Having an older generation of CNG tanks on my truck, I do not have quite the capacity that some of the larger systems boast in the newer model CNG-powered trucks. Back when my truck was designed, range anxiety was still one of the biggest hurdles to overcome when switching to CNG. With both CNG trucks I have operated now, I always boast that I could make a loaded round-trip run from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and back in one set of tanks. Not that this isn’t a fact, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t “running on fumes” near the end of that round-trip!
This week I counted my blessings that I now make it a point to put a little bit of fuel in on the Las Vegas side of the regular route I run between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, before I make the return leg of the journey. I always wondered what would happen if the unforeseen happened and caused me to layover somewhere for the night in the truck that I hadn’t planned on. This was not the case this week, but I did run into a horrible traffic jam in the middle of the desert with no way around it. Never would I have thought that I would be sitting for four hours on an interstate in the middle of the desert due to a 14-hour long closure that had resulted from an overturned livestock truck that previous night.
Had I have tried to make the round-trip in this instance without refueling, there would have been a good chance I would have either ran out of fuel before making it to Los Angeles, or possibly might have had to search for a lessor known station once I got out of the traffic jam, if one existed. Making sure I always have enough fuel to get where I need to be, plus a little extra, is one way I have kept myself from running out of fuel and overcoming CNG range anxiety. It could have easily been that the four-hour sit I had on I15 that day might have ended up being much longer. I do not want to be that driver thinking I can run it thin to my next fuel stop, only to be caught off-guard with traffic, a windstorm, or severe weather. I know what the tow bills for a big truck look like, but don’t even want to imagine what they would be to come tow a CNG truck from the middle of the desert to the nearest fuel stop! Be sure to plan ahead for the “worst case scenario” and have extra fuel in the tanks just in case you end up “going nowhere fast” as well.
