This summer, last trip in fact, both gas regulators failed on my 2007 Montana Mountaineer 32RLT.
By both, I mean the street side (which I consider to be the slave tank), and curb side (which I consider to be the master tank).
So, last trip out and about, I had twin full tanks and no gas. Not Happy.
So call up my nearby and convenient RV service center, schedule an appointment while out to unexepected breakfast, and got one for the following Thursday. They have the master regurlator and will have to order the slave regulator. Then things got ugly. The MFG denied the existence of the slave regulator. The RV service center goes to extraordinary lengths to source one. Find one and order it overnight delivery. Apparently, the carrier gets to decide when overnight is. TEN DAYS LATER: Leaving shortly for some well deserved, earned and needed time away, I have the master side repaired and the slaved side capped off.
After ten days, I have a functional, albeit partial, gas system. The overnight part remains in who knows where.
I have been RV'ing with LP tanks for about 14 years. This is the first time I have ever had one, much less two concurrent regulator failures. Is this normal?
What happened and what do I need to do to keep this from happening again?
I just went through this with a 2006 Keystone/Montana 3400RL. I did all the work of replacing both regulators myself along with some consultations with the autoswitchover regulator supplier, Marshall Gas Products, in Texas. But.... I have a question for you. How does the gas get across from the slave tank side to the master tank side? Hose or black pipe? In my case a black pipe with threaded fittings was used and it is Marshal's opinion that Montana allowed thread cutting oil to get into the blck pipe by storing the black pipe after threading, horizontally rather than vertically. This residual thread cutting oil in the black pipe eventually go into the rubber "O" rings of the regulators and damaged them, causing them to fail. I was also told that it is important to use very high quality LPG hoses, as short as possible, because the hoses tend to leach oil inside under high pressure LPG. One or both of these problems may have caused your problem. Hope this helps.
PS: Sending your failed regulators into Marshal for inspection may verify this.
We purchased a 3665 re Montana last november.The first main regulator failed before our first trip while in the drive loading up. Missed trip. After repair and one trip the second regulator failed. I blame this on lack of quality control. Until manufactures start holding their vendors accountable and demand better product we will continue to have trailers manufactured by materials purchased from the lowest bidders.
The second regulator was a different type than the first.Propane blowing right out the sight glass.Montana refused (trailer still under warranty)to fill the tank that was emptied due to the faulty regulator.Good thing there was no explosion.
The regulator company may not be at fault. Do you still have the regulator that failed? If you do contact Ed Lee at Marshall Gas Products and see if he will inspect it. Both regulators failing is probably due to some external source such as oil.
ET2 your problem was a problem! Big Blue this might sound stange but when you say failed, do you mean failed to supply gas to the coach? Was it real low or real high pressure? The reason I ask is these newer bottle conections have valve in them that if they see too fast a flow, they shut the flow off. My last trailer the refridge gas valve would leak the propane system to 0 during the week. when I would open the tank valve too quickly it would stop the supply some times it would allow just enough to light one burner on the stove with a very very small flame. Sometime you could hear the system filling. then I would have to shut off the gas break the tank connections and start over. the old POL fittings (used wrench) did not have this feature! Good luck.
In addition. a leak in the system may cause the valves in the connection hoses to stay closed and never reopen. They are supposed to automatically open again after a few minutes when they sense there are no leaks. All appliances should be off when changing tanks.
I just had a regulator fail on my 2007 5r. As cmartin7143 states, there is a safety shutoff that will shut off the gas if the system detects a leak. It will then trickle minute amounts of gas into the system so that if the detected leak was simply changing bottles etc, it will reset in 5 seconds or so.
Mine did not reset so I went down and bought a new RV regulator at a local propane vendor. They also have replacement regulators at Camping World and RV Wholesalers. RVW has a good price btw.
The tech at the propane shop said that the failure may have been due to the bottles being overfilled, as I had just filled the bottles prior to the system failing. He said that if the bottle was overfilled, that liquid propane may have entered the regulator which would nuke the regulator. Its fixed now. Easy fix to make.
Tim and Tina (kudo too)
Livin' good, while the livin's good!
2005 Ford F350, 4x4, Crew Cab, Short box
2007 Everest 295TS 5th Wheel, Superglide hitch
JT Stabilizers (awesome)
Firestone Air Suspension System
I agree that a lot of these problems are the result of the newer OPD propane tanks, I had an ongoing problem using a 20 lb. tank for my portable outdoor grill that I use when camping. When I would first attach the hose and light the grill. It would most often go out after a minute or so.
I finally found out that I have to attach the hose to the tank and the grill, leave grill off and open tank valve 5 or 10 minutes and then light the grill. No more problems, I leave the tank open after that and just shut off the grill. It seems when the gas comes out in a rush the tank shuts itself down or just a trickle comes out.
We were in Vermont 3 weeks ago and it was cool enough to use the furnace for a little while first thing in the morning. one time the furnace came on for awhile and then started blowing cold air. I checked the tanks and sure enough the red flag was up, I always leave both valves open so that it will switch automatically but this time no gas came out of the full tank. I shut off both valves, disconnected the hoses and then reattached them and opened both valves and pointed the valve lever to the full tank, after that I turned on the furnace. It came on like it should.
I assume this was because of the gas coming out too fast after the switchover or maybe I need a new regulator ?? time will tell.
Ed
* This post was
edited 08/31/09 11:46am by 2003f350 *
Ed & Shirley.
Truck, 03 F-350, 7.3 PSD, 4x2 Supercab, Lariat, Long bed, Toreador Red and Arizona Beige., Rhino liner, Reese 16k hitch, Prodigy Brake Controller, Custom-Flow Tailgate, C-Betr Mirrors.
Camper-02 Thor Citation 5th. wheel, model 295P
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