Forget Electric or Junk Gasoline - Here Is The Way . . .

[osirissail]

Just introduced at the 2012 Miami International Boat Show were two new Outboard Engines (2.5hp and 5hp) and they run on Propane.

See: LEHR - Environmentally Friendly Technology

Lehr Propane Outboard Motor - Offered by iboats.com - YouTube

MIAMI VIDEO: Lehr offers propane outboards

And competitively prices at US$1600 for the 5hp, 4 cycle version. And you can run the motor for an hour on a 1 lb. barbeque propane cylinder or for 10 hours on a 10 lb cylinder.

[HopCar]

Hi Osirissail, I'm probably their first dealer and we sold several at the show. I think Lehr jumped the gun a little bit and released the motors too soon. They only had a few available and we're having a hard time getting them. I really like the motors and look forward to getting one for myself. By the way, it's the 2.5 HP that will run an hour on a pound of propane. The five will run about half an hour on the one pound can. Did you see the refillable one pound can they are working on? It looks really nice and should be much easier to refill than the disposable cans. I was impressed that the exhaust was so clean that they could actually run the engines inside the convention center. If you want to buy one, contact me. I'm sure I can work up a nice CF discount.

[rebel heart]

Half an hour on one pound of propane? That seems fairly crummy.

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

Half an hour on one pound of propane? That seems fairly crummy.

But doesn't that work out to about a quart?

[deckofficer]

Even though propane doesn't have the BTU content of gas, it is so much cleaner burning. But hey, gas doesn't have the BTU content of diesel. One hour on what equals 1/8 of a gallon of gas is doing pretty good. That 2.5 hp can probably push a dink at least 6 kt so that is almost too good to be true. Do hope that don't cater to the disposable cannisters, but rather refillable ones.

[sailorboy1]

If the cost of the propane is equal to the gas for the amount of time to run the outboard does it seem there would be any negatives? I see lots of pros of not having to store the gas and deal with it going bad, evapoarting etc etc.

Do you think it is going to me more dependable that gas? Not that that would take all the much.

Think larger ones are going to be available soon?

I need a replacement for my 2.5 HP and I guess more research is now needed.

[Lagoon4us]

Here in Australia we have loads of motor vehicles running on Propane, we start up on petrol then switch over to propane once the engine is warm.

These conversions have been done for 30 years now and are mostly aftermarket.
My point? ....Once popular the price of propane rose x 300%+ same story with diesel it equals petrol in cost.

Profit by fuel companies is the driving force if you could run a motor on water then water would be $5 a gallon....HANG ON IT IS!!!!!!

Pollution wise it will be good BUT i'd rather see LNG than Propane as i'd hate to have a gas leak in a RIB.

Cheers Frank

[downunder]

There was article in papers yesterday with taxi drivers screaming abour rise in price of propane. Sugesting a price rise in fares is about to happen.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by Lagoon4us

Pollution wise it will be good BUT i'd rather see LNG than Propane as i'd hate to have a gas leak in a RIB.

Cheers Frank

Takes much higher pressures or/and cryogenic temperatures to liquify natural gas. A leak from an LNG system would be catastrophic.

Compressed natural gas would be too bulky.

To me the downside to an LPG dinghy motor is the need for comparitively heavy cylinders, compared to fairly lightweight plasic tanks.

[Lagoon4us]

I was thinking lighter than air would have been preferable? Cheers.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by Lagoon4us

I was thinking lighter than air would have been preferable? Cheers.

and the fuel we use now is??
at least with propane you can get it most anywhere.

[sailorboy1]

I did a web search and after looking at the results from the first 5 pages didn't really find any negatives (some power loss) that aren't outweighed by other factors.

Of course most tof the web resuts were press release thingies.

There are other comanies working of the propane outboard also.

[Celestialsailor]

Another thought here is the only difference between his engine and any other off the shelf engine is the carburetor. I remember the Clark forklifts could go back and forth with a carb change. So I would assume some smart individual will come out with a relatively cheap "kit".
What do you want to bet that those engines are from China.

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Another thought here is the only difference between his engine and any other off the shelf engine is the carburetor. I remember the Clark forklifts could go back and forth with a carb change. So I would assume some smart individual will come out with a relatively cheap "kit".
What do you want to bet that those engines are from China.

My you are the cynical one arn't you
Are they built to specs ?

[Sailmonkey]

Well, most engines are from China.

Just built to someones specs.