Anybody out there drive a gas truck ? if so does it work properly ? All our Volvos are dual gas/diesel but they do seem to be problematic concerning the gas, either the gas doesn’t work full stop or the engine doesn’t switch to diesel mode when ascending a hill or if it does it doesn’t then to turn back into gas mode meaning you need to pull over to do a re-set, not only that the 6 leggers have really tiny diesel tanks so if the gas doesn’t work the diesel can soon run out. Volvo Avonmouth are good at sorting them out but they just don’t seem reliable trucks but not sure if a manufacturer has got this idea really licked yet.
I’m told our lot tried it and it was a disaster, so knocked it on the head…
Sorry I’ve no more details as it was before I joined!
Have drove gas buses, Horrible things to drive. Didn’t help having 40 people sat behind me 
they do burn well though.
When I was at Safeway we had a load of converted erf ec10’s and 113’s. They were crap. The trucks were the best of a worn out bunch at the end of their lives. Then converted. They were restricted to certain jobs as a full tank could only manage 300 kms. Go around a roundabout too quick, causing the gas to slop to one side, and they’d cut out, and I mean cut out. Full electric isolation as the slop made the brain think a tank had ruptured, so it would shut everything down “for safety”. Well safe, trying to make it around a roundabout at 32ton with no power steering and no lights on the motor. Then just as you hit the windscreen like a Garfield, everything comes back to life again and gave you whiplash 
I’d like to know how the dedicated gas trucks are doing, I’ve only seen Scania ones in the uk. I know Volvo have them abroad.
What was the fuel bald bloke, cng or lng? And who retro fitted it, hardstaff, princo ?
Mattwoodtransport:
I’d like to know how the dedicated gas trucks are doing, I’ve only seen Scania ones in the uk. I know Volvo have them abroad.
What was the fuel bald bloke, cng or lng? And who retro fitted it, hardstaff, princo ?
I believe it’s LNG but don’t know who fitted it all, it’s a 5 yr contract so no new vehicles in that time but what will happen after that god knows but i’m guessing that as it’s a newish depot they’d want to renew with gas trucks but they certainly are a pain and i’d really look into it deeply before buying any if that’s what your’e thinking. We had some Actros gas trucks in my old job and they too proved troublesome and our nearset place to Avonmouth to fill up was Bridgwater !!
Another reason we’re not using them 
thought you knew that.
nick2008:
Another reason we’re not using them
I did hear but wasn’t sure, what just running them on diesel ? If so they’d obviously have a short range.
I’d only be interested in the dedicated cng or dual cng if I had to make an investment
Mattwoodtransport:
I’d only be interested in the dedicated cng or dual cng if I had to make an investment
Not up to speed on them but hopefully they work better .
The Safeway monstrosities were cng. I wasn’t impressed
Iirc, brit European use cng powered actros’ on their JCB liveried fleet.
For all round reliability and general availability and cost dedicated LPG seems to be the way to go.In all cases it’s not surprising that trying to maintain diesel compatibility using compression ignition with gas type fuels isn’t going to work.It needs to be spark ignition and ideally with twin charger ( supercharger and turbocharger ) technology.The only surprising thing being how that technology hasn’t already taken off with diesel consigned to where it belongs as an obsolete liability.
Reality is that they are still diesel engines with a “kick” of CNG injected into the induction manifold.Without the diesel the gas wont ignite.60/40 mix with an average 15% power loss and a initial outlay of between 15 to 20 grand to fit the gas system.
Another bloody con that the diks in suits will swallow hook line and sinker.
If it is CNG you are referring to, the very cold stuff under high pressure, then B&Q ran them for about 4 years, a mixture of Volvos and Mercs. Having driven them I’m not at all surprised that they have now changed back to completely diesel.
Units were in repair for gas faults on a daily basis, the Volvos were definitely worse than the Mercs for this but they both had problems - I was told by a tech that the difference was down to the Mercs having a single ECU whereas the Volvos had separate ones for gas & diesel.
As far as driving them was concerned they were terrible - as mentioned, lack of power was the biggest issue, it was great when the gas stopped working because running on diesel they were transformed, but unfortunately they only had a small (100litre I seem to recall) diesel tank so it made them useless in diesel-only mode. The way they were supposed to work was that in general driving they would use mainly gas but when power was needed the diesel cut in, however the majority of the time this never seemed to happen. Fuel economy was no better, it was purely the fact that the gas was cheaper that made them economic, though the costs of the conversion and the storage tanks must have been heavily subsidised to make it worthwhile.
We’ve had a few cng buses light up around Brisbane, bloody awful things. I was going down to the foot of Victoria Bridge with one when I touched the throttle and blew the muffler to smithereens. I nearly went out through the roof and the poor bugger in the car beside me must have ended up sat on a right pile.
We had duel fuel lng Prinz, on Volvos and Mercs. The drivers hated them. Mercs sounded as if they were knocking the engine to bits. Loads of problems and we now run then on diesel only. Great fun with a 180 litre tank!
It must have cost the company a fortune…
DHL Bawtry signed up for LNG 6x2 Volvo tractor units, iirc with around 70 units on site 3yrs ago with a new £750K LNG filling station installed on site at the same time. Whole lot cost around £7M, but it was a PITA from the off, usually with the fuel island tripping out leaving the fleet unable to re-fuel. The duel fuel diesel tanks only held 150ltrs, so if the LNG ran out while on the road you where constantly watching the diesel needle. AFAIK many of those trucks are still there
Had them when I drove for B&Q in Swindon. Mercs and Volvo. They spent a fortune on 25 each and installing 2 huge gas filling stations. After 2 years binned the lot and went sole Volvo diesel fleet! Expensive experiment
bigjohn78:
Had them when I drove for B&Q in Swindon. Mercs and Volvo. They spent a fortune on 25 each and installing 2 huge gas filling stations. After 2 years binned the lot and went sole Volvo diesel fleet! Expensive experiment
Ours are all about 3 yrs into a 5 yr deal so we’ve got to wait another 2 yrs to change them.