Monday, February 13, 2012

[Electric Boats] Re: Propane outboard engine

 

Hi Don,

While I hadn't heard of propane outboard motors before, a good friend of mine used to work at a shop that converted cars to propane back in the '80s. If I remember correctly, a propane conversion will get 85-90% the mileage from propane compared to gasoline.

Given that there are 4.22 lbs of propane per gallon, the 16.4 oz propane canisters should run as far as 0.2 gallons (1.6 pints) of gasoline in a similar outboard. Likewise, the typical 5 gallon, aka 20 lb (there's rounding in there) tank should run the motor as long as a 4-4.5 gallon gasoline tank.

I hope that this helps.

Fair winds,
Eric
Marina del Rey, CA

--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "potatosailor" <potatosailor@...> wrote:
>
> I received an email that the Lehr Propane Outboard is on the market and being shown at various boat shows soon.
> I'm not affiliated with the company and this is not a sales pitch but they certainly piqued my interest.
>
> I have an electric inboard in my Alberg 30 and have been on the look-out for a good solution to a dingy motor and didn't want to have a gas outboard and the related tanks etc to try and stow aboard.
> I thought about an electric motor but range and weight of lifting a battery to and from the dingy discouraged me from going that route.
>
> I have propane on board for the galley and use fairly small fiberglass propane tanks that aren't to heavy to move around, so when I heard about this outboard I must say I was surprised and interested.
> They say you can screw a small portable canister into it or hook up a regular propane tank.
>
> I don't know a thing about propane powered engines and the range, operating expense, etc that one might expect.
> If anyone has experience with propane powered motors I sure would like to here your opinion on them before I decide to get one of these.
>
> Cheers, Don
>

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