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Chainsaw Samba Member
Joined: August 07, 2015 Posts: 249 Location: Issaquah Washington
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Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2017 11:40 am Post subject: Propane and propane accessories. |
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Hey ya'll, a few questions regarding the propane tanks on westies.
Do the tank have to get a recertification every twelve years like a BBQ tank does or will tossing in a good double check filler be good enough?
Has anyone had any luck plumbing in say a 20# bbq tank for extra burn time? I have a sweet little #15 tank that would be great for extended trips should the need arise but dont want to do anything to....explosive.
Any other advise is greatly appreciated _________________ 89 Westy. 2wd. Manual. |
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wcdennis Samba Member
Joined: July 20, 2004 Posts: 954 Location: Winston-Salem NC
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Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2017 7:26 pm Post subject: Re: Propane and propane accessories. |
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No advise--I just thought a picture of Hank Hill was called for. |
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Microbusdeluxe Samba Member
Joined: July 26, 2003 Posts: 977 Location: Bellingham, WA
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Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2017 7:27 pm Post subject: Re: Propane and propane accessories. |
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Unless your trip is going to last over a month or so, the propane tank has plenty of gas to keep you cooking and that's if you are also running the fridge on propane. Using the tank only for cooking and you have more like 3 months of travel time before you run out. _________________ '69 Squareback RIP
'65 21 window deluxe sold before the price spike, damn it.
'70 rhd bay now a taxi in South Sudan
'81 Westy sold
'89 hightop Westy Joker syncro 16" now with Bostig! |
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E1 Samba Member
Joined: January 21, 2013 Posts: 6369 Location: Westfalia, Earth
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Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:25 pm Post subject: Re: Propane and propane accessories. |
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If the reference helps anyone, we're full-timers and average a refill on our stock 3-gallon tank every 10-14 weeks.
We probably average 1.5 cooked meals a day. Refrigerator has been replaced with organization. _________________ ‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman |
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Chainsaw Samba Member
Joined: August 07, 2015 Posts: 249 Location: Issaquah Washington
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Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2017 9:09 pm Post subject: Re: Propane and propane accessories. |
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Wcdennis Indeed it was!
Microbusdelux, the plan is to get a propex in the van pretty short order for full four season camping. Often 4-5 nights at a time, hence the big guestion of burn time and adding an auxiliary tank externally. It is against my nature to run out of things _________________ 89 Westy. 2wd. Manual. |
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Sodo Samba Member
Joined: July 06, 2007 Posts: 9517 Location: Western WA
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Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2017 9:30 pm Post subject: Re: Propane and propane accessories. |
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Chainsaw wrote: |
It is against my nature to run out of things |
you may run out of space _________________
'90 Westy EJ25, 2Peloquins, 3knobs, pressure-oiled GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb |
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SSWesty Samba Member
Joined: August 20, 2008 Posts: 732 Location: Bellevue
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Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2017 9:46 pm Post subject: Re: Propane and propane accessories. |
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Chainsaw have you done the calcs to confirm your propane usage on a 5 night trip? You may or may not run out depending on your daytime usage, sleep top up or down and how well insulated things are. Propane is like using water from a tank so it's somewhat easy to calc. Frig uses x amount, propex uses x amount, cooking uses x amount like 2,000 BTUs in the morning and 4,000 btus to cook dinner in the evening. Do that for 5 days and you have 30,000 fewer BTUs in the tank. A gallon of propane is around 91,000 BTUs. |
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danfromsyr Samba Member
Joined: March 01, 2004 Posts: 15129 Location: Syracuse, NY
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Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2017 10:11 pm Post subject: Re: Propane and propane accessories. |
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an extend-a-stay kit for an external tank or a 2nd westy tank are fairly easy to plum in.
do some searching, there's a few well detailed threads how-to.
I have a propex & XL propane tank, my brother has dual westy tanks and a suburban furnace a friend has an extend a stay and furnace another friend has just an external 20#.. they all work well within their own pluses & minuses
we like (need) to stay warm here in upstate NY. to extend our season well into frost. _________________
Abscate wrote: |
These are the reasons we have words like “wanker” |
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thunderstick12 Samba Member
Joined: December 07, 2015 Posts: 7 Location: Washington
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Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 8:16 am Post subject: Re: Propane and propane accessories. |
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I went to Amerigas in Pacific to have my tank tested and the repairman there said the tank has a stamp on it. ASME. which he said means it doesn't need to be tested. Steve |
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blackglasspirate Samba Member
Joined: June 24, 2006 Posts: 1597
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Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 10:09 am Post subject: Re: Propane and propane accessories. |
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wcdennis wrote: |
No advise--I just thought a picture of Hank Hill was called for. |
I get all my propane and propane accessories at Strickland. Talk to Hank and tell him Rusty Shackleford sent you.
As far as run time on a stock tank, I'll echo what's already been said about the stock tank lasting 2-3 months living in the van full time. There's no way you'll run out on a 5 day trip unless you're leaving it on 24/7. So unless you're running additional non-stock accessories off propane, I don't think you need to worry about a bigger tank. _________________ '87 Vanagon GL Westfalia
IG: @holidayatsee
FB: https://www.facebook.com/holidayatsee |
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Ahwahnee Samba Member
Joined: June 05, 2010 Posts: 9775 Location: Mt Lemmon, AZ
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Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 10:57 am Post subject: Re: Propane and propane accessories. |
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When we full-timed in ours we got the tank topped up every 14 days and never ran out.
This was a stock Westy (no Propex, etc) with the fridge running 24/7.
Vehicle tank requirements are much stouter than what is required for a BBQ tank, hence the long life w/o recertification. |
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