Friday, Jan 30, 2015 at 18:29
Peter:
I found the power supply running to the fuel pump, cut it and inserted a relay with normally closed contacts. When the gas system was activated, the relay opened the petrol pump supply and therefore shut the pump off. If I didn't do this, the petrol pump would have been running all the time - hence the normal requirement to keep 1/4 tank at all times. I did this myself, but there is no reason anyone couldn't do it - it is only a matter of finding the 12V supply to the gas system, and the 12V supply to the petrol pump. If the Nullarbor crossing is the worst you are doing, don't worry about the relay - from memory the maximum distance between fuel outlets is only a bit over 200 km. You just have to be prepared to pay through the nose for it, that's all. Distances up Northern WA are further between gas outlets, and of course the
Gibb River Road or
Cape York is out of the question for gas.
I only had 45L of petrol in the car tank, and a useable 60L of gas, so towing our 16.5 ft Jayco poptop caravan, we had a range of 300 km on gas or petrol, total 600 km if really needed. I also carried a 20L jerry can (empty until I got into scarce territory). Over the years, I did 3 trips around the block, and used 2 tankfuls of petrol on each trip, so LPG availability is not such a problem as many people would have you believe.
Places lile Camerons Corner and the
Kimberley (or for that matter most of NW WA) have few LPG outlets, but we managed quite well. Mind you, as yet we haven't been to
Birdsville, but that is now on the list because I now have a diesel Pajero. Incidentally, the diesel Pajero costs more to run than my old LPG one, even with the current high prices of LPG. I did the maths years ago, and when the cost of LPG got over about 60% of the diesel cost, only then was diesel cheaper.
As stated above, I only had 45 L of petorl, because the original tank was removed to fit the gas bottle. We did the Cameron's Corner trip when the car was new and the gas system had just been installed. In order to stop complaints, the fitter had shortened the petrol pump bracket so that it didn't vibrate on the bottom of the tank. I filled with gas at Biloela and switched to petrol because the next gas was at
Roma. After 200 km, the engine stopped! Switch back to gas and limp into
Rolleston to fill up with petrol, and it took 28L! So we did the rest of the trip with 28L in the car tank and one 20L Jerry can, with a full tank of LPG as reserve. Needless to say, the car went straight back to the fitter and he arranged a new (slightly larger) tank, but he didn't lengthen the bracket until I pointed out to him what the original problem was - there was about 15L of petrol which the pump couldn't access. That was an interesting trip, but we always had the gas as reserve.
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