A question for petrol boatowners

[neale]

Have you considered converting to LPG?

The figures suggest halving your fuel costs.

What is stopping you?

Or have you already converted and if so what do you think?

 

[BarryD]

Thought about it - but only planning to keep the boat for a year - and then to either upgrade / switch to diesel who knows.

Compliments of the season

Barry

BTW - If I could get this done professionally for £2K then I would commission the work today.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by BarryD on Wed Dec 19 14:02:22 2001 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[Geoffs]

Yes thought about it hard, but as I have only got a 3 litre Mercruiser, the economics are marginal. Also, unless you've got room for lots of LPG tankage, range is limited, bearing mind range per litre is up to 10% less.

A lot of people have criticised LPG for reducing power, but I think this is lss of an issue. If you do 20knots at 3,000rpm on petrol, you'll do 20 knots at 3,000rpm on LPG. Ultimate top speed may be less, but how often do you want that, you can always switch back to petrol if you want. From want I hear acceleration doesn't seem to suffer.

If you have V8 and room for lots of tankage, it looks a good option. There doesn't seem to be a shortage of LPG filling on the soth coast, in fact better than petrol in this respect.

 

[Dave_Snelson]

Geoffs hit the nail on the head, there are plenty of LPG marina stations on the south coast and b*gger all up north, so location is important. Providing you have satisfied that bit, LPG runs much cleaner with less work at services, elongated service intervals, fewer emissions and less engine wear. It also runs quieter. So if you plan to keep your boat, you can recoup the cost of the mod and enjoy cheaper cruising.

Now then... about my Suzi 100....damn, curses, foiled again!

Have a good Christmas

 

[Col]

No. I havn't got the room for the tanks.

 

[brianrunyard]

No, two reasons:-
1. Space for the tanks.
2. Cost of conversion.

 

[BarryH]

I've got a conversion on my range rover, runs ok and recouped the cost in no time, but then it only cost £550. The cost for marine applications is at least five times that amount, thats an awful lot of petrol and it would take ages to recoup the costs, I'm not to happy having 200 odd litres of gas hanging about in the boat, if you have a leak where does it go. Not one of the conversions I have looked at include an alarm to warn of gas leaks or gas in the bilge, all a question of money i suppose.

 

[Guest]

Thought about it last year but Volvo won't honour any warranty claims if the boat is converted to LPG.

 

[syd]

Neale,
My reasons are the same as Barry and Brian's. As usual a boat owner pays at least quadruple for the pleasure.
Cheers
Syd

 

[KevB]

Been there, seen it, done it. The boat had 2 x 5ltr petrols, had it converted by Marine Gas Services in march this year. I have just sold the boat for 12k more than I paid for it, 7k more if you take the 5k installation cost of the LPG.
The beauty of LPG is the cost @ 29p Ltr, the boat runs very smoothly and can tick over in gear @ 400rpm allowing slow manoeuvrability and it's very clean.
Marine Gas Services are a business setup in conjunction with Calor Gas and the installation definitely includes sensors which detect gas/petrol/diesel.
I did about 90 hrs running this season and saved in the region of £1800 (not including the 5k installation cost) and was more than happy with the installation, started first time every time.
I think MGS are offering 12mths interest free credit on the installation at the moment.
The only down side is the limited cruising range, I had two tanks installed giving a total of about 180 ltrs this equated to about 3 hrs cruising range.
If your on the south cost I think there are now more places selling LPG than petrol.

If I had a choice I would choose diesel because of the availability and range but LPG comes a close second. Who knows, in 2007 all those diesel boats may be worth a lot less and LPG converted boats will be the norm!!