Dual Fuel - Gasoline /LPG

["Retro Ralph" <retroralph@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

In the 1970s (1976 & later) I had a system in my Ford E250 passenger van w/
460 set up for travel trailer and toring.  It had double gasoline tanks
total approx 45 gal and an 85 gallon single propane tank in the rear of the
van. It had to be in sealed box and vented to the underside and outside
atmosphere.  The propane capacity was appros 66 or 67 gal.  The tank took
the space for the rear seat and was approx 26-28" x 26-28" x approx 64"
wide.

It really did work well and was trouble free.  I did have to watch the
engine temperature when pulling hills under the heavy loads and usually
would switch from propane to gasoline just for that reason until I got over
the pass.  For economy and power the gasoline was best and I'd get from 9
mpg to 12 mpg or 14 mpg when not under load.  When switched to propane I
seemed to lose approx 15% economy and would lose some power, as well but it
was hardly noticeable which is probably because of the size of that engine.
I suppose it would be more notceable with a smaller engine.

After the gas crunch in 1973 there were many dual fuel installations in the
NW Oregon area in passenger cars.  Many people used dual or triple manifold
tanks which laid in the bottom of their trunks.  This worked quite well for
those people that had to do quite a bit of driving.  Gasoline was in short
supply and it was expensive for the time.  Propane was quite a bit cheaper ,
even with road taxes, and often had to drive further than a corner gas
station for it and sometime took a while to fill up at stations without a
decent pump system.  It was clean burning and I never had a spark knock
problem after installing the dual fuel system.

My cost for the system  was about $1100.  Approx $600 for the tank and $500
for the plumbing, controls,  gauges, Impco carburetor and aux air filter
system.  I built my own cover box in the rear of the van and they did the
rest of it and certified the installation before anyone was allowed to put
LP gas in it.  I'd certainly consider this a good viable option in the
future.  Gasoline later became more competitively priced and so the problem
eased up.  I removed the system from the van when I sold it in about 1986 or
87.  The dual system went to one of my bros-in-law who was doing some
"expermenting" with one of his pickups.  I'll have to look in on him
sometime to see what he is doing with it.

Anyway I would say this should be either a temporary or even a permanent
option for our fuel price problems.
_____________________________________________________________________
Ralph Ausmann  -  Hillsboro, OR - > http://mysite.verizon.net/res79g4m/
<ralph.ausmann@xxxxxxxxxxx> -  http://clubs.hemmings.com/classicamx

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Per Previous message:

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Don't know enough about LPG; I guess you could run multifuel with TBI and a
controller as you could dial in different states of tune depending on the
fuel you're using, but, is LPG that much cheaper to run?  Is there anyone
running it on a converted vehicle that can answer that?  We have dual-fuel
vehicles here at work (gas + LPG)that you switch back and forth with a
switch on the dashboard, but I don't pay the bills on those, plus no one
that I know really keeps track of economy as there's multiple driver's for
any vehicle in our shop.  It seems to me that the tanks are fairly big for
what you get.  I mean, we have them in the bed of pickup trucks up near the
cab, and it seems that the range on the tank isn't all that great for the
size, know what I mean?
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