Sadly, I can (and have) got lost between the bedroom and the bathroom!
I wish I had more faith in our government(s) to fix global warming but with a 5 year horizon it does look like too much has been left too late.
I don't think that vehicle ownership is going to be something our grandkids will enjoy. I think it's more likely that self driving cabs summoned by Uber (or similar) will be the main way to get around for anyone who can't walk or ride a bike. Anyone wanting to actually drive will have to go to a track, no matter what the fuel used.
The self driving cabs make sense for the government. Lower emissions, lower freedom, higher surveillance. What's not to love?
I think most of them use the Uber App nowadays ;)
They should just LPG convert some black P38s and give the punters a bit of luxury :)
Bolt, salt reactors look very interesting!
And I see that there's a possibility they could be used for Hydrogen production as an added bonus.
Gilbertd, I
Gilbertd wrote:
What gets me about the London ULEZ is that if you are prepared to pay the fee, you can drive what you like. The Congestion Charge was supposed to discourange people from taking their cars into the zone but when you look, it isn't Aunt Mable driving in to have a look at St Pauls, it's trade vehicles. The ones that don't have a choice. The ULEZ charge is just an extension of that to raise even more money.
It has nothing to do with congestion or air quality, unlike the system introduced in France. To drive into Paris, Lyon and Grenoble you need to display a numbered sticker. They go from 0, for EVs, to 5 for Euro 4 diesels. A GEMS petrol P38 is Euro 3 so should be class 3, but, as I declared mine as running on LPG, I got issued with a class 1, the same as a Hybrid. When the pollution levels are high, the higher numbered classes are banned from the zones. I drove through Lyon and round Paris on 22nd July, when they had the heatwave we got a couple of days later. Due to the high temperatures and no wind, pollution levels were high so vehicles in classes 3, 4 and 5 were prohibilted. So had I been running on petrol, I would have had to take the outer ring roads instead of my usual route. However, class 3 isn't just Euro 3 petrol it is also Euro 6 diesel, so no matter how new it was, if you were driving a diesel, you were prohibited. Interestingly, a similar system will never work here as the sticker only costs €4.10 so they'd never make enough money from it. Despite Sadiq Khan offering grants to London taxi drivers to convert to LPG, there's no concessions for the rest of us.
Incidentally, the best day I ever had driving in Central London was the day they predicted would be the worst, the day the bus drivers were on strike!
The French system is designed to lower pollution levels and looks very sensible to me. The London system is really designed to keep the hoi polloi out of the way. "VIPs" get armoured cars, the ultra rich can pay a negligible (for them) fee to drive whatever, wherever, whenever and the normal folks are "nudged" into keeping the SMMT happy by leasing new cars every three years whether they need one or not and irrespective of the environmental impact of treating motor vehicles as disposable white goods.
It isn't clean... yet. They're starting the changeover to electricity before it is all clean. We'll have to go to 100% renewables at some point (as soon as feasible) worldwide.
It kind of makes sense, until you look at the sheer scale of the project and it starts to look mind boggling.
Just while we're having so much fun... don't forget the proposal to ban gas heating in new builds from 2025...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47559920
StrangeRover wrote:
Personally to me it seems to be a load of carp.,
What about HGV's etc that Have to use Diesel, don't see there being an EV HGV in 10 years, unless some genius lives among us!!
Vans are another issue, basically anything commercial just can't run off of Leccytric.
The Voice for LPG seems to be getting louder though, and i've seen a fair few stories regarding LPG conversions in london going stratospheric!
I myself don't see how it would be possible for all this to happen by 2030 i thought 2040 was optimistic. LOL
LPG's growth IMO is inevitable, especially in the commercial sector, and it'll also benefit us IE more stations prolly a reasonable price too!
I'd like to think that LPG is taking off but it seems to me that it is well past its peak. There are no LPG/Hybrid cars being built by manufacturers anymore (in the UK Market, to my knowledge) and the number of forecourts selling LPG is falling.
With the rise in Diesel, there are far fewer cars suitable for conversion and many petrol powered cars are direct injection and therefore not really suitable either as the injectors are not available.
The point of LPG wasn't really to allow Petrol heads to get round the costs of running big V8s, welcome though it is!
Of course we will, we pay for everything.
The problem is that we have two choices, give up fossil fuels or learn to swim.
Dropping liners is a fun subject too :)
Mine drops overnight, sometimes. It's quite annoying because I can't isolate it to one bag/circuit as it squats at the rear, evenly across the axle. It's worse if parked nose uphill and if I park it on the level it takes 2-3 days to drop. Once pumped up it works fine, although I suspect the compressor is running more than a 10% duty cycle so there's probably an issue somewhere.
Don't rule out the ones which are still on Petrol only. They tend to have lower mileage and you won't inherit an LPG system with a 10 year old tank and knackered injectors. I had mine converted immediately after purchase - you have to allow for it in your budget.
Simon, I have a spare rear bag in the garage and I'll probably get a front as well :)
P38 sounds ideal for you, but I'd always recommend budgeting for a Nanocom so you can be self sufficient for diagnosis and changing settings in the various computers.
I've never driven a P38 on coils, but having been left stranded by a failed EAS compressor* I'm a bit wary of long journeys and always travel with a set of schraeder valves that I can, in extremis, hook up directly to the airbag lines. The idea is that I can limp to the nearest garage airline and inflate the bags individually to get it off the bump stops. They're physically small and cheap insurance against getting stranded.
With those in the centre console I'm happy to take the family wherever. The rest of the car has been an educational experience (as you can tell from my user info) but that's what you get for buying on the condition of the paintwork :)
*and rescued by the mighty Marty.
Lpgc wrote:
Morat wrote:
There is another option on Amazon
Lol no thanks! Some on the Elgrand forum reckon the female Jap voice (that too often comes over speakers especially when starting the engine or selecting reverse gear) sounds like she's giving them a bollocking. At least without the factory hinged screen option I don't have to suffer written or verbal bollockings.
At some point I'll probably pick up a standard reversing cam then. So can't the Garmin use a standard type cam?
tehhee :) :)
There is another option on Amazon
I reckon you can get by on P38s :)
Most of the adds on FillLPG are European stations from what I've seen.
I think you can't go wrong with Bilstein as far as quality goes. It's probably worth phoning up to ask about damping rates vs stock to see what they're set up for.
I'll give it a whirl thanks! :)
fill lpg has a handy Navigate To button which sends the destination into google maps. I'm a Google Maps addict (partly because of the mobile speed camera notifications) so it would be nice to be able to search for LPG along an existing route but with a bit of to and fro between the two apps you can search along your route for the garage name once you've got it from Fill LPG.
I definitely agree on Arnott! Not that I have direct experience but there have been too many reports of failures.
As for Made in USA - good on em I reckon. We should have held onto our own manufacturing industry instead of flogging it.