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Permalink Reply by JHH on November 19, 2011 at 8:39

Thanks for the information.  I have a 2002 GMC Sierra/Z71.  Will their system work on a GMC?  Also... could't find conversion prices at web site... and one more... what about home refueling?  I forgot the company doing that... or once sold the systems.  thanks.  jhh

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Permalink Reply by JHH on November 19, 2011 at 14:08

very good.  will call Monday if i can remember.  thanks, jhh

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Permalink Reply by essay on November 19, 2011 at 19:40

honda used to own the phill home refueling system but they got on the electric bandwagon and let that particular subsidiary's loans go into receivership.  http://gigaom.com/cleantech/fuelmaker-assets-finally-find-a-buyer-n...  it was in turn bought by a subsidiary of fuel system solutions, but i cannot find a local distributor despite seeing them for other states.

 

re: conversion cost, according to the most recent info from NGVAmerica, they're still saying 12-18k depending on the vehicle, which is largely arbitrary and not representative of what it should cost; it is my understanding in parts of the world that aren't insane you can have it done for less than two grand on most passenger vehicles.  i know i'm repeating myself but maybe there are some folks who haven't seen me say this before.

 

incidentally, i didn't get a good look at the sign but i saw that the encana ng refueling station in armistead is either open to the public or is going to be open to the public, which is nice for those of us in the area.  hopefully at some point rising fuel cost is going to intersect with falling conversion cost and it's going to be on like donkey kong.

 

our politicians are certainly working hard on the higher fuel part of the deal.  or maybe hardly working?  either way it's going up again.   keep us posted, i know the regs have supposedly been relaxed a little recently and i'm really curious if we've actually made any meaningful progress.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Low on November 20, 2011 at 5:19

Its my understanding that Fiat owns a big share of Chrysler as a result of their bankrupsy

and that Fiat has natural gas vehicles which they market in other countries. It would seem to me they would bring this to chrysler and start marketing ncg vehicles. They would be ahead of the competion.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Duke on November 20, 2011 at 6:31

Hi Sesport,

Thanks for the info on this; won't help me directly, but if more folks start doing this at a reasonable price, that would help everyone.  I drilled through all the links on the site, and the only thing I saw about price was a claim that you could recover the cost of the conversion in fuel savings in 6 months.  I have not a clue as to what the difference in usage pattern between the typical fleet vehicle and personal vehicle is, but I would guess fleet vehicles see at least twice the usage of the average personal vehicle.  Still, that suggests to me that these conversions may be a "bit" more economical than those being offered at 12K-18K (per essay's post).  Sheesh.

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Permalink Reply by P.G. on November 23, 2011 at 5:56

Beats roasting on a diesel fired grill..huh?

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Permalink Reply by essay on November 23, 2011 at 9:35

the actual conversion equipment is a fraction of the cost, most of the expense is/was related to the permitting required by the government.

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Permalink Reply by moondawg on November 23, 2011 at 10:38

This maybe some info some of you are interested in. The company I work for has CNG company trucks that we use to operate with and I used regular gasoline for my 7 day hitch that cost around $285 then the next 7day hitch I used CNG and that cost $195 for the hitch with 13 more miles driven. So it is alot cheaper to operate than gasoline, but I don't know how much the kit cost or the name of the company that installed it. The only  thing that I don't like about it is you have to refuel around every 200 miles.

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Permalink Reply by P.G. on November 23, 2011 at 12:48

Maybe there could be a Clunkers for CNG cars incentive program some day..huh?

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