[gassy]

I was just reunited with my car after several weeks. This was mostly for body work but I did get the vacuum hoses replaced which seems to have a marginally positive improvement in performance. I'm so glad to get the

factor back into my life! I then went on a 300+ trip to Wales.

Some folk here know that the car runs on LPG ( = liquified petrolum gas / propane). I'll swear that the consumption continues to improve even 50k miles after it was originally converted. I used to reckon I'd average 23mpg, with 26mpg on a long run. This time my trip was almost all motorway circa 70mph. Now hear this - I got 29mpg! The return trip was even better at 31.9mpg. ISTR from my petrol days that such a trip would have returned about 37 mpg - if I was lucky.

I'm so totally

with my quick car which is so economical to run (LPG = 39p/litre, petrol 79p/litre). Just thought I'd share that with you

 

[jeremyfrost]

Keith,

How much does it cost for the LPG conversion. Also, would it leave enough room under the boot floor for power amps?

 

[Ricardo]

I've seen one LPG conversion company that can put a gas tank in the well were the spare tyre used to be. This means you can either carry the spare in the boot or leave it behind for more boot space!
I will try and get the web site link on here soon, but the options are out there.

 

[mark e]

Nice idea but I think that you might find that not carrying a spare is an offence?

 

[whitesaab]

It's not a legal requirement to carry a spare wheel , but, if you do, it has to be road legal.

Common sense British Law strikes again.

 

[steisan]

I know that some cars are sold in Italy without a spare, just a little mono-use inflater.

In my '87 a 40 litres tank can't fit right into the the spare tyre well, so the cover of the wheel is a few cm higher than the rest of the cargo ground.

I get around 320-350km form my 40litres tank.

I paied around 500£ for my kit, it was very cheap because my car wasn't cat. There are many options for a LPG conversion, most of them have been discussed here

HTH

 

[James]

Do we know what plans the UK government has in store for LPG? I'm sure I recall reading somewhere that the tax on it was slowly creeping up, thus reducing the incentive to use it.

Is there any sort of formal position?

Cheers

James

 

[jeremyfrost]

Originally posted by Mark E:
[qb]Nice idea but I think that you might find that not carrying a spare is an offence?            [/qb][/b]

Tell Elise drivers that!!

I think that Keiths conversion uses the spare wheel space - Keith?

So long as you have tyre weld (standard equipment on Elises), it should at least get you to a tyre centre.

 

[john]

There is no legal requirement to carry a spare wheel. As said, if one is present it must be legal. If it is there for the MoT then it will be checked. If it is not there you can not be failed for not having a spare.

I think TreVoR and Porker drivers get a can of stuff to reinflate and seal a tyre in event of puncture

 

[Mark B]

Quite a few current M-Benz models do not have spares, but some form of emergency repair/reinflation system. Non of these systems are any good if you have serious tyre damage, but are you statistically anymore likely to have a puncture these days than some other form of breakdown? No, I thought not.

 

[gassy]

My 90 litre tank sits neatly between the rear wheel arches, and therefore considerably limits space in the boot (trunk). Doughnut (donut) shaped tanks are available to fit in the wheel well, but typically they are about 25-30 litres capacity and when I got mine converted I wasn't sure about fuel availability. I have seen a car where the boot floor was raised by about 5cm to accommodate a tank of reasonable capacity.

Total cost for my conversion was about £1800 inc tax. A bit on the high side; you can probably get it done a bit cheaper - indeed you can probably get it done for about £1200 on non-turbo cars.

Jez, I think you'd need to downgrade your audio!

I think the government "committment" was reasonably mealy-mouthed to allow tax to creep up from next year. However it's the oil companies that really pi*s me off. Petrol prices are able to come down to reflect market conditions, but apparently LPG prices never come down - always go up. LPG prices are apparently linked to fuel oil prices, not to petroleum.

Mark, thanks for editing my original post so that I didn't (potentially) incriminate myself re (possible) driving speeds

 

[murphwiz]

Originally posted by /john:
[qb]As said, if one is present it must be legal.  If it is there for the MoT then it will be checked.   [/qb][/b]

Spare wheel is not a testable item.
Although if the Police stop you and check, if you have one, it had better be legal, thats the difference between the MOT and C&U regs

 

[jeremyfrost]

Hmmm, I'd love to get LPG, but that those amps have to go somewhere.

Not sure that LPG would pay back for me. Keith, how many miles do you think you had to do before break even?

 

[gassy]

I reckon pay-back was at about 40k miles, which was about 25k miles ago, so I'm quids-in.

 

[john]

Originally posted by Leon [9-5 stg2]:
[qb]  QUOTE

Originally posted by /john:
[qb] As said, if one is present it must be legal.  If it is there for the MoT then it will be checked.   [/qb][/b]

Spare wheel is not a testable item.
Although if the Police stop you and check, if you have one, it had better be legal, thats the difference between the MOT and C&U regs

[/qb][/b][/quote]Leon is the expert on this one - so go with his comments, not mine.

Everyday is a learning experience