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Just joined the forum after spending way too many hours reading through a number of the threads. Love the forum, and all of the great contributors.
Didn't see much on propane conversions for late model trucks, so I thought I'd share a photo of my 2015 Lariat Super Crew FX4 with the 5.0L that has been converted to run on propane. I must admit that I'm biased because I work for a propane company, but I love this truck on propane!
Let me know if anyone else out there is running on propane, and feel free to reach out with any questions.
Propane Conversion on my 2015 F150 Lariat Super Crew FX4 5.0L
Propane Powered 2015 F150 Lariat Super Crew FX4 5.0L
this is awesome! did you have to change the valves and other internals for this mod? I know the Ford factory ones have different internals compared to normal gasoline
On my truck, the tank is a doughnut style that sits where the spare tire would normally be, and has a usable capacity of about 80 litres (sorry, I'm Canadian, about 22 gallons for my US friends).
Truck is only a few weeks old, but so far I'm averaging about 17L/100KM which is a little worse than the city rating of 16L/100KM on the window sticker. Mileage on propane will always be about 10% worse than gas, but thankfully the price of propane in my area (Vancouver, British Columbia) is about half that of gas so I'm saving a lot of money.
From completely full to dead empty, I'm averaging about 440KM (275 miles) per tank.
I'll post a couple of more photos of the installation soon.
this is awesome! did you have to change the valves and other internals for this mod? I know the Ford factory ones have different internals compared to normal gasoline
No internal mods required. From what I understand, the 2016's that you can order with the propane prep package have a few valve train tweaks as part of the package, but stock '15 5.0L is a great engine to convert just the way it is.
Your tank holds 21.1 gallons of propane. You are getting 13.8 miles per gallon with propane, versus your city rating of 14.7 mpg, i.e. about 6.1% worse mpg.
If the price of propane is 1/2 the price of gas where you are, then - absent the cost of the conversion - you would be saving money.
Since you didn't post prices, I'll use my prices here. Gas is $2.29 per gallon. Assume propane is $1.145 per gallon (your "1/2"). At the numbers above for MPG, over 1,000 miles, you'd use 72.46 gallons of propane and spend $82.97. The gas truck would use 68 gallons of gas and spend $155.78. Assuming 15,000 miles per year, the cost would be $1244.55 for propane and $2,336.70 for gas, a savings of $1,092.15. Assuming no increased maintenance costs, and no time value of money, you can take your installation cost and divide by $1,092.15 to get the number of years for breakeven.
I assume that your conversion, like natural gas conversions, makes it so there is no real breakeven - i.e. it never pays for itself? Or is the tank so much smaller and less expensive that it may someday? To me the range would be an issue, and the ability to fill anywhere. Only a dual-fuel vehicle would make sense IF the conversion cost would someday pay off.
Any pictures of how you mount the tank? What type of range do you see on XX lbs of Propane? What's your Miles-per-lb of fuel?
Here's a photo of the tank, and the filler location in the rear bumper. And for fun, a photo of the truck after the leveling kit installation. Big difference compared to the photo in the original post.
After installation of the leveling kit. Looks like a truck now!
The doughnut style propane tank installed in the spare tire location.
Propane filling location installed in the rear bumper.
Propane Conversion
