Fuel Usage

I am finally getting some work done on the TNT project and need a fuel cell as my truck is diesel and can't just be tapped.

What should the expected fuel usage be per hour on a 20 hp TNT?

I need to be able to run 12 hours between re-fills, so what size am I looking at here, 15-20-25 gallons?

I am lucky in that I have "Speedway Motors" located about an hour away. For those that are into street rods and racing, you probably already know about Speedy Bill and this shop. Great resource for automotive stuff...especially hard to find stuff. I will be getting a poly fuel cell from them once I know what capacity.

I wasn't going to add this link, but I guess I have already introduced them, so what the hell.

For all you motor-heads out there, happy shopping.

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/

Is the fuel cell going to be mounted underneath the truck?

I thought I heard Judson saying that his machines burn about a gallon and hour or a little less. I have a Boxxer and it has a 27hp and I burn about 1 1/2 gallons and hour. So I would think less than a gallon an hour would be about right.

Excellent, thanks Tim.

Mo, right now, I am going with a fuel cell mounted in the box far away from the heater. I figure the cell and TNT will be isolated in their own compartment away from the rest of the box, so it should be safe enough.

I could go with a belly tank, but the propane tank would be in a similar location and don't want to have them close by. Well, that is if I stay with the LG heater and not the Northstar unit.

I just checked on Briggs website for generators. It was where I found info about fuel consumption. An 18 hp V-twin (which is what I have on my Judson) consumes about a gallon per hour @ 50% load. I would err on the high side for fuel consumption and try to get the largest tank I could that will fit in my space requirements. Even if your fuel consumption was two gallons per hour a 25 gallon tank should be enough for a twelve hour shift. Hope this helps.

I've always figured about a gal. per hour.......

Being you need to run 12 hrs., 15 gal would likely do it, but to be safe I'd go with a 20 gal. tank.

Sound advice, looks like the consensous is about 1 gallon and maybe a little more. I have a 22 gallon tank in my sights at the moment, but they also have a 32 gallon available and space isn't a big issue.

I am leaning towards the 22 gallon.

You might also start thinking about weight. I know it's a box truck, but when you start looking at the weight of the truck empty and allowable gross vehicle weight you don't want to be overweight. I haven't looked into payload capacity for these kind of trucks, but just something to keep in mind. I drove a medium duty truck years ago that had a 16,000 lb GVW which sounds like a lot, but the truck empty weighed 12,000 lbs. The payload for that truck was only 4,000 lbs.

Good advice Pro Touch, I ran into that very thing trying to convert ambulances for the business.

I loved the idea behind it and those type 3 boxes are awesome, but ended up with less payload than a pick-up truck when you did the math.

It was desinged to hold over 36 pallets of soda...the weight rating is very good, but the point is a good one. Those numbers do matter and is one of the reasons I wanted the all-aluminum body. It weighs far less than a standard box truck.

Pro Touch wrote:I just checked on Briggs website for generators. It was where I found  info about fuel consumption.  An 18 hp V-twin (which is what I have on my Judson) consumes about a gallon per hour @ 50% load. I would err on the high side for fuel consumption and try to get the largest tank I could that will fit in my space requirements. Even if your fuel consumption was two gallons per hour a 25 gallon tank should be enough for a twelve hour shift. Hope this helps.

I guess were getting 1.5 gallons per hour on our 18 Briggs Eric

.....28 would be better, doesn't have to be filled all the up except when needed anyway and the price is couch change between the two.

Time to go shopping.

I think if space is not an issue then the bigger the better, I would go about 30gal

I cant really give you an estimate on the fuel consumption of our TNT because its running on propane and the #4 LG is on the same tank/lines. With both its burning about 1.5gal/ hr of propane.

I think with a 30gal youll be able to do a lot of cleaning between fill ups and thats not much weight.

Well here's another thought. Have you thought about converting your Judson to propane? One large propane tank to feed the heater and machine. After reading AC's post it made me wonder for myself.

Pro Touch wrote:Well here's another thought. Have you thought about converting your Judson to propane? One large propane tank to feed the heater and machine. After reading AC's post it made me wonder for myself.

I like the propane set-up a lot, but I have limited resources for refilling so I wouldn't want to rely too heavily on propane as my fuel source.

Most of the major mfg's TMs I've read about show a 1.5- 1.7gl/hr useage. Not sure about the TNT.