CNG Powered Ford F-250 Tackles Moab
Tim Esterdahl | Apr 05, 2012 | Comments 7
In a sign of things to come (maybe), Venchurs Vehicle System showed off a bifuel Ford F-250 Park Ranger pickup at the Easter Jeep Safari held at Moab, Utah. Does this compressed natural gas powered truck pave the way for more consumer pickups to follow suit or is CNG still limited by horsepower issues?
A CNG Powered Ford F-250 modified by Venchurs Vehicle System showed off its skills at the Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah. Could other CNG powered trucks be on the horizon? Photo Credit Jake Lingeman.
While driving the truck, Lingeman, said it handled and drove just like the stock F-250 albiet slower. He tested it on the street and on a short loop through Fins and Things, one of Moab’s easy-to-medium trails and it did just fine.
Pat Muldroon, vice president of product development engineering for Venchurs said the truck has a total range of 650 miles, 250-275 on the 21.2 gallon CNG tank and about 400 on the gasoline. Furthermore, it produces 80 percent less poisonous NOx when running on CNG and 30 percent less CO2.
For it to be a Moab truck, Venchurs worked to make the truck off-road capable by adding:
- 35-inch BF Goodrich Mud-Terrains
- Off-road skid plates
- 2-inch lift
- Bilestein shocks
What also makes this story interesting is the fact that gas prices have risen so quickly as of late. CNG, by comparison, was recently reported as being $2.09 a gallon according to AOL Autos. Plus, the city of Moab just built its first CNG station this year.
“It’s the fuel of the future,” said Muldoon, according to Autoweek.com. “We haven’t built any refineries for the last 40 years, and we’ve lost 60. Gas isn’t getting any cheaper.”
So great another fleet only type of CNG-powered truck for the Government. Right? Wrong. While Venchurs is currently focused on fleet sales, customers can order the gaseous prep package for the F-250 now. The conversion will cost less than $10,000 according to Muldoon. Plus, Venchurs is a certified Ford Quality Vehicle Modifier meaning warranties will remain in place.
What does this mean for other truck manufactures? With Dodge building a CNG powered Ram and now this Ford conversion kit, will a CNG Tundra be on the market soon? Or is it still a case with CNG being better for the environment, not your wallet, which will drive Governments to buy them, not consumers?
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Filed Under: Auto News
We already have Tundra’s with CNG kits. Several people on Tundra forums state they already have CNG and kits available for less than $10k. The problem is finding where the CNG stations to refuel are. Not to many around. You know why the oil companies keep the infastructure the way it is, so we use the pricey gas and the rake us over the coals. If you haven’t notice they have a new excuse everytime you ask the oil company why the rising cost. Their answer to us is for us to use less oil. Well we are but prices still go up. Why is it that we have to pay a price for something that hasn’t happen as per speculators Iran/Israel? In the meantime the oil companies make the money. We need to get away from the US dollar and go back to gold where gas prices will drop.
Mickey – I don’t read the Tundra forums like I used to – any CNG truck owners you know of that would be down with seeing their Tundra featured on the site?
Will contact and return. One guy is from the Netherlands.
Thanks!
Hey Jason,
I’m the dutch guy Mickey mentioned, I drive a Tundra 5.7 Crewmax on Propane, which is a little different than the CNG you are writing about.
I had the propane conversion installed right after delivery in 2008 on the then new truck and I average a solid 10 to 11 miles per gallon in combined use ( 65 percent of the time I tow trailers ).
The truck has two tanks that total 60.75 gallons and it still has the gastank too. Conversion costs are about us$ 4,500.00 at the moment and with the fuel prices in The Netherlands ( gas is us$ 9.70 per gallon where propane is us$ 4.60 per gallon ) the investment is worth every dollar.
The odo just this morning showed 83K miles and the propane system hasn’t caused a problem yet! Even better, since propane is a very clean fuel, I also save on the maintenance since I can ( easily ) drive 10,000 miles before changing oil.
The CNG is becoming another attractive alternative ( in The Netherlands ) but since the home-filling systems are both still very expensive and the filling takes a lot of time, I didn’t go that route.
I own a small transport company and my work takes me to several other countries in Europe every now and then, therefor I am using the propane as an alternative fuel since it is largely available in most of the European countries, only Spain is a bit of a problem, they only have propane in the big cities and NOT at the gasstations longside the main roads.
I hope this posting is in a way useful for you!
Kind regards,
Dikkie
dikkie – Benjamin will be in contact – we want to learn more and write something up! Thank you for commenting!! 🙂
Hi Jason,
That’s great! I am looking forward to that, although you will possibly have to edit a lot, my English is perhaps good enough for ‘normal conversation’ but the technical words are not all in my vocabulary!
You’re welcome on the commenting, alternative fuels are worth the attention of the public, nowadays!
Kind regards,
Dikkie