LPG conversion??

Montana

Montana

Active Member
Feb 22, 2005
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I'm thinking about getting my Jeep Cherokee 3.7l petrol :)eek: yes - I know:D) converted to LPG. Reason being, I currently run that for towing and a car for everyday, as I can't afford the fuel cost on the Jeep to drive all of the time.

I don't really know much about it though. I'd love to sell the car, and only have one set of insurance/tax to pay, plus get to regularly drive my lovely jeep instead of the horrible car :D

So - any pros/cons? What kind of cost would it be to do the work? How much is it likely to save me in fuel cost, and how easily available is the LPG?

Do you lose power when towing? This would be a big worry for me.....

Anyone had it done? I'd appreciate an opinion on the idea, good or bad.
 
I did quite a bit of research on this as was all set to get an lpg (prob a grand cherokee) however I discovered at the 11th hour that you cant take lpg vehicles through the channel tunnel, and as we do like our driving holis in france that was a no go.

From what I can gather, you need to allow around £2k to get the work done. Cant comment on availability in your area but there is a services that supplies it where we are. The vehicle will consume the same amount of fuel i.e. still run at a low mpg, but the cost of fuel is halved, lpg is around 50/60p per litre. The other issue is where you house the tank, so you either go without a spare tyre, have it taking up boot space or have it underneath which reduces your ground clearance. By all accounts there would be no loss of power.

If you do a lot of miles you will get your money back, if you dont then you wont. :)
 
all the trucks on the farm i work at are LPG conversions. still tow really well and not a huge difference in power (although obv a bit). works out far more economical for the milages they do :)
 
Thanks for the advice both :)

I'd finance the cost of the conversion by selling the car, which I hate driving anyway, that would cover most of it if not all, and I own it outright, so it's not really a cost I'd need to re-coup by doing plenty of miles.....

Would need to think about how much space I lose, I think I'd want it in the boot rather than underneath - can just imagine me driving over something too low :eek:

Any ideas on how likely/unlikely it is that lpg fuel will become less available? Is it something that's here to stay, or a bit of a fad?? :confused:
 
The issue IMO isn't LPG availability, it's what the Chancellor will do. LPG is only cheap because unlike petrol & diesel it's not taxed to ****, but that could change in the next budget for all we know. The gov't hasn't committed to keeping tax low on LPG as far as I can tell. This is possibly why LPG hasn't caught on as much as it might have done - it is a bit of a gamble! :rolleyes:
 
Shell garages sell lpg, at least the ones round here do. I heard that you can get a grant to have your car converted AFTER I'd had mine done. I actually had it done in addition to my petrol engine so if I did feel the need( say up a really long steep hill) I could switch to petrol and then back again afterwards. In the year after I had my conversion done, I had "recooped" 1/2 the original cost in savings on full price petrol.
 
I looked into this, would love to go back to a 4x4 full time, but after having spoken with mechanics and people who have them I think I have decided against it, basically, in very simple terms your engine was designed for petrol, not gas, although they handle it for a while, apparently it really does shorten the life of your engine (conversions that have a built in lubricator are much better).
My friend has one, seems it is always going wrong....not such a problem when your brother is the local mechanic, otherwise she would have got rid of it a long time ago!
 
my dad owns a garage and does/did the LPG conversions, and from what he was saying the jeeps do really well on it and are quite straightforeward to convert. And you can actually run a car on both petrol/LPG as you have a switch to flick between the two. His car does! :)
 
Thanks for the feedback guys, really useful stuff (still a bit confused though:p!!)
I've found a local garage that specialises, I think I'll go and have a chat to them and see if I can figure out whether to go for it or not :)
 
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