Jose North and they has a wrecked 1999 Ford CNG van there that still had at least the tanks on it..I also still had the V8 engine still in place...

Witoke Sorry to hear that last part I was that way with my boat a few years back..I still miss it but part of me is glad its gone.

[Jubebug]

Witoke, did you end up doing the conversion? I am considering converting to duel fuel. I live in Salt Lake City. In Utah, we have loads of CNG stations and the price per gallon is cheap and has been for a while. If the State and Questar subsidies end, maybe not so much, but with our bad air quality in the urban areas, I think the subsidies=low prices will continue. Plus, I would like to be able to drive the van when we have red air quality days. I don't foresee a problem finding CNG, especially in Utah. There is a station in Moab and all up and down the I-15 corridor. We recently did a road trip to California and, had we know in advance to get a PG&E account, would have been able to save $400 in gas just in one trip! As it was, we were able to use CNG all around the Bay area, but not up north.

The quote to do the conversion to dual fuel that I got from a local CNG mechanic in Salt Lake was was $8000, depending on the tank, but if you can find a used tank, the cost can go down to $5000. At current prices and 15 mgp, that's about 30,000 miles. I see that as just an incentive to do more road trips in the SMB!