Where I work the van fleet (Express 2500's) is all dual fuel natural gas. I have no complaints with it. Stick the biggest tanks you can on the vehicle to maximize distance between fills. Unless your short tripping back and forth back to home base.
Unless you are all short trips, don't even consider dedicated fuel conversion. Unlike propane, you can't do a redneck refill using a bbq tank if you run out. Gotta get towed to a fill station. Our conversion cost is apparently close to $5000 per vehicle. We've also got fast fill, which takes 5-15minutes to complete. Tanks on my van get me ~120 miles down the road (at a commercial fill station, it is 20 bucks to fill the tanks, which works out to about half the cost of gasoline based on mpg calculations. I'm sure costs are significantly less using our own fill station per fill).
Post office here also runs cng in their route trucks. And the cops have a mix of propane and cng cruisers.
How many vehicles are you considering this for?
Alex.
That was the old way that natural gas was used ….you had to have 4 or 5 tanks stashed in every corner of a p/u and you still couldn't go any where !
This is a TOTALLY different system …..it's now not just a compressed gas, like an air-compressor, it's NOW Compressed into a LIQUID and pumped as a liquid form ….the liquid natural gas expands 30X more per/volume than propane did …. so technically has a 30X greater capacity than propane ……. IT IS going to be a major Future Popular Alternate Fuel …….
The performance of the fuel is also going to be way different than what it used to be too ….. form what i'm understanding it will be a Direct injection fuel system similar to the newest propane conversions ……. no more mixers, vaporizers and the issues surrounding Freezing up the system because you didn't have enough anti-freeze in your system
As We Speak BC is spending Billions of $$$ developing the pipelines across the Province and at the shipping ports, like in Kitimat, BC.
A very good Friend of mine currently has the newer "Prinz" German propane direct injection system in his Ford Expedition, he installed it ~2-1/2 years ago, he can't get over the fuel milage/range/and increase in power he has over Gasoline, (as we both were avid propane powered vehicle guys, I Had 4) …… He is a Master Tech and is currently working at a location in Vancouver that also does LPG conversions on commercial city vehicles, Ambulances etc. …. they are also going to be one of the leaders once the LNG system comes online (as in locations to re-fuel, like propane did) ………
