Re: Need info about: Inboard converted to Propane or Natural Gas
I am coming in on this late and do not have the expertise of some of those who have already posted. However I will offer my $.02 as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_natural_gas
According to this article, there are lots of vehicles out there running around on CNG.
However, the disadvantages likely outweigh any advantages so long as gasoline is readily available.
I looked into a conversion of a truck to propane fuel in the 80's. The one drawback was the space for a 2nd tank as I wanted a dual fuel setup given that propane filling stations were not common outside of cities. I wanted to do a Chevy Suburban but did not want the tank inside and did not see real space for a propane tank as well as the normal gasoline tank being there.
I did drive an 80's Chevy 4X4 pickup truck with a small block V8 converted to propane that belonged to a friend. It ran fine and one really would not have known it was propane apart from a bit of an upleasant exhaust smell - not terrible but not appealing to me at any rate.
At one time, almost all of the taxi cabs here in Winnipeg were big old GM 4 door sedans converted to propane. The advent of the fuel injected engines pretty much put the conversion people out of business, I believe. Now, almost all of the cabs here are Toyota Prius.
I also have a friend who visits Italy occasionally to see family. He talks of cars powered by some form of compressed fuel - I believe CNG and their being much less expensive to drive than gasoline powered cars. He said a family member picked him up at the airport and they drove a distance accross Italy in the car. It un-nerved him a bit when they stopped to fill up and the car was driven into a concrete bunker and everyone stayed far back while it was filled up, just in case it blew up.
The loss of power is also an issue. I believe, when I was looking into converting my Suburban, I was told I should have a large motor in very good condition as I could expect to lose about 15 to 20% of the power I was accustomed to.
I have a Winco generator powered by a 2 Cylinder Wisconsin Engine with a propane carb. It is designed to put out a maximum of 10 Kw. It can be run on Natural Gas, but the book then says it will only produce 8 Kw. So, if we swap a gasoline engine to CNG, I am guessing we may be looking at a loss of close to 40%. Running a 2nd engine is not likely going to be much cheaper than just running the existing engine.
I too have looked at the idea of electric boats. The only way that is going to work is with a very slow displacement hull boat. Think of the old Elco. The batteries weigh a lot and you need a lot of them to go very far. There was a story in a magazine (am I permitted to say which magazine?) a while back about a river cruiser in Australia that could manage pretty good with a lot of photo cells on the roof but it was not very fast and not built for rough water.
Diesel appears to be the way to go but is expensive, noisy and smelly compared to most small gasoline engines. I like diesel. I have a 1976 Mercedes 300D. It puts out 77 HP and hauls my car down the highway at cruising speeds. However, in comparison to a modern small fuel injected gasoline engine, it really is not a model of efficiency either. In 1976, compared to most north American cars, it was efficient and cheap to operate. Diesel was cheap etc. Now, my wife's Honda Accord of about the same physical size has more power with a 4 cylinder gas engine and makes better mileage and the fuel costs less per gallon. Not a winning combination maybe to put a diesel in my boat.
The answer to inexpensive boating is probably to go back in time to the displacement hull era. A small diesel in a fairly long narrow efficient displacement hull will take you a long way on a gallon of fuel- but generally, you are not going to get there very fast. No water skiing (sp?) will occur.
There have been some interesting boats built in recent years that have done fairly well on fuel. I cannot recall the name but again an article in a certain magazine was about a boat built in New Zealand that ran fairly quickly and handled rough water and made good mileage with a small diesel from a Toyota pickup truck if my memory is accurate. The boat was again, long and narrow and built to be light. I doubt one could load it up with 10 people but with a couple it did fine.
Another was the Rescue Minor tunnel hull boat built in Georgia by the fellow who has since passed away. It ran fast and cheaply with a little Kubota diesel but was not built for offshore use and only for one or 2 people.
No real easy answers to fast cheap boating are there?
Randy
) at it's most efficient RPM would be connected to a generator operating at it's most efficient RPM, voltage and current.
