I'm really thinking aloud here and would be interested on others' opinions. OH is looking to change his car to an LPG vehicle, and it made me wonder whether there would really be any benefit to changing my car (the tow car) to one that runs on LPG which he would then use as he does more miles and me then having a diddy runaround.
For towing, diesel seems to be preferred as it gives more torque and more MPG than petrol. Even though LPG is cheaper than diesel it doesn't give more MPG - or does it? Meaning that the running costs are probably no better than a diesel.
I know a few of you run LPG vehicles for towing, and a friend of mine used to have one and then changed to a diesel because they had problems with LPG.
Any views on the merits, or otherwise, of towing with an LPG vehicle versus diesel.
Lpg gives slightly worse fuel consumption but as it costs half the price of petrol its cheaper to run obviously. your boot space is reduced because of the lpg tank. when you go on any jorney uk or continent you have to forward plan because not all services sell lpg. if your going to Europe you need adaptors because their is no common fitting for filling. its also extra complication, I'll stick with diesel.
not for theres a lot of miles in £1500 or whatever it cost.i do believe you cannot use the channel tunnel if this is fitted,stand corrected. copied from mature student thread
One point about using a towcar that run on LPG, think twice if planning continental holidays as LPG vehicles are not allowed through the Euro tunnel or most of the major tunnels in Europe.
I tow our Bailey Senator (1500kg) with a Vauxhall Monterey '98 (rebadged Isuzu trooper) 3.2L Petrol/LPG conversion. I had the car converted when I bought it 4 years ago. I had planned to do this as the car is a fuel "guzzler". I have no problems with running on LPG allthough, as someone said, previously, there is variable availability on the Continent. Excellent in France, Netherlands and Italy. The Channel Tunnel, also, prohibits LPG vehicles. I like the fact that LPG is greener.
I have a 50L gas tank and a small (25L) petrol tank under the boot floor in the place where the original petrol tank was. I got the £1800 cost of the conversion back in the first year. I don't know if I would have another car converted as it is quite a large financial outlay. I am thinking of replacing the car at the moment and thinking of getting a diesil.
I really think it has to come down to conversion cost versus mileage (obviously if you already have a petrol car you are thinking of converting rather than buying one pre-done). You need to get a price for the conversion and work out how many miles you do each year and how much that costs you in fuel. Then work out how much that would cost you in LPG and the saving you will make. Supposing your conversion costs you £2,000 and you save £1,000 a year then it will be 2 years before you break even and end up better off. Had I liked my Primera I would have put an LPG on it, however I know I don't want to keep it long term and have held off because I know I won't make my money back short term.
Like anything of this nature, there are good and bad garages, make sure you choose wisely, get a personal recommendation if you can and leave no room for ambiguity. Make sure you know where you want the tank and what sort of tank you want and also where the filler is going to be as somebody I know ended up with his in an awkward place.
I have run a couple of LPG Rangerovers, and a couple of diesels.
Your conversion needs to be done properly, or you will have heartaches.
If you do lots of long mileage journeys, then your conversion needs a lot of tankage, or you need to be prepared to plan your trip via LPG filling stations, which although growing more plentiful, are still not universal (although most conversions will still have a petrol tank, in can often be significantly reduced in size).
If you routinely travel somewhere where LPG is not available, or do long journeys, and want to be able to cover reasonable mileages between fills, then diesel may be the better option.
For an 'ordinary' car I'd not bother, and go diesel. For a big gas guzzler with either space to spare, or space underneath, then i'd certainly consider it, particularly if (as the Rangie) the equivalent diesel is a little lacking (IMHO).
Thanks for all your replies. We would not convert an existing car.....if we were buying we would buy with it already installed. However, all this is perhaps irrelevant now as we bought an LPG car yesterday for hubby to use for work, but it will also be the main car we use. That leaves our other car for me and for towing. But I think having given it some thought and reading these comments, we will go down the diesel routine when we change that car - maybe next year.
Hard to say really Ali as we bought secondhand off Ebay. We have seen and driven the car and other than the high mileage it seems okay, but time will tell! It's a Volvo S40 Bi-Fuel and we have an LPG supplier really close selling LPG for under 40p per litre, so we should hopefully get 50-60 miles for the cost of a litre of petrol. It can only tow caravans up to 1200kg, so it won't tow our hefty Burstner. We won with a bid of £2900 and it's six years old. Providing it's as good as we think (or hope) it is, then it should start paying for itself - compared with the Suzuki Grand Vitara it's replacing, which only does at most 30MPG.
Even if it doesn't work out we haven't spent a huge amount trialling gas.
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Topic: LPG V the alternatives
