Swampy Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 Hey guys, I was thinking if anyone has messed with different fuels in the comanches. Like e85, propane, e100, or a flexfuel set up. I have been thinking of doing an e85 or a flexfuel set up but not sure how it would work in the jeep. I know people do it to performance cars because of the cooler burning temp and better power but a jeep? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 E85 is great for a turbo/supercharger. My old MJ ran on propane, and I still have my plowtruck on propane... I'd probably not do it again though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
75sv1 Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 I looked into this for CNG. I remember '95 Cherokees had this option. It might have been Government contract vehicles. At the time in my area it did not make sense, as there were only two filling stations in IN. Both up in Indy. Also, the cost etc. didn't make sense. I did talk with one person at work who did this type of work. It might have made sense where there is oil production. The fire on top of the well heads is them burning off the natural gas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 6 minutes ago, 75sv1 said: I looked into this for CNG. I remember '95 Cherokees had this option. It might have been Government contract vehicles. At the time in my area it did not make sense, as there were only two filling stations in IN. Both up in Indy. Also, the cost etc. didn't make sense. I did talk with one person at work who did this type of work. It might have made sense where there is oil production. The fire on top of the well heads is them burning off the natural gas. I know a guy with a (non-working) CNG MJ. CNG works good in a local fleet environment (local buses, taxis, etc) as you need a lot of time to fill them, and there's normally almost no filling stations, and range is only so-so. The taxi company here had their own filling station, but they also got massive subsidies to install it. The fuel itself is cheap, the other problems of it are not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omega_rugal Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 LPG / propane works great Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 30 minutes ago, omega_rugal said: LPG / propane works great When I had mine dialed in, I will admit it worked really good. Good power, good fuel economy, and it was dirt simple. Lack of range and the inability to use jerry cans (stuck buying expensive forklift tanks, or using the hack method with grill tanks) was really why I went away from it. The fact that starting it in the cold is just a fight was another issue, but I could deal with that for the most part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omega_rugal Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 mine si LPG only ( don`t drive too far away and there are several filling stations across town) but you can use a dual gasoline/lpg setup for long trips, also helps with cold starting in winter, again winter here is not harsh so i guess to each its own... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 Dual fuel setups are a big compromise, I've dealt with them and don't think they're worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swampy Posted June 30, 2018 Author Share Posted June 30, 2018 I was thinking more along the lines of a flex fuel set up to be able to run a mix of e85 and like 88 octane gas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omega_rugal Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 2 hours ago, Swampy said: I was thinking more along the lines of a flex fuel set up to be able to run a mix of e85 and like 88 octane gas you need stainless steel in all the fuel lines, and a tank that can hold the E85 without rusting from inside, also you need to flush any moisture in the system every now and then which adds to the initial cost of the conversion, takes $$ and effort but you are supposed to get your money back with every refill so do the math, also E85 can withstand more compression if can take advantage of it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyav8r Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 Our town has a natural gas utility and tried running municipal vehicles on it. Police vehicles were dual fuel but the new police SUVs are gasoline only. There wasn’t enough fuel cost savings to offset the maintenance cost and inconvenience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 Captain Obvious says: "Gasoline, diesel, propane, etc. are all going the way of the dinosaur. EV's are taking over whether we like it or not. Big rig tucks will be the last to convert, but pretty soon the alternative fuel for everything will be electricity." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 1 hour ago, HOrnbrod said: Captain Obvious says: "Gasoline, diesel, propane, etc. are all going the way of the dinosaur. EV's are taking over whether we like it or not. Big rig tucks will be the last to convert, but pretty soon the alternative fuel for everything will be electricity." 100% I think there's a decade left before it will really be felt... As it sits an EV conversion doesn't seem to be a great economical choice, unless you're really putting on the miles in a manner that you can maximize the strengths of an EV, but the costs are coming down in general. Big rigs might actually be converted sooner rather than later. With driver log requirements and mandatory rest periods, couple with many trucks being owned/leased by fleets, they're actually a great option for electric as they can charge/swap batteries during the driver's mandatory breaks, and if you own a fleet of trucks the infrastructure cost is far easier to be justified. It's just not there yet, but throw another good 'ol fashioned oil crisis at us and I'm sure it will happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeep Driver Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 The wizards of smart, they do have lofty goals, don't they? EVs may very well be the future, but not in your lifetime nor mine. Tesla can't figure out how to not turn their customers into crispy critters. Look them up, they've toasted quite a few. Actually, I call this murder, because they know better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 Can you imagine going to a drag meet or NASCAR race and all you hear are the tires screeching on the pavement and barely audible whirring noises going up and down in frequency? And everyone is gushing about the latest micro 100lb battery bank that has an efficiency rating of 99.99% and a 10,000 AH @ 1000 amp capacity? Just wouldn't be the same as hearing a blown hemi blasting off the line or a 900HP NASCAR engine blowing by at 8000RPM.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeep Driver Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 Been going on for well over a decade now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnj92131 Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 Tesla get a lot of press. I see more and more of them on the Freeway. At least 4 of them in my neighborhood. Not to mention the Volts and Leafs. They are coming much faster than most of us think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeep Driver Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 People are ignoring the death count, that's why. At some point................ I can't afford one anyway, matters not to me, and if the gov was not subsidizing, no one could afford one. But, when it's your daughter or son that is roasted? At what expense? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 6 minutes ago, johnj92131 said: Tesla get a lot of press. I see more and more of them on the Freeway. At least 4 of them in my neighborhood. Not to mention the Volts and Leafs. They are coming much faster than most of us think. Must be the herds of Cali sheep buying them John. I don't see any of them in Bama unless they are passing through. But I don't really look for them either. We bought a new Jeep Compass a few days ago for Mama to drive around in and save wear and tear on the JK. Our local Jeep dealer also sells new Fords, so we test drove a new Ford Focus Electric just for grins. I hated it; she hated it even worse. It was just... weird. Some day if I live long enough I'll probably have to buy one because there won't be anything else, but no way now.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnj92131 Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 I just picked up a nice 2001 Honda Accord from a neighbor. It is the newest car I own. $2500 and only 116k miles. The only electric car I have driven is the Chevy Volt. Belonged to a long time car buddy. I like the torque off the line and the quiet. Car trends are generally in California first, so would not expect to see many EV's in Alabama. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnj92131 Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 BTW, the internal combustion engine will be around for a long time. Don't think you and I have to worry about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnj92131 Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 5 hours ago, Jeep Driver said: People are ignoring the death count, that's why. At some point................ I can't afford one anyway, matters not to me, and if the gov was not subsidizing, no one could afford one. But, when it's your daughter or son that is roasted? At what expense? Jeep Driver, Way more things for me to worry about than Electric Car Fires. My son did 2 combat tours. The Border Patrol conducts High speed Chase's a couple of miles from my daughter's home. Stupid, agressive drivers kill thousands. Life is full of unfair things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogmorgo Posted July 1, 2018 Share Posted July 1, 2018 I'm not convinced Teslas catch fire any more frequently than any other vehicle out there. https://www.autoblog.com/2018/05/11/a-list-of-tesla-car-fires-since-2013/ As of May of this year, that's 14 out of what, 350,000 total units built? And if you'll notice, most of them involved a collision of some kind. Cars catching fire after a collision is a fairly normal occurance, which is why fire departments are the first responders dispatched to collisions. Yeah there's a little bit of a learning curve to extinguishing electric car fires, but we'll get there pretty soon. And yes there's more media attention to them catching fire because it's a newer technology (not really) going wrong. Other things catch fire too. Phones and laptops also caught a lot of attention because they catch fire. How many people do you know who have a laptop or mobile phone, and how many of them have caught fire? Explorers flip, but I don't know of anyone who's rolled one. Pintos explode, yet my mom wrote off not one but two of them as a kid and she's still around. Hell, apparently XJ's and ZJ's have their fuel tanks rupture and explode often enough they recalled every single one of them twenty years after the fact, and while I know more than a few XJ's that have been written off after a collision, and seen tons in wrecking yards, I've yet to see one with fire damage outside the dash or engine bay. We will definitely start seeing electric vehicles become the norm within our lifetimes. Hell, quite a few European cities have internal combustion engine sales scheduled for bans in the not-so-distant future. Yeah there's going to a bit of a learning curve with them as with anything else, but being afraid of it is only going to make it worse. People like vehicles that are low-maintenance, quiet, and smooth. Back when the car first became a thing, electric cars were very popular for exactly that reason. Internal combustion only took off because of its greater convenience when people started wanting to hit the open road in their cars, and battery technology circa 1900 just wasn't there, but it's here now, and just needs a few more years for infrastructure to catch up. Yeah there are hiccups along the way, but then again there's hiccups with established technology too. How hard would you expect it to be to screw up an ignition cylinder? Or a headlight switch? But apparently those are also things that happen. Personally I'm excited for EV tech to be coming of age. I can't wait to be able to affordably convert a vehicle. Sure the noise and mechanical brutality of internal combustion is cool. So are steam engines. I would love a steam-powered car too, but they're simply not practical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swampy Posted July 20, 2018 Author Share Posted July 20, 2018 Yeah Telsa was even testing their EV semi the other day. It looks crazy streamlined but that's because she has to be as efficient as possible. It is definitely the way the future is heading. And the gov subsidizes coal and oil way more than electricity. Each year it gets cheaper to use and soon it'll be all there is. Electric and steam cars were actually the first cars in the US/ the world. But I may or may not consider turning to e85. I have to see how much it would be invested in it. Fuel availability probably has to be the only downside for e85/e100 but it should be coming up in availability as the industry goes in that direction. I know Brazil uses ethanol as a standard fuel for the country Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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