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Posted on 03/10/2015 9:50:48 AM PDT by thackney
Natural gas still hasn't really caught on as a fuel for private passenger vehicles, but it's slowly finding more success in commercial applications.
The selection of natural-gas commercial vehicles is much larger, and using the fuel in fleets makes more sense from an environmental-impact standpoint than it does for individual cars.
One company catering to this market is Mack Trucks, which announced that the natural-gas versions of its Pinnacle series trucks will get a handful of updates this year.
These include a new Eaton UltraShift Plus automated transmission and Wingman Advanced safety system.
The latter is essentially an adaptive cruise control system--commonplace in cars, but fairly new to big trucks--that can automatically keep a set following distance by reducing throttle or engaging the engine retarder and brakes.
All natural-gas Mack Pinnacle models use a Cummins Westport ISX12 G engine that can run on either compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG).
(Excerpt) Read more at greencarreports.com ...
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Do you think this will get sales?
How is the fueling infrastructure (stations)?
As much as I really hate to admit it but I think T. Boone was right about NG powered over the road trucks. Use NG for them and the gasoline for cars. My additional opinion is build, build, build coal and nuke power plants too, then we shouldn’t have to give a damn about the middle east except for Israel.
Cool, Love Mack trucks, remember the old stylish ones from the 60s.
Now if they can make a Mack Car to compete with the Mini Cooper.
Call it the little Mackie car.
I believe these trucks are used for inner city cartage or short overnight runs where the run can be made without refueling.
Biff, I mirror your line of thinking on this subject EXACTLY.
Why? Shouldn't dollars per mile be more important than BTU/gallon?
Natural Gas For Long-Haul Trucks: Which Version Makes More Sense?
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1092467_natural-gas-for-long-haul-trucks-which-version-makes-more-sense
Natural gas becomes a fuel for the long haul
http://nccleantech.ncsu.edu/natural-gas-becomes-a-fuel-for-the-long-haul/
Naturally the pressure to switch has come down with diesel prices.
You would need an extra trailer to pull the fuel you needed to cross the country. And it would take a lot longer through the mountains because of the reduced power output. A friend learned that the hard way when he bought NG powered van. He eventually converted to gasoline.
Well Mack is owned by Volvo.
But not the Volvo that makes cars that’s owned by China.
(clear as mud, right?)
LNG tanks mounted on the truck give comparable ranges to diesel. Nobody is driving an 18 wheeler coast to coast without refueling along the way.
This isn't a theory. Several Long-haul operations have been using them for a while.
Frack a well...starve Islamic terror!
Only if you start with an engine designed for a different fuel then feed it natural gas. A properly designed engine like Westport is putting on 18 wheelers and the like is not low power. It is a more expensive engine than the same horsepower diesel.
Using natgas in truck fleets makes much more sense than in cars because it is much easier to predict where and how many filling stations will be needed. Once that is all in place converting to natgas cars becomes much easier because there is already a network of stations that will be augmented as usage goes up. The spread will be market driven, natural, and efficient. At some point the government (EPA) will jump in and mandate that service stations be built immediately all over the country and the resource waste will be huge and the government will have to subsidize all the underused new stations to billions and billions of $s for years.
Nah. This is over-the-road stuff. It makes lots of sense for big trucking copanies.
The beauty of a nat gas car (could be) having a home refueling station.
My house has nat gas, and Honda builds a nice nat gas Civic right here in Greensburg, Indiana. Of course there is quite a price premium on the vehicle itself ($4 to 5 grand) to amortize over the life of the car. And since I’m retired I don’t drive all that many miles.
And the cost of the home compressor unit is high and the reliability reports are not good.
But I continue to monitor the situation. Perhaps someday.
Myself as well.
I think I would be more interested in a dual fuel truck, one that would let me use CNG but also gasoline or diesel. I would not mind giving up truck bed space for the added CNG tank.
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