[Farmall] Farmall M LP

[CDHORN at aol.com]

Back in the 50's, our neighbor in South Dakota used LP on several Case models 
and later on Allis Chalmers tractors.  The advantages he got from it were 
that the spark plugs and oil stayed cleaner much longer than with gasoline. The 
engines as a result of running cleaner, also stayed cleaner and would in 
general require less maintenance. The exhaust smoke that you tended to get blown in 
your face depending in which direction you were heading, was also much less 
obnoxious. 

We had a spokesman from the local natural gas company speak to our Rotary 
group about the advantages of running vehicles on LP or Natural gas, and he 
stated that the major cost increases in the tanks, etc., were the result of overly 
robust government regulations.  As far as relying on the company truck to 
deliver the LP, that is no different from the bulk truck delivering regular gas.  
We had an LP tank anyway for our corn drying bin. The other advantage is that 
we have huge surpluses of this renewable resource, which have now become more 
expensive to deal with because the processing technology wasn't developed as a 
result of the artificially imposed low demand.  (Which is also why we pay so 
much to heat our homes with natural gas now.)

As a result, today all we hear about is ethanol as the answer to Mideast oil 
dependency.  I don't have test numbers to compare, but I would be surprised if 
the thermal efficiency of LP is as bad as ethanol fuel. 

Clark
F-20