Propane Tank: Location and Size

[Master of Nothing]

Anyone have suggestions for size and location for under T1N 156WB for propane tank....and best places to order it from?

(I KNOW some people are against propane....but that is the route that I have chosen.....thanks)

[d_bertko]

My used 02 158 had a poorly installed Manchester tank on the driver's side amidship. It was hung just low enough to expose the fill valve under the van. I busted my knuckles each time it got filled. It had an underside guard bar with a dent in it. I lost perhaps 6" of ground clearance. The first time I touched that guard bar on a rough road I was resolved to remove the tank. It should have been installed higher and a fill door cut into the side of the van.

This experience caused me to try the all-electric route and the much improved fridge as well as the micro and induction burner convinced me it was a great decision. The diesel furnace is better electrically and has more btu/gallon than a propane one. And a big smile every time I only need one fuel at the gas station.

We actually love to cook with propane but the bbq and campstove are often set up on a picnic table where an extension hose from an underside tank would be inconvenient. So I knew I wanted a portable bbq propane tank. We're enthusiastic cooks and the outdoor kitchen often fills much of a 10x10 quickshelter.

I installed a vented, gasketed propane locker inside the van for the bbq tank. I had thought about installing a through-the-locker-wall fitting to give me the option of indoor cooking but no plumber would consider a high-pressure fitting. It might have been possible if I used a pressure reducer inside the locker but that requires low-pressure devices.

I thought giving up the inside propane burners for the induction unit might be a poor compromise. Wrong. No flames, instant on/off, fine simmer control made it superior. And we have campstove propane burners with almost twice the btus of the rv models.

Didn't mean to go on a diatribe but I figure I'm one of the few that had both set ups in the same Sprinter. You do have the option of a propane locker like mine but it might defeat the outdoor cooking use if it had to supply built-ins.

[Master of Nothing]

Um.....thanks?

Does not really answer any of my questions or give me any ideas.....so I still welcome other suggestions or ideas from people that actually use propane on their Sprinters on a regular basis.

[Altered Sprinter]

We have two types down under one with a door for the slide out of LP bottles
The other is a small gas filler ,and you drop the tank from underneath not popular
sorry the photo is a small one but this trap door is as similar as to a generator gen set door
Richard

1251695427DSC01367 (Custom).JPG

honda_genset_09074.jpg

[lzcamper]

The propane tank on my '06 158" T1N is installed in a space under the floor just in front of the passenger side wheel well. It has brackets that bolt flush to the underside of the floor. An inside section of the double wall had to be cut out to accommodate the circumference of the tank and an opening was cut on the outside to install a door that allows access to the tank fixtures. The tank supplies gas for a stove on the passenger side and a refrigerator and furnace on the driver's side. A person here in So Cal that builds Sprinter conversions provided and installed the tank.

Rick

[NBB]

I've been running tanks inside my van for several years now. I have not died yet, though I did have an incident with an overfilled tank that spewed a little out of the relief valve. I just opened the purge valve and emptied it a bit. Now I use these http://www.litecylinder.com/ units that are translucent. They are very nice. I can see what is going on with the tank. For my current project, seeing as these tanks are going to be a little more fixed in their place than in prior rigs, I plan to run a tube from the pressure relief port down through the floor. Unless the tank cracks or one was incompetent with the plumbing, I'm not forseeing how my rig will fill with any appreciable concentration of leaking propane. However, I also bought a propane alarm.

I do like having the tanks in the conditioned space for winter camping. A frozen tank is nearly worthless when less than 1/2 to 3/4 full.

I would like to understand more about why people are so freaked about propane. There must be a Faces of Propane Death site out there I haven't seen yet. My experience is that if you are using all the prefabricated hoses, fittings and regulators out there - no reason not to - things are pretty solid and safe, in general. It takes a pretty high concentration of propane in the air to ignite. All of my appliances have thermocouple safety valves. The only real danger I see is with overfilled tanks and no venting.

Propane - this equipement is relatively inexpensive, easy to repair, and has been around in RV's forever...

[Zach Woods]

Originally Posted by NBB

I would like to understand more about why people are so freaked about propane. There must be a Faces of Propane Death site out there I haven't seen yet. My experience is that if you are using all the prefabricated hoses, fittings and regulators out there - no reason not to - things are pretty solid and safe, in general. It takes a pretty high concentration of propane in the air to ignite. All of my appliances have thermocouple safety valves. The only real danger I see is with overfilled tanks and no venting.

Hello NBB -

I agree that it would be very interesting to learn why the US has regulations that prohibit vehicle interior propane tanks but Germany allows this. See my post regarding the internal propane tanks in the Mercedes James Cook (European specification basis for the Airstream Sprinter Westfalia): http://sprinter-source.com/forum/sho...pane#post70930

Germans tend to be very safety conscious and if they allow propane inside their RV's it would be great to hear their thinking on this. Germans also tend to, on average, maintain their vehicles and systems very carefully and thoroughly - maybe that is where their confidence in interior propane tanks comes from.

Zach

[Aqua Puttana]

FWIW. Without research and off the top of my pointy little head. In the U.S.A. a typical propane tank by design has a high pressure relief mentioned by NBB that vents to atmosphere (into your living area if that's where the tank is) if the pressure goes high. One thing that can elevate the pressure is high ambient temperature. (Closed up vans in the sun never get hot inside, do they?) The tank fittings are commonly known to leak if not properly seated or if the o-ring seals get old. The pressure regulator rubber diaphragm is also a potential problem and will vent to atmosphere if it fails and leaks. Those potential leak sources are a direct line to the highest pressure available at the tank. I believe in a typical RV installation most any lines that run into the living space are at reduced pressure (after the regulator) so they have less potential for failure (there is less stress at lower pressure) and the lower pressure = less volume for a given time span if there should be a leak.

I would not want to open my camper and have the light switch on the door spark if the high pressure leak put the mixture inside between the LEL Lower Explosive Limit and the UEL Upper Explosive Limit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flammability_limit

It might ruin your day. Then again, what do I know? AP/vic

[Master of Nothing]

I like the looks of those Lite Cylinders.....

Where are you locating them in your rig?

M.O.N.

[NBB]

Planned location is left rear. From left to right, I am looking at 16" of cabinet, 54" of bed. The cylinders will be in the cabinet. I am looking at 2 of the 20 pounders and twin regulator setup so the fridge isn't an epic to start every time I swap bottles.

I have noticed a huge discrepency in how people fill these things. Most of these guys don't understand what they are doing. The tank is pretty much guaranteed to get overfilled if they do it by pressure - ie, they wait until their pump switches off. There is supposed to be a float in there that blocks off the flow. Not sure if my particular tank is defective - kind of doubt it. I only have 1 now, we'll see how the next 2 behave. In the end, you can see a correct fill by inspection. There are markings on the side of the bottle. The way to get it right is to manually shut off the pump after x # of gallons or 20 lbs of weight and check the fluid level. It will vary with temperature, but should be in the neighborhood of the full mark. The tank will be about 25% gas, 75% liquid. That freaks some people out as not appearing to get all they paid for and sometimes the filler guy falls for that too, but you need room for expansion as the tank gets warm. A full tank of 100% liquid will almost certainly blow propane through the relief port - or blow liquid into an unregulated appliance - both somewhat dangerous. I have had zero issues with a correctly filled tank.