Lehr Propane Outboard?

[minaret]

Originally Posted by roberttigar

When they go haywire, who services them.

Only difference between one of these and a gas outboard is the carb. Any outboard mechanic should be able to service these.

[minaret]

Originally Posted by cheoah

We converted a big lawn mower at the farm to propane. Has two big tanks, one on each side of the operator. It is very reliable, and the oil looks like it is brand new after each 100 hours of operation.

Our yard has several pieces of industrial equipment that runs on propane. Our biggest forklift is an old Boeing surplus built for moving planes, it's been running with very little service for decades. Super reliable.

[capngeo]

Originally Posted by endoftheroad

Funny you ask,
There is one at the mooring field dinghy dock.
My wife and I saw one going out last night.
There was a 1 pound bomb cylinder rolling around in the dinghy and another revealing itself through the motors cowling.
I said to my wife, "put a burner on top of the cowling and cook up some hotdogs on your way out".

Not impressed one bit.

We must have been close to each other that day! THAT dinghy is precisely what got me looking into getting a Lehr! I was sitting at TK with some departing visitors waiting on the ferry to board.

[Geoduck]

I cant see why this hasnt been done years ago - we've been burning propane in trucks for years!
Somebody ought to sell a conversion kit to adapt any 4 stroke to propane. I've got a propane generator in my camper that I never use........hhhmmm, I wonder!? Maybe the carb will fit on my 9.9?????

[HopCar]

Geoduck, there are a lot of advantages to converting gasoline engines to propane. I had two generators converted from gasoline to propane because I needed them to start after sitting unused for months. The draw back is that you lose some power doing that because a gasoline engine can't take advantage of the higher octane of propane. The Lehr outboards are designed to run on 110 octane propane and develope their full rated power.

[bstreep]

Well, this 9.9 came out a couple of years too late for us...

Can these things also run on butane?

BTW, Parks is a GREAT source for "stuff". We were very happy with our Purasan experience. BTW, Parks, the install took a whole day - but most of that was running plumbing and wiring.

[HopCar]

Hi Bill! Thanks for the kind words. Glad the Purisan is working out for you.
I spoke to Lehr about running the engine on Butane some time ago. In theory you could but nobody has done it. It's not really practical as fittings don't match and you'd have to adjust the mixture.

[rebel heart]

I get it that propane engines have been around for a while, but there's also the Lehr company itself. No one thinks all gasoline engines and their manufacturers are the same. Would you have a Honda or a Yugo?

I really have no idea, but what's the track record and longevity on Lehr as a company? Have they been building engines and associated systems for a long time?

[zeehag]

the fella who sails the force 50 victoria said his is problematic and that he wished he had waited a couple more years to buy--his is not a large hp engine--4 hp i THINK...
and he did have problems with it much of the time.

this is real time use in mexican waters at anchor where a dinghy is a necessity, not a luxury.

[Tripod]

We've had a 5HP is St. Augustine for about a year now and love not having gasoline in the dink. We had the cowl latch problem, but Lehr sent us new stainless steel latches no charge. Otherwise, no problems at all. We'll be totally gasoline-free as soon as we have our Yamaha generator converted.

[Kettlewell]

One big issue for cruisers in the USA is finding propane close to the water. You can't carry tanks on a bus, so it often means a cab ride. Very few marinas have propane--someone should start a list of the ones that do. Propane is just about everywhere, but it is often not convenient to get from the water. For cruising in your home waters it would be great, but for further afield obtaining fuel could be a problem.

[Group9]

Originally Posted by Geoduck

I cant see why this hasnt been done years ago - we've been burning propane in trucks for years!
Somebody ought to sell a conversion kit to adapt any 4 stroke to propane. I've got a propane generator in my camper that I never use........hhhmmm, I wonder!? Maybe the carb will fit on my 9.9?????

I grew up in the Mississippi Delta farm region and it was common for farm trucks, and gasoline tractors, to be equipped to run on either propane or gasoline. Usually they would run on propane, because it was cheaper, with the option to switch back to gasoline if the propane ran out, until they could get refilled.

A lot of the city vehicles were/are set up the same way in many of the Delta towns, because the infrastructure was already there to convert and maintain them.

I really can't understand either, why it took so long for this to happen with outboards and other small motors.

[endoftheroad]

Doesn't anyone here care about recycling?

I think Lehr is being unresponsible to offer an outboard motor for use with those 1lb green bombs. Yes, I'm aware you can use a large refillable tank, but the fact is that I have seen about 3 or 4 of these outboards in my travels and everyone of them was using the 1lb tanks.
Recycling these tanks can be a problem in most areas. And there are people out there at this very moment going through alot of them, not to mention that they aren't cheap.
They have a habit to leak, especially after they have been used.
Do you think "every" cruiser out there for a couple months is going to keep a large collection of these empty tanks on their boat, especially when they smell like they are leaking propane into their boat?
What is Lehr doing or offering with the purchase of their propane outboards in regards for being responsible to the environment and their customers safety?

I don't know, thats why I'm asking, for all I know Lehr could be including a list of recycling stations that accept the 1lb tanks and including this coleman tool for fully emptying the tanks (see link below) with the purchase of their outboards.

http://www.coleman.com/uploadedFiles...y/GreenKey.pdf

They must be doing something?
Or aren't they?

Anyone here know?

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by endoftheroad

Doesn't anyone here care about recycling?

I think Lehr is being unresponsible to offer an outboard motor for use with those 1lb green bombs.

You can refill the green tanks yourself with this: Propane Refill Kit - Refill Propane Bottles with Ease!

[Octopussy]

You can refill the 1 lb. bottles.

We had about a half a dozen, and just refilled them when we had our Lehr lawnmower.

We bought an adapter on Amazon.com that refilled them from a 20# propane tank. Really easy.

Cheers,
S/V Octopussy