I want to run on propane

Well there's a few threads on here about this, a rather good one thou in teck talk, looks like the party started a few years back, and I'm a little late, I figured I'd start a new one in this section, maybe I get a bit more feedback.
I'm new to the prius, but no stranger to wrenches, I bought the car for the principal, and I came across a theread about lpg conversions, it seems like the best ugrade to make a clean car cleaner however beeing from Michigan well lets just say Murrays don't stock it.
Anywho I'm rather familiar with the fuel and I am realy interested converting my car, however due to the absence of popularity, and relatively cheap gas available, it seems like I'm on my own with this one, so I expect this thread to die early.
I tried contacting autogas of poland, to order the kit described in the above mentioned thread, let's just say I'm getting nowhere, so I figured I'd give google a go,
There is a lot of talk online about lpg or cng, however very few supplyers, and of those most have v8 domestic engine specific kits, most of which pre fuelinjected, let alone multiport, and thats the trouble I had last time I considered this, long before I even noticed the prius. granted I can see how there would be a better market for engines rated at 8mpg ( and those are for daily drivers for those of you not familiar with american cars/trucks/suv whathaveyoucrossovers), that beeing said for a prius, it realy isn't about the savings, nothing about this car is if you consider the cost of ownership and not just the mpg.
Anywho I came across a different manufacturer, called versus, I'm unclear where they are from, but it looks european, and there are some retailers in the states and I could have a kit at my door overnight, however given the costs I seen posted in other threads, there have been a lot of sales people in between the manufacturer and the end consumer or just a very gready one as some of these places list it for $3500, at this rate I need a new hobby. I found the manufacturers website www.versusgas.com its a very simmilar setup, however i seems they have their ducks in a row, unlike the polish, not sure how to go about ordering one yet,

bottom line I could realy use some feedback here, recomended brands/supplyers/prices especialy from those of you where lpg conversions are more available, I got nothing else to go by other than google and I need to do this right the first time as shipping will take a while if I forgot something, I know in europe these kits sell themselves, and most are stocked installed by shops, therefore it seems they are not marketed a lot, they were popular 12 years a go when I left and long before that.

any feedback is greatly apreciated, I was realy hoping to have a kit in the mail by now, I was prety much sold on the autogas one, untill I actualy tried to order one, I dont know maybe its the language barrier? I'm sure misspell some too

 

I'm not surprised it's unheard of in the states, yet there's propane forklifts in every warehouse, they are rather similar, try wikipedia, I like the Ideea a lot, back in Europe they are popular for the cost savings, here not so much, I get propane for $2.25 a gal thou like e85 its weaker so it burns more thou no toxic gases just h20 and co2, properly tuned of course, look it up, wikipedia is a good read, also check teck talk, there's an example.

 

I have 4 forklifts, 3 are toyota so I stock propane threfore the interest and yes I was planing on using a tank, they are interchangeble,/exchangeble, 8 galon, besides youre keeping your gas too, when you run out reverts back to gas so range is not an issue, there are tanks made to fit instead of the spare tire, in europe you can refill them at gas stations, arround here youd have to buy the your fuel at the hardware store(I like the ideea), you can fit a gasgrill type filler neck on them, personaly I think forklift tank, bought 3 at the pawnshop the other day for $25 ea, they are considerably more new, you could exchange them 3 at the time and store them in your garage, or just get one and locate an exchange station along the way, you could use a gasgrill tank thou refills are overpriced, same propane thou, defies the point if its more expensive than gas

 

I kindof answered some of my own questions allready thou I would still apreciate some feedback from those familiar with these systems/manufactures, I found that duda diesel deals in versus kits here in the us, they even sell them on ebay, looks like they are polish too, also came across an brithish installer/reseller yorkshire autogas, www.lpgc.co.uk, suposedly they are rather familiar with the entire aftermarket , they mostly use italian components, and they will put together a sortof vehicle specific kit.

 

found a few more some not even worth mentioning particularly a us company , no up front cost low financing type, ebay is full of them, I see some chineze kits, I have couple ebikes prety happy with them despite the chineze gosip.
any thoughts please dont hesitate, I want to order something soon, hope I dont make a bad buy

 

one place I came across that is rather promising, www.lpgc.co.uk

 

just to clear a few things up, this is not novelty or a cool trick its been arround since Otto invented the 4 stroke, the end result is a byfuel, the gasoline system remains almoast untouched, propane goes for about $2.25 right now, gas $3.5.
in the states gas is rather afordable therefore the lack of interest and multitude of suv's, actualy roush has a division that converts fords, but mostly large vehicles where the savings are substantial, on the prius it may amount to $5-$8 per fill, beyound the cost which honestly is not my motivation, propane burns much cleaner in every aspect, I run it on forklifts and the reason for it beeing popular on forklifts is they are ran indoors, sometimes arround food products , try that with gasoline and no catalictic converters. also it does not soot, plugs, valves, oil stay clean for a long time, I have a forklift with 25k hours still goes, does not burn oil, which does not get dark either, like ever it would if I left it in there for a couple years maybe times that by say 45mph = 1 125 000 miles if those hours were in a car, get the point yet?
I remember these conversions since I was a kid, mostly taxis did it also keep in mind at the moment in europe gas is say $7/gal, propane $3, you would not consider it a neat trick if thats what you were paing, but like I said cost is not my motivation, my point is this mod does recover its own cost unlike say, rims for example, personaly I am into it for the clean factor enviromentaly as well as engine internals, a good running propane engine only puts out co2 and h2o no expensive cat needed, while they still greenhouse type they are not toxic

I was really hoping someone from europe would pitch in, I been gone for 12 years now, lost touch, some of those multiport systems were not even beeing developed, at the time most systems were ventury type.
As for those of you with some interest but not familiar I can point you to some good reading, wikipedia is a good place to start thou last I checked it its outdated, mostly speaks of the old systems.
MY bigest issue is aquiring a decent kit, I don't remember any brand names and they are not all alike althou they may look like it and prices are simmilar

 

there are tanks available that fit instead of the spare, and you can plum in a fillerhose, makes a much cleaner instalation, than again in europe they have fill stations for these, tecknicaly we do too, they are called hardware stores, they can fill them provided you have a gasgrill type connector, not sure if they can meterthem as they usualy fill grilltanks where theyr capacity is known.
I used them before, where I forgot about a hollyday and the propane place I usualy use was closed, any hardware store that sells propane can refill you, and there are several in my area, also I noticed rv/storage type places sell propane, equipment rental shops sell them too, its allover the place but if you never looked you may be under the impresion there is no infrastructure, lowes , hd gasstations have exchanges for gas grills however I never bought them I have been told thy cost $20 or so and they are only 4galons, propane costs half that, its just the convenience markup they sell, pluss those of you that use them can confirm they last a while you probl only need a tank all summer.
me in particular I was thinking using a forklift interchangeble tank since I stock them, just behind the rear seat, sure it takes some space but to work and back I dont pack anything else, so I got room to spare and if going on a trip and i'm short on space , I could leave the tank at home and run just plain old gas I guess.

george

 

I see in your sig you run hymotion and your from michigan, now that is an expensive neat trick, check your dte bill our electricity id 65% coal, I looked into it before and thats what turned me off, dont get me wrong I like plug in but I have to put up my own wind farm up first, not to mention those kits are $10k and most of it is batteries which will need replacing by the time you recover any cost, just my take on it.
like I mentioned my main motivation is a cleaner vehicle, I firmly belive I can acomplish a lot more with a $600 propane kit, which is rather reliable and virtualy maintenance free, by the time this car is done for I can take the kit off and put it on my next prius, try that with plug in, you'd need a new set of bateries before this one is spent, not to mention, the process involving mining the lithium and shipping it from china every say 3-4 years as you need replacements, like we don't owe them enough allready.
again, I am not criticising you for your choice, I'm sure you had the best intentions when you did it, not sure if you seen the big picture thou.

 

all that has been worked out 30+ years ago, besides If I get rearended to the point that the cargo area is completely crushed in to the point the tank ruptured, I got bigger problems to worry about, at that point chances are the gastank is compromised too, jeeps have them right under the rear bumper yet they sell like hot cakes and most owners dont stress it at all, figure that one out, to rest your mind at ease, I had it hapen somebody left a tank against a steel pillar and a 4000lbs forklift driver slamed into it at full blast, put a nice ding in it along the lengh of the cylinder completely deformed it, the supplyer would not exchange it, it was an accident by the way not on purpose,, did not rupture, those tanks are made of rather thick aluminum they weigh a bit, I still have it I'm stuck with it because it still holds presure and the scrapyard wont touch it, and propane does not ignite as easy as gas, notice when you have an old torch how hard it is to ignite it, those burners are dialed in and a bit of dust would make them not work, now CNG which seems to be a bit more popular in the states scare me I believe those tanks are a 3000 psi, yea I'm not sure about that, fyi look it up its not the same thing as lpg/propane, cng is what a husehold stove /furnace/hwh runs on, there are kits for those too, I'm not into it.
also keep in mind some of those kits are dot aproved, maybe not in the states but countrys that they are popular, look up dudadiesel.com, they are from alabama claim dot aproved, those kits they sell are polish and a bit overpriced I think, there is also a company downsouth I mentioned they do conversions for $5800 same stuff, meets all safety regulations, just 1000% markup thats all, but they do offer financing, how about that. I can look them up for you if you got money burning holes in your pants , or maybe it grows on trees in your area, they sell a kit that I believe its made in the netherlands and they have a few fleets for customers, its just a bunch of missinformed sugarcoated salespich and aparently there are plenty of bytes