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Anyone had an LPG conversion done?

Posted: 15 Jul 2010, 00:16
by TSR2
I'm wondering if anyone has had a car converted to LPG, what they think of it in general and has it made much, if any difference to car insurance quotes?

Re: Anyone had an LPG conversion done?

Posted: 15 Jul 2010, 10:44
by WhisperJet
Hi Ben,

I don't know what car you're driving but anyway: the forum at http://aronline.co.uk/ offers a lot of friendly knowledge -
You can search threads by "LPG conversion" - I got 9 matches...

Cheers,

Nick

Re: Anyone had an LPG conversion done?

Posted: 15 Jul 2010, 12:17
by hobby
Eire may be a good country in which to make enquiries.

In 1975 I was working in that country and often travelled in a Jaguar saloon driven by one of our Irish company directors. The car ran on on LPG/petrol combination, running on either petrol or LPG, with the LPG tank carried in the boot of the car. There was still some space for luggage in the boot after the LPG tank had been fitted.

At that time I understood that there were 300 LPG filling units on garage forecourts in the Republic. As far as I know the system was not publicised widely in the UK and I was surprised not to see the growth of that technology in the UK at that time. After all we had LPG powered fork lift trucks used throughout England in the late 1960s.

Re: Anyone had an LPG conversion done?

Posted: 15 Jul 2010, 12:52
by Garry Russell
I don't know if Butane is exactly the same but it is in the family

From the late sixties, locally, the BEA Karrier baggage truck and forklifts along with many commercial forklifts were butane.

They were even using propane (aslso an LPG) in the war with a simple mod to petrol engines.

Some London taxis were also gas powered then but to some reason it seems to have fizzeled out. Whether it was a technology failure, or a vested interest to suppress it I don't know, but even though all seemed well as there was never anything said about poor perfomance or reliabilty which would have been lauded given half a chance, it never really happened.


My general feeling is that it's good, but there must be something I don't know else everyone would have changed over thirty years ago.

There still could be quite a few vehicles LPG powered on the roads now but nothing is really said *-)

Re: Anyone had an LPG conversion done?

Posted: 15 Jul 2010, 13:13
by DaveB
One of my staff, in days when he was self employed for the most part (again) had a one-man chauffeur operation using an LPG/Petrol combi Jag (S Type). Though he brought the Jag with the conversion already done, it was a costly exercise for the previous owner and this was reflected in the sale price. From what I remember, he didn't have too much hassle finding LPG stations but when he did, there was always the petrol to fall back on and this is how he tended to use the car.
Pointless me finding out about the insurance because the car had to be insured differently being 'Private Hire'. However, a canny Scot who often frequents this hostilery has an LPG VW Passat estate so I'll try and drum some info out of him next time he's in. He's been in once this week already but twice isn't uncommon ;)
Best thing to do re insurance is simply give your current insurers a call and see what they say :)
ATB

DaveB B)smk

Re: Anyone had an LPG conversion done?

Posted: 16 Jul 2010, 08:05
by Filonian
Garry Russell wrote:They were even using propane (aslso an LPG) in the war with a simple mod to petrol engines.

I can (just) remember some of the buses in Leeds being run on gas - carried on a trailer up the b.., rear.


Graham