Running a Transit on LPG
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by Ron Cater
• No sooner had CM reported last week that large numbers of operators are queueing to have vehicles converted to LPG (liquified petroleum gas) than I had an opportunity for a trial run With such a conversion. The vehicle was a 30cwt Ford Transit with only 930 miles on the clock, and it was fitted with equipment made by the Lipton LP Carburetter Co Ltd, Wooburn Green, Bucks, as described by CM.
This conversion method retains the petrol system in lot°, so that if the gas supply, expires while on the road it is a simple matter to change over to petrol by resetting the fuel switch. This is one of the major advances made by the Lipton company for it obviates the restriction of having to operate strictly within the radius of a known gas supply.
On the road the Transit behaved very much like a petrol driven vehicle. Indeed, I doubt if anyone, without prior knowledge, would notice any difference. In fact, on gas there was a slight lowering of the vehicle's performance and I could detect a momentary flat-spot between 18 and 20 mph in top gear.
I checked acceleration performances on both gas and petrol with the Transit in exactly the same condition of load—it was carrying approximately 5ewt of equipment. The. following figures show the comparison between the two fuels, the petrol-driven figures being shown in brackets: through the gears, 0 to 20 mph. 5.6sec (4.8sec); 0 to 30 mph, 9.9sec (8.1sec); 0 to 40 mph 17.1sec (15. lsec). Accelerating in top gear from 10 mph, from 10 to 20 mph 9.6sec (7.4sec); 10 to 30 mph 14.7sec (14.4sec); 10 to 40 mph 20.4sec (22.2sec) and 10 to 50 mph 54.8sec (33.8sec).
A maximum road speed of approximately 68 mph was possible on the gas fuel, as against nearly 80 on petrol, and when I made a fuel change-over this took about 30sec.
Because the engine will choke if both gas and petrol fuels are fed to it at the same time, it is necessary to have three positions on the change-over switch, Gas. Off and Petrol. The system for changing to petrol from gas is simple—one just flicks the switch straight to the petrol position. This is because the feeding of petrol to the carburetter is not instantaneous and there is a short period until sufficient petrol is built up in the float chamber, when the engine falters. Changing to LPG, the switch has to be moved to the off position until the float chamber has been drained. Then, as soon as the engine cuts out, the switch is moved to the gas position and power is immediately restored.