World Fuel prices etc-

[mel hubbard]

It seemed like just yesterday one of my old Baja buddies from Torrance CA wrote & told me (and seemed a little pissed off) about gas prices reaching one dollar a gallon Well, our UK national average fuel prices today were > gas/petrol at 112.6 per litre,, and Diesel at 124.2 per litre. Thats > give or take $12 per gallon Im guessing some of you guys from Aus & USA are also getting screwed,,,, maybe not as much as us Limeys ,,,, but just out of interest whos getting the best deal on here????? Reason I ask is,, I've been messing around with buggies as a full time job (if you can call it that) for almost 10 years here in UK and am now thinking it could be time to give up & try something new due to getting screwed with the ridiculous cost of living here,,,, its become a total bloody joke over the last year, and building a buggy seems somewhat of a luxury here now,,, hence slow sales over the past 8 months Sorry if this seems like a rant,,, older guys will understand,,, its known as ''Grumpy Old Man Syndrome'' so come on fellas, piss me off even more & tell your ol limey buddy how little you pay for gas

[manx4dan]

Those conversion kits to convert VW type 1 setups to electric may start selling now. If my engine wasn't running so sweet, I might have considered trying out the conversion this summer. This week is the highest I've EVER paid for gasoline at $3.95 a gallon, and we've known that it's always been priced higher across the pond, but $12 a gallon... Premium whisky isn't that much (until the tariifs are added on). Seeing as to how the Chinese didn't have a mature gasoline distribution infrastructure in place, it's too bad they didn't go a different route like hydrogen fuel, or something. Mel, maybe you should try offering an electric version of your buggies. Maybe an electric buggy would be more likely to be considered as a 3-season daily driver rather than a weekend toy when you know you'll never need to stop at the "petro" station. Might even offer enough motivation to tough-it-out in inclimate weather like the motorcycle riders do.

[CairoManx]

Mel, Propane is about $2.89 a gallon here. CNG is a bit over $2 at stations: http://www.cnginfo.com/prices.shtml If you have a home CNG filling station, its less than $2 a gallon but the Phill unit costs about $5K. I spoke to a guy last week who had a new CNG powered Honda Civic that cost $27K, but he got a $7K rebate and he has a home Phill unit. http://www.myphill.com/ This is my science project. It will be a tandem seat 3-wheeler (2f1r) with a 1 Liter 3 cylinder Suzuki(Geo Metro) engine which I'm going to convert to propane. It only costs a couple hundred for the parts to convert it. Eventually I'd like to go to CNG, then (when its available) Hydrogen. It will have a hydrostatic drive which maintains the engine at a constant optimum RPM and accelerates and deccelerates the vehicle by changing the volume and direction of fluid the pump moves with a swashplate that controls the stroke of the pump. Its like controlling the pitch of a prop on a plane. There's a thread about it on here. I'm hoping to get about 60 or 70 mpg. http://www.hydraulicinnovations.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35 You should look into converting a buggy to propane or CNG. You might get in on the ground floor of the next big thing.

[mel hubbard]

Some interesting info there ^,, but I get the feeling Gordon Brown will be one step ahead, looking into ways of taxing every type of fuel in a BIG way,, just as soon as it becomes popular,, even our cooking oil has gone up to around ?1 pound per litre,, not such the saving it once was. On the UK news last week it was reported that record numbers of immigrants are going back home and Im guessing its got nothing to do with the rain ,,,, seems you just cant beat the system Nelson, thats a great little project you have going,, lots of R&D, I've been following it & really looking forward to the road test :rock:

[mel hubbard]

Hey fellas,, I just went to the gas station armed with ONE jerry can & ONE gallon can,,,,,, not for the car,, this was to fill the lawn mowers up. Cost ?29,, YES,, TWENTY NINE BLOODY POUNDS!! (double it for USD) just to fill the two with unleaded gas,, reckon if I had filled em right to the neck who knows maybe could have squeezed ?30 in When I started driving here, you couldn't even get ONE pounds worth of gas in my old Mini,,, the gas tank was far too small,, now its costing me over 29 times that amount just to mow the lawn, which Im not too fond of doing anyway Hence the grumpiness,,,,,,,, spilling some whilst over filling the mower never helped much either

[subimanx]

Hmmm...I live at the top end of OZ and regular unleaded petrol here is 146.9 cents per litre...I'll hafta get rid of the 2 kids soon...I've got 4 cars to feed !!!!

[Buggy-Bum-2]

$ 4.00 A Gal In Philadelphia Pa.

[mel hubbard]

Well, here's the latest for july > my buddy paid ?1.42 per litre this week, reckon thats not far off $14 per gallon. Looks like it wont be long before I place a wanted ad on here for an Amish buggy to get me & the family about.

[subimanx]

our is at AU$1.69 a liter.....for regular unleaded...

[1856]

... I,m not so sure CNG is the way to go, right now the wholesale (PG&E) price is $8. US/K CF this winter they're are expecting it to go to $12. ... I'd look towards CMG (compressed methane gas) especially when you consider the BS profits that petrol producers are making(pun). In reality, most large communities are already producing MG to power their water recycling plants. Within a controlled environment most house holds can produce enough MG, by composting organics, to power any thing that would run on propane. Methane Gas is just a few PPM from propane, and is a renewable resource. Mark

[CairoManx]

CNG is still a pretty good buy. The retail price today at one place in Sacramento is $2.38 per gge(gasoline gallon equivalent). If you get a home refueling station, you'd pay well less that $2. In Utah, the price is $0.85 gge today. http://www.cngprices.com/index.php?loca ... 121.487147 Natural gas is mostly methane. Much of what we use is produced domestically. When the next war starts in the middle east(I've heard the plan is before the end of the year), CNG and bio-diesel vehicles will be about the only ICE vehicles on the road.

[TMc2548]

I've often wondered what the process would be for converting a buggy to a motorcylcle engine would be. Not anything too powerful but one of similar power say 70 to 90 bhp. I realize that 50 mpg would be out of the question with a buggy weighing anywhere from four to five times that of a bike but it would be interesting to see if maybe 30+ would be possible.

[mel hubbard]

[QUOTE="TMc2548;12717"]I've often wondered what the process would be for converting a buggy to a motorcylcle engine would be. Not anything too powerful but one of similar power say 70 to 90 bhp. I realize that 50 mpg would be out of the question with a buggy weighing anywhere from four to five times that of a bike but it would be interesting to see if maybe 30+ would be possible.[/QUOTE] Tom, a guy in UK runs a bike powered Manx type, think its 750cc Kawazaki powered I've never seen it in the flesh, but spoke to the guy that did the conversion and he said at the time he was planning doing a bigger bike powered buggy, something like 1300cc Suzuki. From what I could make out by talking to him, he used the VW trans and mounted the bike motor to the side which drives the shaft by way of cog & chain, with some kind of bell housing bearing where the VW motor would bolt. It uses the bike & VW gears so he gets loads of em. Maybe Dave has some pics of it. Back to the gas thing >> I did something smart today. I bought a gallon as an investment. I heard on UK world news today gas prices are so bad in L.A that guys in Beverly Hills are hiring hookers to siphon gas out of other peoples cars

[CairoManx]

Hot VWs built an engine that got better than 30 mpg in a bug. I think if you got something with better aerodynamics than a buggy, maybe like a Manx SR, you'd do better than that. http://www.cbperformance.com/Aug2007.asp

[mel hubbard]

[QUOTE="CairoManx;12714"]CNG is still a pretty good buy. The retail price today at one place in Sacramento is $2.38 per gge(gasoline gallon equivalent). If you get a home refueling station, you'd pay well less that $2. In Utah, the price is $0.85 gge today. http://www.cngprices.com/index.php?loca ... 121.487147 Natural gas is mostly methane. Much of what we use is produced domestically. When the next war starts in the middle east(I've heard the plan is before the end of the year), CNG and bio-diesel vehicles will be about the only ICE vehicles on the road.[/QUOTE] Interesting stuff, but for some reason I cant get that site up, everthing shuts down everytime I click on it. Something 'Gordon bloody Brown' don't want us to see I wouldn't wonder.