Fiver-Get-You-Ten
Chattanooga, TN
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Joined: 04/01/2008
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Quote:
One thirty pound tank usually last us through three or four months of full time camping. That is with gas heat, water heater, stove and oven.
Are you sure about 3 or 4 MONTHS running heat, water heater, stove and oven fulltime on 30lb bottle?  That's some fantastic "mileage"! Wish my TV would do that good.
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MFinCA
San Francisco Bay Area, CA
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jay2003 wrote:I open both LPG tanks BUT I check the indicatator on the autoswitch every couple of days (especially if I've been running the heater). If the indicator turns red then I know the tank on the side the switch is pointing is empty and needs to be filled.
That is the way I do it as well. Here is a link to information about changeovers:
LP Changeover
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Charlie Q
Brusly, Louisiana
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I leave one valved in and the other closed.I can usually guess at how much is in the tank I'm running off of and when it starts getting close to empty, I'll open the other tank as a back up or just fill the one I've been running off of.
With that being said, if I run out while camping and go to the spare bottle, when I refill the empty one, I'll put it in the rear position so that it remains full until needed. I always have a full back up this way.
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ragenfun
Rancho Cucamonga
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Fezziwig wrote:What kind of mileage are you getting? What is your fuel cost per mile?
I haven't calculated that yet. I've had the trailer since March and have gone on weekend trips only (around 4 times).
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ragenfun
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Thanks everyone for the reply.
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copter
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Check Costco....
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jay2003
San Joaquin Valley, California
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copter wrote:Check Costco....
I got one of those for home use on a 20# tank just for fun. I actually ran out once because at the beginning of my cooking it was green and went straight to red about 30 minutes later when I noticed the flame going down. I think I'll try one with a needle next time.
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NanciL
Bakersville, NC, USA
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Ok I'll qualify a bit if that will make you happier:
We head to Florida starting in Jan and come back home in April.
We don't keep the heat turned on during the day, (just as needed).
We do keep it turned on through the night for most of Jan and Feb.
We don't keep the water heater turned on all the time. I just turn it on as needed., (with gas it is a total waste to leave it on round the clock).
If it will make you feel any better, on a four month trip to Alaska I used two tanks.
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ShapeShifter
Buffalo, NY
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jay2003 wrote:copter wrote:Check Costco....
I got one of those for home use on a 20# tank just for fun. I actually ran out once because at the beginning of my cooking it was green and went straight to red about 30 minutes later when I noticed the flame going down. I think I'll try one with a needle next time.
Yep, that's the way they work, even the ones with needles.
This is a pressure gauge, and the pressure in the tank will remain relatively constant until it is empty, and then it will drop like a rock. A propane tank is filled with liquid propane under high pressure, with propane vapor above the liquid. As you use propane, you draw off the vapor, and some of the liquid boils off to replace the vapor. As long as there is some liquid in the tank, the pressure will be the same (it does vary a little bit based on temperature, but does not vary according to the amount of liquid.) The pressure will only start to fall when the liquid is all gone and no longer replacing the vapor being used. But at that point the tank is already empty, and the remaining vapor won't last long.
So pressure gauges only tell you whether the tank is empty or not empty, and that's pretty easy to tell otherwise (because things don't work when it's empty.) It won't tell you how full the tank may be, only that it has something in it.
Reliable ways to tell propane level are by using a gauge with a float mechanism (must be built into the tank or valve) or by meauring the weight of the tank. There are also indicators that can be stuck to the side of the tank that change color with temperature - these can work, but are sometimes cumbersome (the one I had required that you pour very hot water over it to read the level, and even then the level was hard to discern.)
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WKAYL
Loveland, Colorado
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I have heard that if you have one of those infrared thermometers to point at the tank you can tell the level. This only works on a tank that is being used at the time as the temp differential occurs as the liquid turns to gas.
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