Why convert a Jeep to Propane?!?

I will try to keep this from turning into a soapbox/rant.  Consider this an open letter to anyone who cares to read it.  If you already know you want to convert to propane, you can skip to a FAQ-thing at the bottom.

Each section is a grouping of thoughts, etc.

The quote that sums this all up: "if it wasn't important enough to do something about it, it wasn't important at all" - Anon.

"We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them" Abigail Adams (1744-1818), in a letter to John Quincy Adams, 1774. (from quotationspage.com)

Something I should point out here: True out-of-the-box thinking can only occur when you know where the box is.  The end result we're looking for is to get ourselves from point A to point B.  The obvious solution is a car (true, until transporters are perfected).  Cars have tires (something that is true, but does it need to be? Currently, yes - air cushions do not provide for safe stopping distances).  Now we need some way of turning those tires.  Currently, we use an internal combustion engine (ICE), route it's power through a transmission, into a differential into those tires.  Keep in mind that while we accept this as the most efficient means, it will not always be the case.

Remember also that every time we convert energy from one form to another, we lose a percentage, usually to heat or friction. Sometimes a great percentage, sometimes small.  For example, burning propane would make no sense if it's production required more energy and produced more emissions than that of gasoline. Same with hydrogen, when used in an ICE.  Electricity is a much more flexible means of stored energy - less heat production, easily converted from one form to another. Unfortunately, converting it to motion is more difficult because we're used to using ICE's, that's where the R&D money has gone for 100 years.

What's my point? A hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle is a STEP in the right direction.  Until we're using solar-charged electric vehicles, we're making baby steps.  Note that current technology for capturing solar energy requires enormous amounts of panels and sunlight to get enough energy for even the most miserly e-car.  We won't see this as a practical solution for many many years to come.

Here are my thoughts as I searched for an acceptable solution to my propulsion question.

 Functional specifications, Courses of Action and Technical specifications

Discussion: In project management these three terms help us shape ideas into action.  The process of determining the two spec sheets has everything to do with the decision making process, weighted and driven by the functional specifications.

We first must identify what we want (our idea).  These are the functional specifications. For me, the list includes: 

Next we identify the actual process we need to fit these functional specifications. These become the technical specifications.  In the course of determining the technical specs, we have gone through a course of action development, and decided which course of action best fits our functional specs.  The following courses of action were considered, with a very brief note to it's rejection.  Note that these may not seem relevant or complete to someone else (you), because they (you) will have different functional specifications.  I can further discuss my evaluation of each COA, if you'd like to email me.

COAs evaluated against the functional specifications, scored 1 to 5 (higher is better):