On Tue, 29 May 2012 22:38:21 -0500, Leon lcb11211@swbelldotnet
wrote:

On 5/29/2012 7:02 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 29 May 2012 13:48:20 -0700, "Lew Hodgett"
wrote:


"Just Wondering" wrote:
There is no other realistic alternate energy source for private
motor vehicles.
-------------------------------
Truck and bus fleets work quite well and at lower cost using natural
gas as opposed to #2 diesel.

That's some low hanging fruit to get started.


Lew


Waterloo regional transit had a fleet of natural gas busses, and the
maintenance costs totally killed the project - they went back to
deisel, and now have quite a few hybrid deisels. The extra engine
maintenance on the CNG busses outstripped any possible fuel savings.

I am seriously curious as to why maintenance costs were higher. Do you
know?
The converted diesel engines were failing at a very high rate. Don't
know if it ws due to lubrication issues, valve issues, or what - but
the engines were apparently good for about 1/4 the normal life of a
diesel. The cyl heads are heavily modified and they need spark
ignition - all of which could have been involved in the failures. And
the intitial conversion price is gawdawfull too!!!