Fuel Costs for LPG/Petrol for the Lap

Submitted: Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 15:20
ThreadID: 80572 Views:4293 Replies:10 FollowUps:6
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Hello everyone,

I hope you are all having a fantastic weekend where ever you are.

I have a question. We own a Landrover Disco (Great Car) that is Petrol/LPG and we will be towing a 17ft Jayco caravan. I wonder if there is anyone out there that has done the Lap in a similar set up and what the fuel costs were?

Thanks in advance

Kind Regards Andrea
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Reply By: sandk33 - Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 16:28

Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 16:28
What a frustrating site at times............Andrea truly mate how long is a piece of string.........the old saying comes into effect here if you have to ask the price of the essentials such as fuel......put it in the shed and read the blogs.

AnswerID: 426507

Follow Up By: Best Off Road - Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 17:33

Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 17:33
A rude, obnoxious and unnecesarry response.

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Follow Up By: wazzaaaa - Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 19:42

Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 19:42
If this frustrating site is so bad why post? leave sandk33!!!!! your comments are better not said!! People like you make this world a worse place!
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Reply By: roberttbruce - Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 17:46

Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 17:46
I've been wondering a similar thing

where there is a lpg trip planner that allowed one to put in weigh points etc.... the one at auto-gas is ok, but no customizations
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Reply By: carlsp - Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 18:02

Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 18:02
Hi Andrea,

I understand you needing details of LPG as you have a LPG vehicle.

Some time ago I went through the towing with LPG idea and my research found that there was no real difference, when the real world numbers are considered. Like Mr Keating or was it that other politican starting with 'K" said. "There is no free lunch"

Doing a lap there is no difference between dieso, petrol and LPG.

This is considering:

a, cost of vehcile conversion
b, lack of power when towing with LPG
c, increased fuel consumption on LPG
d, percentage difference between fuels when in the outback. LPG expensive there.
e, increased maintaince of LPG vehcile
f, resale value of vehciles later.

I did this for a 100 series landcruiser towing a road van with a weight of 2500kg.

Hitting "Submit" and waiting to be howled down by the LPG brigade.

Submitting this more for people that see, LPG towing and think they are saving money.




AnswerID: 426515

Follow Up By: mikehzz - Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 23:13

Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 23:13
I thought that someone should howl if only to be polite and meet your expectations :-)
My Pathfinder did almost 400,000 kms before I traded it a few months ago and I estimated that I saved around $30.000 in fuel which was how much the car cost me. I didn't notice many increased service costs and the car still didn't use any oil even with those kms. I have to agree with the reduced power and increased consumption.
I wouldn't convert these days as I think that gas is now too dear in relation to petrol and getting worse. Back in the 80's and 90's it was regularly 20% of petrol price up to a max of 33%. Now it seems to be running closer to 50% so not that attractive.
Sorry, not much of a howl because you were fairly right for the current price conditions. Mike
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Reply By: Rockape - Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 18:16

Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 18:16
Andrea,
can't help with the costs, I would consider using unleaded only once you are north of Brisbane. To my knowledge no taxi's or very few use gas in Central and North Queensland as it is nor economical. Once you head west it is even worse.

Unleaded tends to be about the same or cheaper than diesel on the coast, inland it can get a couple of cents dearer on the main routes, once off the main routes it can become quite expensive.

On unleaded and keeping your foot out of it I would expect around 17 to 20 litres per hundred K.

You probably already know to fill in major towns if you have the range.

Have a good trip and disregard the earlier negative post.
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Reply By: Member - Vic S (VIC) - Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 18:58

Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 18:58
Hi Andrea
we have done 2 half laps but several years ago in a LPG / Petrol Landcruiser we did about 20000 km each time and gas was hard to find in Far north QLD and between Broome and Kununara ,so if you know your consumption you can then work out your total liters.Google maps is great if you use "Get directions" and you can get an idea how long your trip may be.......add ten % for side trips.Have a great time .Shame there are Knobs who can only submit negatives !!!
Vic
AnswerID: 426525

Reply By: Andrea11 - Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 20:16

Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 20:16
Thank you to those kind ppl who were able to give me some advice. It really is appreciated.

Andrea
AnswerID: 426536

Follow Up By: bruce - Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 20:34

Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 20:34
We tow a 17ft poptop with a EF Falcon on gas/petrol (70lts gas 40lts petrol)....we have done 2 half laps in the last 5 yrs...just about to complete the 2nd....you can get LPG just about anywhere in the north of WA and NT , sometimes some places run out and sometimes the pump is broken down....we carry an extra 20lts of petrol on the front of the van to allow for these happenings ...but gas can be expensive (and so is petrol), up to $1.37 litre for gas in one place....do not be put off by the doomsayers...it is not all that bad...cheers
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Reply By: mikehzz - Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 22:47

Saturday, Aug 07, 2010 at 22:47
I've been out there a quite a number of times in dual fuel vehicles since the 80's and my experience is that the cost in fuel makes it about even. You get little or no advantage running on LPG compared to petrol because the price of gas rises in quicker proportion to petrol the further out you go. Gas does get hard to get in some places also. My last LPG car was a 98 Nissan Pathfinder 3.3 litre if that's an indication. Still you need it to get decent range but don't count on it being at the next garage because they might be out, not have it at all or the single pump is broken. Mike
AnswerID: 426563

Reply By: snapper49 - Sunday, Aug 08, 2010 at 09:21

Sunday, Aug 08, 2010 at 09:21
I have a ford territory and have fitted a 100 ltre lpg tank in the 3rd row ie behind the 2nd row of seats
I now have 75 litres of petrol and 80 litres of lpg
I also have the latest in technology a direct liquid injection system
Benifits-
No loss of power - cant notice any difference between petrol and lpg
I now have double the range between fuel stops which can be a big cost saving
non towing
10k per litre on petrol
7k per litre on lpg
towing a 4.8mtr pop top
7k per litre on petrol
4-5 k per litre on lpg

Wouldnt go any other way
AnswerID: 426589

Reply By: Member - Warrie (NSW) - Sunday, Aug 08, 2010 at 10:44

Sunday, Aug 08, 2010 at 10:44
We have returned a month ago from a 23,000 km trip. Sydney, Albury, Grampians, mouth of Murray, Port Lincoln, Nullabor, Albany then all the way up the WA coast to Broome. Then GRR and Mitchell Falls, Kununurra, Katherine up to Darwin, down to Alice, the Oodnadatta Tk, Cooper Ck Ferry, Strezelecki Tk Tibooburra, Bourke and home.All in 97 days
We have dual fuel on yet another 3.3 L Pathfinder as per above post. We towed a Jayco Dove Outback - about 1500 kg loaded up.
Total fuel bill $5750 at average 4.3 km/L giving a cost of 24.8 cents /km. Kleenheat has WA by the throat i.e. no competition so LPG is a ripoff there. If LPG was less than 30 cents /L cheaper than petrol then I didn't buy it and continued using ULP. Had two jerries which gave me an extra 45 L so with 70L of LPG and 75 usable ULP I had an 800 km range.
Luckily all Shell servos had 10 cents off in June and even if you only save $15 per fill it all adds up. Price for LPG last night at Chullora was 47.7 after 4 cents off...W
Warrie

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AnswerID: 426601

Follow Up By: snapper49 - Sunday, Aug 08, 2010 at 15:31

Sunday, Aug 08, 2010 at 15:31
quote" Price for LPG last night at Chullora was 47.7 after 4 cents off...W "

I wish -- average 65 -70cents per litre at whyalla SA
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Follow Up By: mikehzz - Sunday, Aug 08, 2010 at 16:04

Sunday, Aug 08, 2010 at 16:04
Mate SA used to be tops for LPG. I can remember paying 15c/l when petrol was 70-80c/l and nsw LPG was 25c/l. It was always cheaper there, bad luck now. Mike
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Reply By: Alloy c/t - Sunday, Aug 08, 2010 at 16:54

Sunday, Aug 08, 2010 at 16:54
The one and only real answer to your question is that NO ONE on this or any other forum can give you a definitive answer , there are just too many variables , only way for you to work out how many $ you need for your fuel is to do some maths . ,,, Your expected total klm on your lap X your current fuel economy per 100klm + 25% for van + 50% for fuel price variations ,,, the figure you arrive at will in the real world be meaningless but it will give you some idea of what fuel costs your up against.
AnswerID: 426625

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