my cng plans

[ford truck guy]

Hi my name is Kris and I am looking to do a lot of investing in a cng conversion in a short period of time and was looking for an outside opinion on my plans. I have a construction company and gas prices are eating up my profits. I have a 2006 ford f150 and a 98 chevy eco-line 1500 that just recently got a rebuilt engine. I have found a cng conversion kit from a canadian company that costs around 2600 for the universal one. I am in the process of getting a fuelmaker fmq2-36 for about 5000. Also i need two pretty big tanks which I am hoping to pick up for around 3000. This makes my total investment about 13,000.

This is mainly for monetary savings so basically at 18,000 miles a year at 12.5 mpg I am looking at least two full years with no problems before I am close to breaking even on my investment. I am hoping that I can get 5 years with little additional investment out of this conversion. Is this possible or am I kidding myself? My one concern is for my fairly new truck. I hope that this conversion is suitable for this vehicle and won't somehow break because it is not compatible. Also I was wondering if I do the conversion myself with my mechanic buddy if I am eligible to get some kind of tax credit or not.

Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[echamberlain]

Re: my cng plans

Your ROI will likely take much longer than you are currently estimating.

Where are you located? Unless you can lock in a long term contract, the price of natural gas will most likely increase over time.

How many gallons you can get out of the fuelmaker before it needs to be serviced and how much it will cost to service it?

[Idarusskie]

Re: my cng plans

It is my understanding that the valves can get burned from natural gas because the gasoline cooling them is not present. Can anyone else confirm this.

[neongreen]

Re: my cng plans

that's true, you just need to get some higher quality valves.

[ford truck guy]

Re: my cng plans

If I replace my valves on my truck and van with higher quality ones how long can I expect my conversion to be maintenance free for. The fuelmaker is a used fully maintenanced unit. It is my understanding that it has unlimited use if you get it overhauled every 4000 hours or so.

[ford truck guy]

Re: my cng plans

Oh and I am from chicago. I am very jealous of you utah and arizona guys with your quick fill stations. It wouldn't even be a question if I had access to a station. There were two proposals to open up stations in the area and they were shot down because they are assuming that because gm and ford have announced that they are not going to produce any more cng vehicles that cng is dying. In my native country of Poland there are several people that i know have this conversion and love it. I don't understand how this is not more popular here.

[MrComment]

Re: my cng plans

If your in Chicago there are a number of the cng stations listed on the station finder.

Also your fuelmaker rebuild costs should be part of your ROI calculations. Isn't it something like $2.5k minimum for 4,000 GGE supplied @ 1.0GGE/hr? After which the unit shuts down. I think you might be able to get the parts and do the rebuild yourself possibly, but assuming you were not doing the work yourself, basically talking about $0.63 per gallon for just the Fuelmaker's maintenance costs.

[Curtis]

Re: my cng plans

Hardened valves and seats are worthwhile, but I wouldn't do them until they need to be done. I would suspect that you could buy 2 cng or bi-fuel vehicles off of EBay for what you are thinking to spend to convert, maybe less. Search CNG on EBay and see what comes up.

This type of a conversion is not really the type of project that even a good shade-tree mechanic should tackle. I would let no one less than a cng certified mechanic touch my system. The first time a home brewed conversion explodes and kills someone, cng in general is going to catch some serious negative press and scare a lot of people away from the fuel.

You are definitely on the right track, just pick up some GSA vehicles at auction and not take a chance of blowing you, or worse, an employee into a new zip code. These pressures are highly explosive, even if there isn't a related fire. PLEASE PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!!

Propane, as a motor fuel, is a cheap conversion if there is fuel in your area. At 300 psi, you have none of the wories of cng at pressure. I'm doing my ElCamino to propane with a little assist (free) from the local propane co guy. About $1k for everything. I want all my vehicles to be alt fueled. The GX is my main car, but sometimes you need a truck.

[cngacrossusa]

Re: my cng plans

Give a call to owner at Kyler Brothers HVAC in Indianapolis, IN who installed his own public cng pump strictly for savings of running his company trucks on cng for heating and air conditioning business. Number is 317-829-1478. I think he has around 20 trucks and vans now running on cng (Chevy pickups, Ford vans, and even some big 1 ton trucks). I filled there on recent cross-country trip to purchase my Honda Civic GX and got terrific fill from nearly new Tulsa Gas Technologies cng pump with around 4,100 psi.

Also, call around to a couple Fuelmaker reps as price to rebuild a FMq2-36 is around $1,000 from what I researched before I bought mine. Taking the $1,000 and dividing it by 4,000 hours gets you $0.25 per gge in maintenance cost for Fuelmaker. With electricity at about $0.07 per gge and natural gas cost at maybe $0.80 to $1.10 per gge, I'm guessing your total cost is around $1.10 to $1.40 per gge. Remember that Fuelmaker FMq2-36 purchase cost is "sunk cost" so do NOT calculate that into your price per gge - - - you'll be able to sell it later if you give up on cng, likely at more than you paid for it!!

Unless you have some Canada contacts for qualified conversions at good price, it's better to try to buy existing bi-fuel trucks and vans. There is car dealer on Ebay (Lititz, PA) that gets quite a few cng vehicles from east coast auctions and resells them on Ebay - - most have been very clean low mileage trucks.

Best of luck to you, and let us know how your project turned out!