Thread: Diesels not an economic choice?

Originally Posted by Ace

I agree, and thats why i bought the TDi, but I also thought of things like not having problems with water when off road with electrics and things like that aswell. No i wouldnt sell the disco for quids but i and having bought a V8 instead i dont think i would be able to afford to run it, i sometimes struggle running the disco as things have been tight, but i have been thinking of buying a rangie when we move to use as a weekend toy. Matt

Hi Matt,
Anytime I'll lend you my Rangie V8 for fuel cost test run, you'll laugh when you wondered why you thought of having a Rangie V8. Wondering why you bought it for just that bit of wheel spin & lovelly burble, doesn't equate for fill up value.
Cheaper they are initially to buy, even at $1000 for a 2 door bush pig with grunt, you still have to fill it and pay & only average 400 odd per tank, my Defender doubles the distance travelled in my Rangie for the same cost.

The only thing I can promise is a h**d on for accelleration & V8 burble as it reaches 4000 revs in second gear at just on 100kph odd.

I won't be getting rid of either though, the Defender is the best tourer all round, after all that my V8 is my daily user & log hauling work truck around the farm, its bl**dy great fun, but at a cost you can't dwell on.

well my old rangie with the 4.4 and with petrol injection had lpg as well yes it was cheap to fill up but i would be struggling to do over 240 ks on 60 litres lpg plus it only had a 40 litre petrol tank

my main reason for going diesel was (a) i wanted one (b) iwanted defender and there was no option with petrol in the defender

and mainly once in the bush the diesel is better on fuel economy

i can now go away for a weekend fill up in the same spot as i did in my rangie drive thru the bush for 4 days then drive home then drive to work on the same fuel for 2 weeks with out filling up

to do the same in my rangie i would fill both tanks there is a 100 litres then id take 2 jerry cans 40 litres and id have to fill up on the way home just to get home and thats for a 4 day weekend , not to mention if i wanted to go to work for 2 weeks that is another 3 tanks of gas 180 litres



by the way you cant buy automotive lpg in the vic highcountry but you can buy petrol and diesel at the odd servo you find

oh and the defender has a 110 litre tank

Originally Posted by dobbo

I've only had the one duel fuel car an old ford v8 P.O.S. It had a 302 and a 80l LPG tank (usable 60L)the tank and system was only a few years old and the engine in good tune. However, in the winter mornings and evening it was very fuel efficient for an old v8, as soon as the outside temperature got over 15 degrees more fuel was used 20 degrees even more 30+ c, Forget it switch to petrol. I have two diesels one, a TD5 very fuel efficient, the other a 2.25 in my old series, the original motor how many km's is anyones guess, yet it's still a lot cheaper to run than the LPG regardless of outside ambient temperature.

Could this be a reason you cannot get LPG in the outback? (it's to hot out there for it to be feasible)

Dobbo,
I have worked in the LPG industry for nearly 20 years. In fact you can get LPG (autogas) in a lot of outback locations. More than that, most gold mines have large tanks for smelting, ameneties blocks, kitchens etc.
The pressure inside a cylinder or tank will increase with temperature, propane will flow in Alpine applications to the hottest parts of the world- no worries. If there is a product loss, it turns to vapour and dissapates.
In fact we had a tanker rollover recently and the biggest hassle was the 150 litres of diesel lost. We had to excavate the soil, get it treated 100's of k's away and return it- true
David

LPG in cold climates is interesting. My wifes car can be a bugger to start and you also get a bit worried when you fill an 80litre usable capacity tank with 90 litres and it wasn't totaly empty to start with
I also used to find that after filling the tank in winter it would go for 1.5km and die. Would start fairly quick afterwoods. LPG is cheap and if you have a turbo engine that is tuned for strait LPG you get much better performance than on petrol.
I only stoped using that car as my daily driver as we needed another car and the ford already had 300,000km on it so it was give it to my wife and lease another vehicle or drive it into the ground.