When on the road, how many of you actually turn off the main gas at the tank area (at the rear of the RT in my case), rather than just shut off the reefer gas and switch to DC? This question may have been answered already in this thread but I am a little lazy to read the whole thing tonight.
Bob Karr wrote: The current owner of a 200 Versatile RT tells me he has never driven down the road using DC to run the refrigerator. Says it will run the aux battery down. So, I ask him, isn't the house battery being recharged at the same time the juice is being drawn from it?
He said he never tried that and only ran it on propane until he hooked up at night to the AC.
It would seem to me that one would be OK running the refer running off the DC.
So, tell me, am I right in my thought on this or is he?
I will put in a link to some pictures to show what running with the propane can do when everything, and I mean every thing goes wrong. 1) the propane tank was overfilled, 10 gallons in a 10 gallon tank early in a cool morning. 2) Frige operation on propane with open flame. 3) the overfilled tank venting. 4) The propane being almost directly under the refrigerator on the old 1994 RT.
I try to always remember to run on DC when driving. I believe on the new tanks, it's impossible to overfill the propane tank.
Running on DC, in hot weather like we have in Tucson, is a waste of time, and energy. If you can keep the fridge below 50 you would be doing good. I have no problem running with propane on, I do turn it off when refueling, just to make sure there are no open flames. I feel the propane system is as safe as sitting on top of 30 gals of gasoline.
As far as propane horror stories go, Id be willing to bet more RV's have burned up from a gasoline leak, than a propane leak.
Do what you feel most comfortable with, there's been thousands of replies to this question on RV.Net alone, and the debate goes on.
When on the road, how many of you actually turn off the main gas at the tank area (at the rear of the RT in my case), rather than just shut off the reefer gas and switch to DC? This question may have been answered already in this thread but I am a little lazy to read the whole thing tonight.
I use to drive with the reefer on propane. Then I had a rear tire blow-out which destroyed parts of the reefer. Fortunately nothing blew up. Since then I've decided to keep the propane turned off at the main valve and use my 12V to power the reefer when driving. I've not had problems with it discharging the batteries while driving but I only travel at most 4 hours away.
I thought the idea of of running without propane on was safety. If you pull up for gas it might be too late to turn off the flame at the fill up and same turning it on after fueling if there are fumes that can ignite. So I would assume those that fuel up first turn off the propane before approaching the pumps and then pull away from the pumps before turning the propane back on. I bet no one does that. Propane gas in the piping system to furnace, hotwater heater and fridge that can spark from an accident is another concern. Then when you approach a tunnel do you legally stop and turn off your main propane switch first? Doubt it. What would an insurance company say if you had a propane accident while running with it on? We turn the propane off at the main switch when running.
We've had no problem keeping our refrigerator cool running under DC. In fact last year in 90 degree plus weather we actually froze eggs and milk with the setting too high and that was with a bad battery that could not hold its charge with the fridge on when stopped for an hour. Now with our new battery we have stopped for as long as two hours with minimal battery discharge (one idiot's light out of four).
Davydd
2005 Pleasure-Way Plateau Sprinter B Camper Van
Davydd is the Welsh spelling for David with an English twist using a v instead of an f. See Our Pleasure-Way and my pork tenderloin sandwiches
Visited states in an RV
I notice in Atlee's pictures that they are called "Tail Gating in VT" and I notice that in the third picture, the RT propane appears to be hooked up to an outdoor deep fryer. Those propane deep fryers have burned down many homes, not to mention RVs. I wonder if that was the cause of all this? The grease is allowed to reach the combustion point, the thing virtually explodes and sets the hoses on fire which causes the fire to spread.
Two things we know: in much of the country, it is too hot to run on 12v during much of the year and (2) propane and cng (compressed natural gas) are used to fuel a large and growing number of vehicles in this part of the United States. They have been used for that purpose, successfully, for a couple of decades now. I suspect cng will become the fuel of choice for a lot of vehicles, particularly medium sized service trucks. The cost comparison to gasoline is a significant savings.
PSW wrote: I suspect cng will become the fuel of choice for a lot of vehicles, particularly medium sized service trucks. The cost comparison to gasoline is a significant savings.
This is true, until the CNG companies respond to the increased demand with higher prices. Remember diesel prices compared to gasoline? (I know not an exact correlation - but it's sure jumped up. And of course, there are other maintenance factors which reduce the costs by running on diesel).
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