Convert your car to NG now! Get the auto NG market started now!

Updated 10/8/2008 --

I've decided that we need to get the NG market started NOW in NW Louisiana. Presently, the NG Phil'ing stations are limited on the roads, so for right now, we need to add the NG conversion onto our vehicles and to be able to temporarily switch back to gasoline for longer trips >250 miles. This trip length also depends on your gas mileage (make that NG mileage!). For starters, I have seen a $2000 price tag only on the "net" for a NG conversion kit for vehicles. I am not sure that people realize that even someone with a larger SUV getting 20mpg can recoup this money in ~16 months (assuming NG from a home natural gas line is $1/gal-unit, cost of gasoline=3.50/gal, and their annual mileage is 15,000 miles/yr). Then their "gas" savings will really kick in. A better gas mileage vehicle recoups this expense even quicker. It's already a good investment for any vehicle that you're going to keep for 3-4 yrs!

Stuff we need to find out...
1) The natrual gas home Phil compressor unit can be installed in the garage and fills from your house gas line. I've gotten 1 price so far for this item. One can be bought from a company in Baton Rouge and they have 1 certified technician. Price:$4500 + installation @$1000-1500. Another price was seen listed by Consumers Report of $3900 and $500 to install (article written 2006). Tax credits available: state = 20% of total cost => $1100-$1200 of the $5500-$6000 mentioned first from Baton Rouge. Federal tax credit = $1000. This offsets the total cost to ~$3800. The Consumer Report price would be offset to $2600. So still researching this ...

2) Where can one buy a conversion kit to add NG capability to our vehicles AND who are the local mechanics who can add these conversion kits onto cars and trucks (gas & diesel). One price seen for this was $1900 for a large car (ie, 8 cylinder car) , $2200 for the tank, and $1500 labor (although my post farther down states this job takes 1 day and I am surely not paying a mechanic $150/hr) . Still researching this too. No local mechanic found so far. I'm not sure about any federal tax credit for this conversion. The only info I have seen so far says... a "bi-fuel" vehicle is not eligible for the tax break of 30% of the conversion cost. It may be proposed for 2009 though. I do not think I want to go straight CNG cold turkey just yet because the "PHIL'ing stations" are nonexistent in this area. We'll have to be able to switch over to gasoline for a couple years or so. Write/call your reps and senators to push such bill!

Anyone with names, phone numbers, &/or urls to answer
any or all of the above, please write in!

Drivers...start your engines... and let's start 'em with NG!

Tags: NG mechanic, cng, convert to NG, natural gas, phil

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PHILL PHACTS

Information on the Phil verified by calling Sullivan Oil Co in Baton Rouge on Oct 2, 2008 --phone 225.952.7900

Cost of the Phil = $4500
Cost of Installation = $1000-$1500

They have 1 technician certified for installation. Price may be negotiable if we have group of customers collected for several installations at one time, since the technician would have to drive to Shreveport and stay overnight. I am assuming that this is included in the cost quoted above.

The PHIL operates at 3600PSI only. This can only be used for 2005 cars and later. Installation requires a routing of your home natural gas line to the side of the garage wall close to your car's fill site and installation of 240volt electrical supply.

The PHIL fills @1/2 gal/hr. (Kindof like watching grass grow.) In this case, I would think one would want the Phil attached to the car any time you're not driving it. I saw 6.7 gal CNG tanks for sale for regular passenger cars. This tank would take 13 hrs to fill with the PHIL.

The federal tax credit is currently $1000. Legislation is already proposed to raise it to $2000. The state tax credit is 20% of the cost=> based on the cost above including installation would be $1100-$1200. So total state and federal tax credit would be ~$2000. This offsets the cost of the PHIL to a total of ~$3900.

ShaleRider Reporting
There was an article in the Wall Street Journal a while back that talked about a fellow in Kansas City that converted diesels. A diesel want run on straignt NG but you can inject it in like a nitros setup. The mans name was Jonathan Goodwin, google him, it is a real interesting story. The story in the WSJ was short so I looked into it and found the longer version through google. He mainly talks about injecting hydrogen but said that you could do the same thing with NG and butane. He built a hummer that produces 800 HP and gets 60MPG. He put a duromax into a 1968 SS Impala convertable and out ran a Lamborgini or some other kind of European Spoet car on some sho that comes on TV called "Pimp My Ride".
I may convert my Z71 to NG. The go cart, with its 10 to 1 compression ratio, wouldn't run on it without clattering the valves plus there is no room for the tank.
Hook a small trailor to the back 2 dogs.How much tank would you need. I have seen fork lifts with tanks mounted on headache racks that were running on propane that didnt take up too much room.
If I had a headache rack then I couldn't run under the trailer of an 18 wheeler in making my getaway. Ain't no place to hook a trailer hitch to the go cart. Hell I hit a armydiller on the way back from the shalers party and when he jumped up under the front end I got airborne.
Haven't had to use that one, yet but you never know when you will need it.
Here is the consumer reports version for the PHIL... notice that there's a little difference in the price of the PHIL AND for the installation that I was quoted from the people in Baton Rouge. This article was written in 2006.

http://www.myphill.com/files/ConsumerReportOct06.pdf

Shalerider
Found this interesting article on Yahoo News. Please enjoy...

----------------------------

CARACAS, Venezuela - Give up your gas-guzzler and get a free car. That's President Hugo Chavez's offer to Venezuelans.

Chavez says he plans to start a program next year that will give away cars running on less-polluting natural gas to people who turn in old cars that consume "too much gasoline."

The socialist leader says he'll even throw in a year of free fuel — though that's a relatively minor bonus in oil-rich Venezuela, where gasoline goes for 12 cents a gallon.

Saturday's offer didn't say what sort of cars will be offered or how many will be given out.

Venezuela has signed accords with companies from more than a half-dozen countries to exploit its mostly untapped natural gas reserves — the largest in South America.
POOR FOLK CANT PAY THE PRICE THAT IT TAKES TO CHANGE TO CNG , MOST OLDER AND LOW INCOME PEOPLE DRIVE OLDER CARS AND IT WILL COAST WAY MORE THAN THEY PAID FOR THE CAR TO CHANGE OVER
Just like everything else when people start buying something the price will come down. Take LCD and plasma TVs, when they came out the price was out of range for most folks. Now they are affordable. If Chesapeake or Atmos Energy would open a station in Shreveport that would sell NG then I am sure some in town would buy a NG automobile.
Two Dogs, one of the easiest approaches is home fuelling for those people with natural gas.
Les I understand that but the device seems to be overpriced doubling the cost of the set up. I think that at first the niche buyer will be someone with money that may like going to a gas station that would check your oil, battery, fill the windshield squirter and clean the bugs off the windshield along with a fill up of NG. Sure the station will lose money at first but Chesapeake can afford it.

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