Anyone converted a Kubota Tractor to CNG?

[jrboss]

I'm thinking about converting my Kubota B2100 to run on CNG ... looking for advice on converting the current diesel or installing a new one, and just general thoughts. Am I nuts? ...or is this something worth doing?

 

[art]

For the value to your tractor i wouldn't. You could look at the ZD332 to see how they did that to LP.

 

[Renze]

you better get a gas Fergie, MH or whatever tractor and experiment with that. I agree, its a waste of your tractor.

 

[Gary Fowler]

There is no positve benefit to using CNG vs diesel for a small tractor. First of all, where are you going to fll your tractor tank with compressed natural gas? You cant have it delivered like LPG. Maybe that is what you meant rather than CNG. LPG is cheaper than diesel per gallon, but it takes sooooo much more of it to produce the same power. NO WAY would I convert a diesel to LPG or CNG or any other fuel.

 

[Berniep]

There is no positve benefit to using CNG vs diesel for a small tractor. First of all, where are you going to fll your tractor tank with compressed natural gas? You cant have it delivered like LPG. Maybe that is what you meant rather than CNG. LPG is cheaper than diesel per gallon, but it takes sooooo much more of it to produce the same power. NO WAY would I convert a diesel to LPG or CNG or any other fuel.

How about if you had a natural gas well and were looking into getting a compressor and converting your road vehicles and thought that it might make sense to convert you tractor as well?

 

[Gary Fowler]

You couldnt compress enough natural gas to get you away from the wellhead more than a few feet and you would need a very expensive compressor to do it with. Maybe if you had a free source of liquified natural gas it could be beneficial but you would have to burn a lot of it to ever break even on the conversion. You might could use a LPG gas injection system into the diesel engine to get more power, but then there are easier ways to get power from a diesel like turbo-chargers and intercoolers which would do the same thing for less money and lots less hassle with filling extra tanks.

 

[Berniep]

You couldnt compress enough natural gas to get you away from the wellhead more than a few feet and you would need a very expensive compressor to do it with. Maybe if you had a free source of liquified natural gas it could be beneficial but you would have to burn a lot of it to ever break even on the conversion. You might could use a LPG gas injection system into the diesel engine to get more power, but then there are easier ways to get power from a diesel like turbo-chargers and intercoolers which would do the same thing for less money and lots less hassle with filling extra tanks.

The compressor runs about 20 grand for a home unit with a storage tank, a little less if you want to pump directly to the tank in the vehicle. The tech I talked to said something in the 100 mile range for a typical Honda sedan setup and I personally can attest that a filled tank can run a forklift 6 to 8 hours straight of intense freight moving. Those are gasoline engines but I have talked to a diesel engineer and he tells me that they can absolutely be run on cng but he didn't know what kind of fuel usage to expect because it wasn't his area.
Now if I am getting the stuff out of the ground and compressing it already and my tractor can be set up to run for say 4 hours on it then I don't see why I wouldn't do it.
Then you can consider the setups like they do with propane injection and you could just cut your diesel use way back.
The biggest problem with it would be that the high pressure tanks are about twice the size of a typical forklift propane tank and it would be hard to find a good spot for one on a typical compact tractor, or even larger tractors for that matter.

 

[stingray1]

Nuts.

 

[Just Bill]

Good Luck

 

[BHD]

you want a spark plug engine to convert, and the conversion would be similar to doing a propane unit but the regulators would most likely be different,

when I converted my generator (6 cylinder Chrysler industrial engine) I used a fork lift conversion kit for LP, it was an add on carburetor, that attached in front of the gas carburetor, and then there was a vaporizer and regulator and of course the tank. it can still run on gasoline if needed,

but on diesel there did some duel fuel that used both LP and diesel at the same time by adding some LP and injecting it to the air stream it would either produce more power or reduce the diesel used, this is just an example, Propane Injection Systems fuel savings in Diesel, Gasoline Turbocharged Engine Trucks, water vapor air fuel system separators

diesel PROPANE INJECTION - Google Search

I would guess one could do the same with CNG Natruell CNG Conversion Kit - Diesel Engines - Diesel Power Magazine

diesel cng INJECTION - Google Search