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bwest
Administrator
United States
3820 Posts |
 Posted - 10/31/2016 : 05:48:59 AM
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| Well, as most of you know I have a small fleet and we are changing over to propane. The oldest V-10 we have has just shy of 60k on it and has been doing relatively well. The driver I have on it is really picky and keeps it like new and tells me about each and every thing that is or could be wrong with it. He has kept me on my toes for sure. Anyway, I repaired a couple wires that were rubbed in two here a while back. The symptoms on that were engine missing, cruise control doing funny things and a couple other odd issues that didn't seem to coincide with each other. So, fast forward a few weeks and the missing and cruise problems returned. I checked for obvious wear or breaks in the wiring harness but nothing. I called Central States and Jon told me he thought these issues could be related to a wiring issue and sent me a harness out. I replaced the harness, which had the wires in it that I repaired a few weeks ago, and the issues went away. In fact, the driver has reported an increase in fuel mileage of about 10%. I love it when a repair works!! |
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Thomasbus24
Administrator
USA
4547 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2016 : 08:16:24 AM
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Where is the affected harness?
Sidebar: I test drove the vision gasser yesterday...pretty nice! |
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bwest
Administrator
United States
3820 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2016 : 08:29:23 AM
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It's the harness that includes the heavier wire going down for a signal for the starter. Also has the big cable going to the module on the passenger side of the firewall and there are three of the round plugs in the center of the firewall in it. It wasn't a hard job to do but it took some time.
How was the gasoline power vs. the propane? |
Bryan |
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Thomasbus24
Administrator
USA
4547 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2016 : 09:50:48 AM
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| I think the LP had more pep, but to be fair it's been almost 2 years since I demo'ed it. |
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1983WardFord
Top Member
USA
1395 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2016 : 10:31:34 AM
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| I'd love to test-drive a gasser just for the fun of it! |
Due to the current economic condition, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off until further notice. |
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jeeptjken
Senior Member
147 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2016 : 11:41:36 AM
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| we have all 3 we have propane and diesel and gas propane gets about 3 to 3.5 mpg gas gets about 8 and the diesel gets about 8 those gas with a 100 gallon tank can go a full week on a tank of fuel propane units fuel every 3 runs diesel can go a week as well the gas units have better pickup for sure and its nice to have them clocked at 65 instead of 60 it helps the merging onto to freeway |
How did you get the gosinta in the whatchamacallit |
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Thomasbus24
Administrator
USA
4547 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2016 : 12:36:19 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by 1983WardFord
I'd love to test-drive a gasser just for the fun of it!
You need to take a ride up here soon...All three major players now have representation in the area, there's a lot to see and learn about nowadays. |
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bwest
Administrator
United States
3820 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2016 : 06:33:08 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by jeeptjken
we have all 3 we have propane and diesel and gas propane gets about 3 to 3.5 mpg gas gets about 8 and the diesel gets about 8 those gas with a 100 gallon tank can go a full week on a tank of fuel propane units fuel every 3 runs diesel can go a week as well the gas units have better pickup for sure and its nice to have them clocked at 65 instead of 60 it helps the merging onto to freeway
Wait, 3 to 3.5 on propane? You've got something wrong. You shouldn't get less than 4 to 4.5 on route. You'll get over 5 on a solid trip. What's the propane prices run up your way? |
Bryan |
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jeeptjken
Senior Member
147 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2016 : 06:54:05 AM
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| last I looked we pay about 30 to 40 cents a gallon after the state rebate |
How did you get the gosinta in the whatchamacallit |
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mquiring
Senior Member
79 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2016 : 09:05:07 AM
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| I'm getting a demo gas burner this afternoon to play with. I know when it was delivered to our dealer last week that they had towed a full size crew cab pickup with it all the way from Fort Valley. I'm hoping nobody has played with the trip computer and I can look at what kind of mileage it got on that trip. If these gassers are doing 8 mpg i'd be impressed! I just can't believe that it would do that much better than a propane. But if thats the case i'd be inclined to go with a gas based on purchase price. Right now were paying 1.72 for gas and i'd be at 89 cents on propane. A rough quote my dealer gave me a couple of weeks ago had a Gas at $7,200 under a propane. |
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black
Active Member
USA
49 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2016 : 10:54:26 AM
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| Our B/B gas got a little over 6mpg coming in from factory. Just put it on a route and will let everyone know how it does. |
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Thomasbus24
Administrator
USA
4547 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2016 : 11:42:31 AM
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| The salesman was telling me that the newest of the new dashes will tell you the average MPG for the last run when you shut the key off, assuming I understood him correctly. The gas bus doesn't do it, just the LP. |
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bwest
Administrator
United States
3820 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2016 : 1:15:20 PM
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| I can't believe that a gasser can get better mileage than propane. So, lets say it gets the same as a propane at 5 on the route. Based on the prices given here that would be a 24 cents savings per mile with the 36 cents per gallon taken off that propane price. Lets assume the spread is the same (or similar) even when prices go up. It would take a grand total of 30,000 miles for you to recover the up charge. That make sense? |
Bryan |
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Fastback
Top Member
1500 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2016 : 04:53:22 AM
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| Back in the day, the rule of thumb was that propane fuel mileage would be about 10% less than gasoline. |
Why yes, the ORIGinal CHARGER is a Fastback |
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bwest
Administrator
United States
3820 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2016 : 05:35:14 AM
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| My thought process may be incorrect here. I know propane has less BTUs than gasoline. So, it would make sense that at propane engine would get less mileage than a gasoline model. It would be interesting to see just how much. I can not believe it could be too much though. The 10% you're talking about may be different today though because of the technology used. |
Bryan |
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eshover
Senior Member
146 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2016 : 07:15:05 AM
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Brian, I have a Propane that the cruise goes off when you hit a bump sometimes. Is this what yours did?
Also, why would changing the wiring harness make a difference in fuel mileage.
On the fuel mileage, our propane only got about 3.6 or so from the factory. It now gets about 4.1 after about 40,000 miles. The driver has a heavy foot so I think this makes a difference also.
ED |
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mquiring
Senior Member
79 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2016 : 07:28:57 AM
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Well, I drove the gas yesterday and while I wasn't necessarily disappointed in it, it wasn't as impressive as I thought it might be either. Part of it may have been the way I was raised on the farm driving our old grain trucks and getting scolded for revving the rpm to what my dad thought was to high! It did run and drive nice and as long as you kept your foot out of it the rpms stayed down pretty well. But when I merged on to the interstate it didnt take anything of it to jump up to 4000 rpm. I know thats probably normal and perfectly fine for these engines but its unnerving for someone who had it drilled into his head to not to let it run that fast. The demo bus was a fully loaded 65 pass bus with air brakes. If I was to buy one it would be a 47 pass and would almost never get off of gravel roads or have to get over 50 mph so it might be the perfect fit for it. Time to do some serious thinking. Any insight any of you may have would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
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bwest
Administrator
United States
3820 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2016 : 07:32:11 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by eshover
Brian, I have a Propane that the cruise goes off when you hit a bump sometimes. Is this what yours did?
Also, why would changing the wiring harness make a difference in fuel mileage.
On the fuel mileage, our propane only got about 3.6 or so from the factory. It now gets about 4.1 after about 40,000 miles. The driver has a heavy foot so I think this makes a difference also.
ED
Yes, it was going off and also not turning off when you push the off on the handle. On the fuel mileage, the only thing I can think of is that it must have been missing or sending a funny signal to the injectors. Just a guess though. |
Bryan |
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Blue Bird Propane Missing/ Mileage
