# cng conversion



## callofthewild (Sep 7, 2007)

does anyone on the forum know anything about getting a cng conversion kit installed. is it safe for your vehicle? and how much is one looking at out of pocket? also is it true that you will get a 3,000 dollar tax credit from the state by having it done?


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

The credits yes, $3k state and $4k fed if a new vehicle. If you are going to invest that much in having it converted it may be better to have a new one. Cost is from $6-$8k, I have heard from my bro, who is a Questar employee. My bro and my dad each have one, the power is probably 40% less than with gas, but if on a commuter car no big deal the other big difference is how much space the tanks require, my dad's Crown Vic (normally has a huge trunk) is about 1/3rd the normal storage space due to the extra tanks not to mention the normal tank under the carriage, the other problem being that there are very few filling stations in the state, around 20 or so and for going out of state even worse where you have to have a prepaid card in states like NV. On the positive side I can think of several positives each one of which is $0.63/gallon. According to my bro, that price is actually subsidized, it would cost you more to have it compressed from your own house, Questar is just trying to promote it; other states are over double that price, but still a great deal. Keep in mind that the state tax credit is nonrefundable meaning that you can only get credit for $3k if you should be paying $3k; otherwise you only get credit for whatever you should be paying http://tax.utah.gov/forms/current/tc-40v.pdf SteveO may be able to give more info on the matter. Check this out:
[youtube:e16qx739]http://www.youtube.com/v/g06x_UyNjms&hl=en[/youtube:e16qx739]


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## chet (Sep 7, 2007)

great info huge! thanks!


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## IcatchEm (Sep 11, 2007)

I have driven dozens, from '85 Fords to '05 Chevy's the power difference is say 100% gasoline,,90-95 % CNG IMO. The pump says $1.75 a gallon equivalent last time I saw. Its an expensive conversion and there are issues not common with gasoline. CNG is a very DRY fuel. The range on the ones I have encountered is 90-110 miles, but in town that could work. If you can switch back and forth, you will save money in town, but how long that takes to pay for itself could be sobering.


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

IcatchEm said:


> I have driven dozens, from '85 Fords to '05 Chevy's the power difference is say 100% gasoline,,90-95 % CNG IMO. The pump says $1.75 a gallon equivalent last time I saw. Its an expensive conversion and there are issues not common with gasoline. CNG is a very DRY fuel. The range on the ones I have encountered is 90-110 miles, but in town that could work. If you can switch back and forth, you will save money in town, but how long that takes to pay for itself could be sobering.


That is a good point, it is a little difficult to give an equivalent volume as the cng runs between 3,000-3,500 psi; at the end of the day my dad gets about 250 miles for about $7 in his Crown Vic. The power seems to be much less for a 4.6 v8 just a guess on my part. My bro's civic has a much smaller range as the tanks are much smaller, around 100 miles like Icatchem says, but he fills up for about $4 as far as $/gallon; he estimates it to be about 15% of the cost; incredible, of course that is based on today's prices. He bought the civic 7 weeks ago, before the latest huge gas hikes; he could now sell it for about $3k more demand has skyrocketed recently. The tax credits are different if you get a bifuel vehicle, only the dedicated cng's get the full credits. I also found out that you can take the tax credit over multiple years, please note that the credit can only be taken once in the state per vehicle, so oftentimes they come from out of state.


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## lifetime hunter (Sep 7, 2007)

http://www.mycngkit.com/ check that out.. U don't get a tax credit.. but it's so much cheaper to convert if U want...


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## STEVO (Sep 13, 2007)

Yea, I agree with what Huge29 said. I know alot of people have been buying the surplus state vehicles that were set up with CNG. They have had in the past alot of cavaliers & similar cars that are 2005 & newer that are going for 5 grand or less. Since the state has never taken the tax credit when they were purchased, the people are still getting the $3000.00 credit on their income tax returns. That credit can be carried forward if needed if you dont use the full credit in one tax year. With the new legislation this year,in HB 106, I think they are going to require a 8.5 cents per gallon fuel tax starting in 2009 and they are reducing the tax credit to $2500.00, or 35% of what you purchased the vehicle for(Whichever is less) or up to $2500.00 of the conversion price. Right now you have to purchase a special clean fuel plate from the DMV that compensates for the fuel tax & that will be going away since questar will be collecting the 8.5 cents per gallon. Confusing I know, But Ive thought about getting CNG car for quite a while just to drive to work as it only costs about 68 cents a gallon to fill up & you get about the same mileage, Just not quite the power Ive heard. 

Ive talked to alot of guys that are making that Bio diesel , & they say its actually costing them about 7 bucks a gallon after the refining & the work to come up with the things to go into it.

Im not familiar with what type of credits the feds allow, I just know what the state will allow.


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

SteveO, do you get a special deal with the state? I would jump on that, I check that surplus.utah.gov and I do not see any special notation for cng, but they do give every single possible detail down to every single service record and vin, but nothing about cng???

I still can not see your name and just start laughing about your shooting the atv incident, that is hysterical :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:


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## STEVO (Sep 13, 2007)

Huge29 said:


> SteveO, do you get a special deal with the state? I would jump on that, I check that surplus.utah.gov and I do not see any special notation for cng, but they do give every single possible detail down to every single service record and vin, but nothing about cng???
> 
> I still can not see your name and just start laughing about your shooting the atv incident, that is hysterical :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:


I wish I got a special deal, But then , on state wages cant afford much :lol: I know they used to have alot of them available at state surplus, but I know they are harder to come by now that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. For the most part, the vehicles are high in mileage, but they have been pretty well taken care of, Oil changed when its suppose to , those types of things.

Yaya, I was young & stupid (probrably still am :lol: ) I bet that little punk kid thinks twice before he ripps somebody off. Im sure he will use it as a perfect example to his kids & grandkids when he has the talk with them!!! :rotfl:


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

STEVO said:


> Yaya, I was young & stupid (probrably still am :lol: ) I bet that little punk kid thinks twice before he ripps somebody off. Im sure he will use it as a perfect example to his kids & grandkids when he has the talk with them!!! :rotfl:


I wish you were right; my experience of low life law breakers like that is that their version of the story is much different. "I was just riding along down a road when I stop to see if I can help with this vacated vehicle and these drunk cavemen hunting SOB's just opened up on me because they thought I was on their turf..." Most of that mentality have justified in their mind that they are entitled to your stuff. Hopefully the parents did leave a mark on his hiney to remind him that it was wrong.


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## Guest (Jun 13, 2008)

Huge29 said:


> the other problem being that there are very few filling stations in the state, around 20 or so and for going out of state even worse where you have to have a prepaid card in states like NV.


You can get a compressor in your own home that will convert the low pressure CNG in your home to the high pressure CNG used in the car. That way you can fill the tank every night while it is parked in your garage. That still doesn't help for trips out of town but imagine not having to fill up at the gas station anymore. A co-worker of mine (who has 8 kids) has a large van that runs on CNG and he fills it at home. Here is a link he gave me: http://fuelmaker.com/Products/NaturalGa ... fications/


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