Colmane Propane Container Storage

[charlie56]

The bottles fit perfectly into a 4" ABS pipe.
Fasten short sections to your box and the bottles will stay in place.

[billwilson]

very very cool
thank you

Originally Posted by charlie56

The bottles fit perfectly into a 4" ABS pipe.
Fasten short sections to your box and the bottles will stay in place.

[Nomadcat]

That really is a great tip. Thanks. I had been thinking I'd have to pad it with foam or something. This is a much more elegant solution.

On a related note, I read somewhere that you can fit a small portable generator in one of those boxes. Anyone ever done that?

I'm due to pick it up on 1/4. All I have to do is get across the country. My little plan from last week to head down 95 and avoid bad weather is down the tubes. Blizzard from NYC to Philly to DC to Roanoke.

Maybe I'll wait another day or two to leave. Midwest is getting it in mid week. I still think the southern route is best, even if it means I have to go north for every mile I go south.

[surfgeek33]

Originally Posted by Nomadcat

On a related note, I read somewhere that you can fit a small portable generator in one of those boxes. Anyone ever done that?
.

Here's a pic of ours with a Honda 2000 generator. Although we have the deluxe box, the one that billwilson has is the same width but shorter in height.

[GrumpyBadger]

Resurrecting this thread from a loooonnnnnnnggggggg time ago...

I need to leave my van for a few weeks in a storage lot in South Carolina (hot) until I can come back and get it to drive back into the West. What's the wisdom out there about propane and butane canister storage? Not sure what to do with them, and don't want to throw them out / give them away...

Given the shades so that the windows are all covered... is it reasonable to expect that it won't get hot enough inside to cause a bursting/pressurization leak problem? My gut says they should be alright - after all, as stated in this thread many of us have them in the underfloor storage or in the doors and either park them in CA or AZ and/or frequent the (hotter) deserts without problem...

On the other hand... $30 worth of canisters is certainly not worth the potential hassle of torching a lot full of RVs, but I'm not sure I know anyone here that would take them off my hands (i.e. not sure what to do with them otherwise).

Any constructive perspectives?

[BrianW]

I leave 2-3 in my underfloor box all the time and have never had issues. Not SC heat, but Pennsylvania can get hot in the summer, too! Are they all new? You could try returning them to Walmart or similar. Or drop them off at a local state park with a "free" sign.

[rionapo]

Originally Posted by Jammyauto

I bought one of the smallest refillable propane tanks that they make. It's a little over a foot tall and maybe 10 inches around. I'm glad to be done with those overpriced disposable tanks. I keep mine in the box on the aluminess bumper.

Since this thread has resurrected, here's a new option for refillable propane: Flame King's Propane Kit and refillable canisters. On the plus side, you're only paying for gas after the initial purchase nut. Breakeven depends on how much you're used to paying for throw-away cylinders but I figure it pays for itself in one summer, including the cost of the 20lb tank used for the fuel source. The negative is you have to (a) carry the bulk tank with you or (b) refill a bunch of cylinders in advance. We don't have a place for a tank and carrying a large number of cylinders is not feasible for us for an extended trip. However, short trips are great and a comment I read somewhere says some Northern CA propane distributors are starting to refill the cylinders. (U-Haul advertises they do refills but I think the service is not widespread.)

Now, back to the storage question . . . .

Don

[TomH]

As was said, there are now 1 lb. refillable canisters and setups that allow you to place a 5 gal (25 lb) tank elevated and upside down with an adaptor to gravity fill the 1 lb. with the propane in liquid state. There are also caps that seal off the nipple. Also, there are 1 gal. (5 lb) tanks that you can refill at the same places you stop to have standard tanks refilled. The mouth on the 1 gal is the same as on the 5 gal.

I think any potential problem would come from a slow leak, though I think they seal them pretty well. It has to get very very hot for the canister to explode. Here is what happened to a Class A owned by a neighbor of mine. Now let me say that one year before this, the parking brake failed on another Class A of theirs and it rolled right into Lake Mead. This second one caught fire somehow and the heat from that fire made the propane in the main tank come to a boil. The gaseous pressure blew the valve insert out of the tank. The mouth of the tank was pointed at their nearby pickup. As soon as the hot gaseous propane hit atmospheric oxygen, it basically became a giant blow torch.

(These photos orient correctly on my desktop, but are upside down as I see the preview of this post. I am sorry if they appear upside down to you. I'm not sure what to do.)

[TomH]

I flipped them on my computer and tried to upload to see if the server would double invert and make them right side up, but the SMB-Forum server is now not accepting image uploads at all. I will see if I can fix this later.

[TomH]

These 3 photos of the 5 lb, 1 gal tank are from Dave B:







Hardware links:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000SKX63U...=2V1W29GVS1WFM

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FLN2NDC...=2V1W29GVS1WFM

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DCWJYYK...=2V1W29GVS1WFM

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VYH4KO...=2V1W29GVS1WFM