Tinker Air Force Base acquires eight Ram 2500 bifuel pickup trucks

The new Ram trucks, which will operate almost solely on Tinker, have CNG equipment installed by the original equipment manufacturer, and each one will hold 8.5 gallons of natural gas and 8 gallons of gasoline. Vehicles will refuel at Tinker CNG station, located near the motor pool headquarters in Bldg. 1130 on the west side of the base.

The CNG installed as original equipment manufactured parts on the eight pickups was attributed to an initiative promoted by Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. They urged their colleagues throughout the nation to procure as many NGVs as possible, because bulk purchases tend to drive down costs. As a result, 22 states expressed an interest in the program and more than 100 dealerships in 28 states submitted bids on providing OEM-equipped CNG vehicles for state fleets.

That enabled Tinker to benefit when it asked the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Warner-Robins AFB to buy the new trucks. “We leveraged the CNG capability provided by the multi-state consortium to get what we needed for Tinker,” said Col. Stephen Wood, vice commander of the 72^nd Air Base Wing.

Source: Tinker Air Force Base