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2200+ Miles added last week. We took the bi-fuel expedition on a road trip to visit family in Longmont, CO. Overall Summary: Not much CNG use.
Riverside, CA: Left Riverside after a great (4000+) fill at City of Riverside for only $1.12/gge... love it.
Barstow, CA: Was going to top up my measly 8gge tanks, but kids were upset, so we didn't want to stop and aggravate them.. switched to gasoline somewhere between Barstow and Baker.
Las Vegas, NV: Reaffirmed my dislike for Clean Energy. Tried to top up at the Govn't center on grand. No signage, so took quite a while to find the station. Sunday afternoon, and the place was a ghost-town, so no one to ask either. Finally found the pump, had a new debit card, so had to watch the video to get a new PIN... video wouldn't load up, so no gas for me here. Tried to find the next station at Washington and A st, but massive construction, large tent city populations, and high price made it not worth it and the co-pilot called off the search. Continuing up the I-15 on petrol.
St. George, UT: Navigation, combined with my CNG POI's, found the Shell station easily. Filled up to a good (for Utah) 3200psi. Hose was a little short, as it was attacted with zipties, defeating the spring return cable, but clever parking made it work (could fill gasoline at the same time).
Cedar City, UT: Navigation was great again. payment was confusing, as there is no card reader for CNG here. Had to go in and ask, and was told to pump first. Would be nicer if there were instructions saying so. Stayed the night here in Cedar City at the Days Inn.
Richfield, UT: Similar experience to Cedar City. great fill (3300psi or so).
Colorado: Had already decided to not even bother with CNG the rest of the trip, as it requires a special card, just to fill up at a relatively high Clean Energy cost. Not worth it. Only the Boulder station would have been on route, so it really wasn't worth the trouble. Only CNG experience in Colorado was riding on the little train at the Denver Zoo, which appears to be fueled by a pair of FM-4's sitting at the station.
Left Friday afternoon for the return trip, but decided to take the 'Scenic Route', as time was aplenty. We decided to take UT-24, UT-12 & US-9 on the way home, taking us through the Dixie National Forest, Capitol Reef National Park, Grand Staircase National Monument, Bryce Canyon National Park, and Zion Canyon National Park. This ended up bypassing the Richfield and Cedar City stops, but was WELL worth the extra gasoline use. The views and photo-ops were amazing. I hadn't been out that way since I was a kid, and my wife had never been out there. Got another great fill-up in St. George, and, due to a combination of exhausted kids through Vegas and bad weather in Barstow, made the rest of trip home on Gasoline.
All in all, the trip was great. CNG use was limited, but that is to be expected on a long trip, especially with only a 100 mile range on a fill-up. An 8gge low-mpg conversion vehicle is not exactly the ideal for this type of trip. We would have saved quite a bit of fuel expense just driving my parent's new Ford Flex (gasoline only) simply due to the higher mileage, but I decided I wanted to see what the CNG tastes like outside of California.... seems I really am glad I live in SoCal...
Riverside, CA: Left Riverside after a great (4000+) fill at City of Riverside for only $1.12/gge... love it.
Barstow, CA: Was going to top up my measly 8gge tanks, but kids were upset, so we didn't want to stop and aggravate them.. switched to gasoline somewhere between Barstow and Baker.
Las Vegas, NV: Reaffirmed my dislike for Clean Energy. Tried to top up at the Govn't center on grand. No signage, so took quite a while to find the station. Sunday afternoon, and the place was a ghost-town, so no one to ask either. Finally found the pump, had a new debit card, so had to watch the video to get a new PIN... video wouldn't load up, so no gas for me here. Tried to find the next station at Washington and A st, but massive construction, large tent city populations, and high price made it not worth it and the co-pilot called off the search. Continuing up the I-15 on petrol.
St. George, UT: Navigation, combined with my CNG POI's, found the Shell station easily. Filled up to a good (for Utah) 3200psi. Hose was a little short, as it was attacted with zipties, defeating the spring return cable, but clever parking made it work (could fill gasoline at the same time).
Cedar City, UT: Navigation was great again. payment was confusing, as there is no card reader for CNG here. Had to go in and ask, and was told to pump first. Would be nicer if there were instructions saying so. Stayed the night here in Cedar City at the Days Inn.
Richfield, UT: Similar experience to Cedar City. great fill (3300psi or so).
Colorado: Had already decided to not even bother with CNG the rest of the trip, as it requires a special card, just to fill up at a relatively high Clean Energy cost. Not worth it. Only the Boulder station would have been on route, so it really wasn't worth the trouble. Only CNG experience in Colorado was riding on the little train at the Denver Zoo, which appears to be fueled by a pair of FM-4's sitting at the station.
Left Friday afternoon for the return trip, but decided to take the 'Scenic Route', as time was aplenty. We decided to take UT-24, UT-12 & US-9 on the way home, taking us through the Dixie National Forest, Capitol Reef National Park, Grand Staircase National Monument, Bryce Canyon National Park, and Zion Canyon National Park. This ended up bypassing the Richfield and Cedar City stops, but was WELL worth the extra gasoline use. The views and photo-ops were amazing. I hadn't been out that way since I was a kid, and my wife had never been out there. Got another great fill-up in St. George, and, due to a combination of exhausted kids through Vegas and bad weather in Barstow, made the rest of trip home on Gasoline.
All in all, the trip was great. CNG use was limited, but that is to be expected on a long trip, especially with only a 100 mile range on a fill-up. An 8gge low-mpg conversion vehicle is not exactly the ideal for this type of trip. We would have saved quite a bit of fuel expense just driving my parent's new Ford Flex (gasoline only) simply due to the higher mileage, but I decided I wanted to see what the CNG tastes like outside of California.... seems I really am glad I live in SoCal...
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