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Old 08-31-2021, 08:07 PM   #61
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Originally Posted by Zork View Post
...I figure I had better ask.

I want to install a propane tank on my bus to power cooking, fridge, water heating and an LPG generator to supplement batteries/solar panels and shore power. I have both 20 lb and 100 lb vertical tanks, brand new. I want to use the 100 lb tank and I was thinking of mounting it in a cage on the rear of the bus, welded to the truck frame. The cage would hold the tank on the left and the generator on the right, fully enclosed to protect from theft and "accidents". The middle would be open for the emergency exit door, and a class 5 trailer hitch. I don't like the idea of mounting the tank underneath, and besides I'd have to get a horizontal tank for that.

Opinions? Comments? Better ideas?
Search the forum for some good discussion on this topic. I learned that a tank CAN be installed on the exterior rear of the bus as long as its above the bumper.

Rules state you can't mount it under the bus except between the front and rear axle.

Many of us mount it inside, in a sealed enclosure, vented top and bottom to allow the heavier LP gas to evacuate.

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Old 08-31-2021, 10:49 PM   #62
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If you actually "used and filled (myself) both" as opposed to just changing tanks, then the training required to perform that task should have clued you. Even just changing tanks should have clued you that there was liquid coming from the tank.

Training....That's funny. Training was "here's how you do it, got it? Bye.
We filled until the vapor escaping the vent turned to liquid, closed the vent and shut off the pump. Same way you fill a BBQ tank.
Some of us got our "training" before most of the people on this forum were born.



If by changing tanks you can tell if there is liquid or gas being discharged by the tank, you did something wrong as the valve should be closed before disconnecting.
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Old 08-31-2021, 10:58 PM   #63
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Originally Posted by Oscar1 View Post
Are you building a food truck?
I am building an RV using examples of proven good practices from the real world, not the products of the overactive imaginations of armchair know-it-all's. If that doesn't answer your question, I'm sorry but I can't help you.
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Old 09-01-2021, 12:21 AM   #64
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I am building an RV using examples of proven good practices from the real world, not the products of the overactive imaginations of armchair know-it-all's. If that doesn't answer your question, I'm sorry but I can't help you.
Commercial food trucks in BC are inspected monthly by the health board, bi annually by the CVSE which is our commercial truck safety division and once yearly by the BC gas safety branch.
Your hacked together rv will never see an inspection until it blows up and kills someone.
I don’t own an arm chair and I don’t nearly know enough to tell anyone I know it all.
Carry on
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Old 09-01-2021, 12:28 AM   #65
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Commercial food trucks in BC are inspected monthly by the health board, bi annually by the CVSE which is our commercial truck safety division and once yearly by the BC gas safety branch.
Your hacked together rv will never see an inspection until it blows up and kills someone.
I don’t own an arm chair and I don’t nearly know enough to tell anyone I know it all.
Carry on
I can't help you with your butthurt either. Try a priest or a therapist, hopefully not in that order.
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Old 09-01-2021, 06:07 AM   #66
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I hope you will install a backup camera ..preferably one with recording.. a video of you backing your bus into something sharp might be worth some money to the right YouTuber. Especially if you manage to set it on fire.


Not sure about how your insurance would handle that after reading this thread.

Good luck, Johan
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Old 09-01-2021, 06:59 AM   #67
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I hope you will install a backup camera ..preferably one with recording.. a video of you backing your bus into something sharp might be worth some money to the right YouTuber. Especially if you manage to set it on fire.


Not sure about how your insurance would handle that after reading this thread.

Good luck, Johan
Speaking from personal experience? 🤣
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Old 09-01-2021, 02:14 PM   #68
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These are horizontal and they work - for me

I have used three 30 lb forklift style tanks under my bus for the last two years. They are mounted behind a door, in a self made cabinet, at the rear of my bus. Horizontal tanks will not work vertically. Maybe that is what's confusing some folks. Lots of guessing on this subject. If this forum software wasn't so sucky I'd post a picture clipped from the place I bought them on ebay. But Oh, well. Here's a link.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/36351968411...5b9b98d26c5fe7
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Old 09-01-2021, 02:23 PM   #69
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I have used three 30 lb forklift style tanks under my bus for the last two years. They are mounted behind a door, in a self made cabinet, at the rear of my bus. Horizontal tanks will not work vertically. Maybe that is what's confusing some folks. Lots of guessing on this subject. If this forum software wasn't so sucky I'd post a picture clipped from the place I bought them on ebay. But Oh, well. Here's a link.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/36351968411...5b9b98d26c5fe7
Interesting. That's not a forklift tank but I guess they refer to them as "forklift style" because of the horizontal mounting. Do you have any pictures of how you mounted them on the bus?
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Old 09-01-2021, 02:25 PM   #70
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Originally Posted by mrpincher View Post
I have used three 30 lb forklift style tanks under my bus for the last two years. They are mounted behind a door, in a self made cabinet, at the rear of my bus. Horizontal tanks will not work vertically. Maybe that is what's confusing some folks. Lots of guessing on this subject. If this forum software wasn't so sucky I'd post a picture clipped from the place I bought them on ebay. But Oh, well. Here's a link.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/36351968411...5b9b98d26c5fe7


I think if you pull the valve on that horizontal tank you will find the tube goes to the bottom edge, It will work horizontally or vertically. What it won't do is work for vapor propane application where there would be no long tube, but pull vapor from the top.
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Old 09-01-2021, 02:33 PM   #71
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Originally Posted by HamSkoolie View Post
Training....That's funny. Training was "here's how you do it, got it? Bye.
We filled until the vapor escaping the vent turned to liquid, closed the vent and shut off the pump. Same way you fill a BBQ tank.
Some of us got our "training" before most of the people on this forum were born.



If by changing tanks you can tell if there is liquid or gas being discharged by the tank, you did something wrong as the valve should be closed before disconnecting.
I drove numerous propane powered forklifts, Toyota, Yale, Clark, Mitshibishi, Nissan, Kamatso, and whatever else was put in front of me off and on for 15 years. These forks were operated all shifts - 24/7 as long as there was work, by literally thousands of operators perhaps, and the bottles were filled constantly (there were gas tanks on the forks also for emergency use, but we were under orders not to switch over unless told to by a lead). On big "shows" there could be hundreds of forks operating per shift at the same time at various doors and centers, the most that I ever witnessed working one door at a time was 32 operators - it was a nerve racking madhouse sometimes referred to as "a forklift ballet".

Operators were only allowed to change/swap tanks, not fill tanks. Only the propane company delivery truck drivers were allowed to fill bottles. There were open air cages full of bottles at various locations around the site. Unused forks were lined up accessible to the propane trucks so that they could be topped off, without removing the tanks. Operators that spotted the trucks would line up to get their forks topped off. We used a lot of fuel and changing bottles was time consuming and if a fork died on the floor it often resulted in a traffic problem and disrupted workflow which results in a lot of angry people.

"If by changing tanks you can tell if there is liquid or gas being discharged by the tank, you did something wrong as the valve should be closed before disconnecting."

It's not so much the liquid from the tank, it's the liquid in the line to the engine from accidently depressing the schrader type valve, bad O ring, or loose fitting and then turning on the tank valve. Even if you didn't have a schrader valve in the line, if there was any liquid still in the line it would spew out the line when you disconnected the tank even if the tank valve was closed or if you opened the valve and had a leak most any where.

Swapping a bottle involved obtaining a bottle, dismounting and mounting a bottle, and disconnecting and reconnecting a hose, a real pita. The connection going to the forklift had a spring loaded valve similar to a shrader valve (valve core on a tire) only more substantial, so that propane stayed in the line going to the engine so it would start quicker after swapping the bottle (and keep it from spraying out flammable gas for however long it took to evaporate all of the fuel in the line).


To connect the hose you had to make sure that the center pin in the schrader type valve was depressed correctly, the O ring had no cracks/scratches and was centered/aligned, and the fitting centered and hand tightened correctly. Any errors would result in frozen fingers (supposed to wear gloves, which of course made the job hard/impossible) or a no start n go situation. Because the tanks were changed often and usually by people who did not know what they were doing (not to mention the stress from a bunch of impatient/angry people waiting for you to unblock the traffic jam), the connections were worn and didn't work smoothly so that it was easy to do it badly resulting in liquid leaks.

To fill (not swap) a bottle requires an expensive tank, metering pump, and hose setup. Adding a vehicle to make it portable costs even more. This is a setup that is easily messed up by untrained people which makes it un-useable and stops the whole show, not to mention the "boom factor". In the civilian world, in the USA, it is also legally regulated. Out side of an extreme emergency --as in "our world is about to end anyway"-- why would the training consist of "here's how you do it, got it? Bye."
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Old 09-01-2021, 02:35 PM   #72
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I think if you pull the valve on that horizontal tank you will find the tube goes to the bottom edge, It will work horizontally or vertically. What it won't do is work for vapor propane application where there would be no long tube, but pull vapor from the top.
That's a Manchester Tank 1175TC, designed to be mounted only one way, horizontally. It is a standard LPG RV tank with no dip tube.
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Old 09-01-2021, 02:59 PM   #73
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Yes I have pictures but I can't post

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zork View Post
Interesting. That's not a forklift tank but I guess they refer to them as "forklift style" because of the horizontal mounting. Do you have any pictures of how you mounted them on the bus?

I don't subscribe to a web based photo platform so my pictures don't have a URL. I can't post pictures. Any ideas on that?
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Old 09-01-2021, 04:00 PM   #74
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I am building an RV using examples of proven good practices from the real world, not the products of the overactive imaginations of armchair know-it-all's. If that doesn't answer your question, I'm sorry but I can't help you.
hanging fuel tanks under neath is a proven practice for air craft.. in the real world... but wait we are building rvs, not air craft or food trucks.



I think, maybe, that I know why so many of us are having a problem with this idea. We are not used to seeing bombs hung off the back of every thing in sight like someone who is desensitized to it like military lifers.


Or we are know the difference between a system that has been engineered to be safe and a system designed by who?...


PS, What's worse, being a "armchair know-it-all" or a "hard head". Also, what's the difference between being a "armchair know-it-all" and a regular "know-it-all".


Trying to figure out which one I am. I think "almost know-it-all" or "wannbe know-it-all" might be a better fit.
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Old 09-01-2021, 04:01 PM   #75
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I don't subscribe to a web based photo platform so my pictures don't have a URL. I can't post pictures. Any ideas on that?
Yup. Click the paper clip icon to attach a file. You can attach a photo our any other file to your posts. It doesn't have to be on the public interweb. This one is one that only exists on my hard drive:
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Old 09-01-2021, 04:03 PM   #76
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I don't subscribe to a web based photo platform so my pictures don't have a URL. I can't post pictures. Any ideas on that?
If you click on the paper clip beside the smiley face above the text box you can select files to attach then upload. They might be sideways but if you convert them to png they won’t be sideways.
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Old 09-01-2021, 04:28 PM   #77
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I don't subscribe to a web based photo platform so my pictures don't have a URL. I can't post pictures. Any ideas on that?
Imgur.com is free but you do have to create an account. Or just attach the image instead of creating a link to the image, like Bon Voyage and Kentucky Dreaming said.
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Old 09-01-2021, 04:34 PM   #78
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Yup. Click the paper clip icon to attach a file. You can attach a photo our any other file to your posts. It doesn't have to be on the public interweb. This one is one that only exists on my hard drive:
Lies! It's on this site now.
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Old 09-01-2021, 04:38 PM   #79
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Lies! It's on this site now.


Y'all are the bestest!!!
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Old 09-01-2021, 04:41 PM   #80
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Lies! It's on this site now.
LOL, clever, but I think it was true when he typed it. It is also now on the device/computer of everybody who views it until they clear it off.
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