Filling Up....Updated 2/23/14

As of today, there are eight CNG refueling stations in the Shreveport-Bossier area.  Two are in Bossier, and are operated by the city of Bossier.  One is on Texas Street, and the other is near Centurytel Center. There is one located at Time-It lube on Pines Road near I20.  There is another located at the Relay Station just off I49 in Frierson, and one more at the Chevron on the corner of Hwy 84 and Hwy 171 in Mansfield.  There is an additional one located near Coushatta on Hwy 84 just east of the intersection with Hwy 1.  The City of Shreveport also operates a single pump at their facility on King's Highway just west of Linwood. Freedom Fuels is also located on 70th just west of Linwood Avenue in Shreveport. Today's prices are as follows:


                     Bossier (2):        1.70 per gge
                     Time It               1.89
                     Frierson:            1.79
                     Mansfield:          1.79
                     Coushatta:         1.79
                     Shreveport City 1.49
                     Freedom           1.79

Prior to this editing, there was a paragraph on this post which praised the City of Bossier, while neglecting Shreveport because I only recently discovered that the city operated a pump which was open to the citizens.  This will become my new favorite pump to visit because of the lower price (for now anyway) and the fact that it is within sight of I49.    

             



On my truck, the CNG tank as located in the bed, secured by two metal straps that are bolted to the frame and a toolbox is built around it.  There is a refueling nozzle is located above the bed rail on the driver's side.  Going through the motions, it is somewhat similar of filling up with gasoline, but with a couple of different steps.

The refueling nozzle:

There are very detailed instructions on filling up at each pump in the Shreveport/Bossier area.  It is a pretty simple process once you understand that it isn't a gas tank.  It took me a total of twenty minutes, a second trip to the pump and eight swipes on my debit card to figure out how to connect the hose to the nozzle (just another day of living with little common sense).  I will walk through the process and hopefully if you ever fuel up one of these you won't waste that time like I did.

Once the dust cover is removed, the object is to get the hose connector and the nozzle on the truck connected....tightly.  The hose connector is enclosed in yellow plastic with a metal operating handle.  There is an arrow on the handle, and an arrow on the plastic....these are important!!

The hose connector is placed over the nozzle with a little pressure, and the arrows are rotated where they are facing each other, this opens the internal coupling and allows it to slide over the nozzle...should look like so:

At this point it is important to know that the full connection has not yet been made.  If you attempt to pump the CNG at this point, it begins but instantly fails due to the low pressure and the pump stops (a process I repeated several times and thank God for that safety feature).  The handle is then rotated 180 degrees until the arrows both point toward the vehicle.  Ninety degrees of this rotation are pretty uneventful, but the pressure required to finish the rotation increases significantly and suddenly you hear a loud whoosh as the gas moves from the tank into the hose and pump in an attempt to equalize the pressure.  The final ready position for fueling looks like this:

Once this connection is made you can swipe your card and then lift the black plastic handle at the hose connector storage location.  The pump makes a series of beeps then you get the loud whoosh of gas being forced into the tank.  Honestly the first few times I filled up I found this alarming and sort of casually strolled to the front of the truck trying to put the cab and engine block between me and the CNG tank in case what sounded like an impending tragedy actually happened.  Looking back this was a tad hysterical, but you never know. The pump takes care of the rest and the process is signaled complete by a beeping sound.  If you are west of the Red, you will be able to see the pressure of the tank displayed on the pump.  Ideally it is around 3,600 psi.  All that is required then is to lower the black plastic handle, disconnect the hose connector, return it to the pump and replace the dust cover on the vehicle.

All of the filling stations are card operated only.  There is no one that works at the stations except for the Time-It employees who don't have anything to do with the CNG pumps.  The refueling station in Frierson is located on the Relay Station property, next to Highway 175.  When I fill up there I watch people come and go from their cars, to gas pumps and into the store.  They leave the store carrying bags of items that aren't really necessary like gum, cokes, candy and other items that help us cope with the somewhat mildly anxious feeling we get when we travel.  I realized that there is another savings by running CNG only.  I don't buy those items when I fill up because they aren't available.  I can't accurately estimate a savings in my case but think about it next time you go into the gas station and buy gas station items.  It might surprise you when you multiply that cost times the number of times you fill up with gasoline every year.