Autogas, a concern?
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I suppose the ultimate grail in eco-vehicles at the moment must be one of those electric cars with a battery top up from an on-board internal combustion engine driven generator running on LPG.
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The conversion is certainly a lot cheaper, and possibly less prone to issues with what I would term simple cars, the one we have is getting on in years, been converted over 10 years now, with no problems. So very reliable. Probably why we have hung onto it so long to be honest, it’s a fun car, with a hugely powerful engine that we can now run fairly economically compared to when it was pure petrol. I can recall a lot of early Range Rovers being converted. Seen a few older Motorhomes as well with LPG fillers.
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A petrol engine will run happily on gas.
A friend of mine ran out of petrol late one night heading home from the pub and was resigning himself to long cold walk in the rain when he remembered that he had his oxy-aceteline gear in the back of his pick-up. He took the air pipe off the carburettor and stuck the nozzle of the burning torch into the orifice and turned on the gas. Land Rover started right away and of he went home with no problems - apart from being followed by a shoal of black tatpoles!
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We have been to check out both places near here, the one in Dingwall town is thriving, great shop with food and auto supplies and LPG pump on the forecourt, price is 75.9ppl, which is fairly high, but not as high as the other place which is just off the A9 at Tore and charges 79.9ppl.
We will fill up here before we leave as one of our bottles is empty.
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Kj. There is a fuel station on the outskirts of Perth (Jet) I think. Its on Edinburgh road opposite the prison and just along the road is the South Inch. We always used to fill up there when we had the MH as far as I know it is still in operation.
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Thanks TG, I think we noticed that one on the website, so good to know it is still there.
Up till now, we have only needed to fill twice in UK, when we first got the cylinders several years back, and just last June . Otherwise we have been abroad for most of our trips and have filled up there....Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Germany, France and Italy.....and made sure to come home with full cylinders.
Last year and this year we have not been able to go abroad.
We do not usually use much gas here, but at Craigellachie it was freezing, and very low voltage, the Alde on 2kw was struggling to reach 19 degrees, so we used the gas instead.
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Have done (Filey Service Station) but it gets worse, the next nearest listed retailer the attendant tells me have also stopped selling it very recently, this being (Primrose Valley Service Station). What absolutely astounds me is this is the main east coast road and the length of it is rammed full of touring sites. Now I am getting just a tad angry!
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Micky, does your locker hold two bottles? also, do you still have a Calor bottle? if so, why not have the Calor alongside the refillable and swap between the two, using the Calor to tide you over when looking for a refill.
once full, switch back to LPG and save the Calor till next needed...
if things a re changing (in some parts of the country) makes sense to me to have a compromise/backup plan..
you'll still be predominantly using cheap gas, with the expensive Calor just filling in so will last a long time and expensive exchanges will be pretty rare occurrences.
this process will also work aborad though you'll be better served with LPG pumps over there.
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Nope, it's an under slung tank, we have no gas locker at all on our latest van. Have I been sold a pup? It was sold to me as a convenient, cheap, space saving system with a readily available network of suppliers of gas. I'm questioning my initial enthusiasm now. It appears to me that these suppliers are disappearing across the UK at an alarming rate,
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I don't know where in south humberside you are but the mylpg app shows a few around and the first one I looked at was verified on 1st April (after 12 lol)
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I'm not at the moment, I'm headed north! Just fed up with the situation, app tells me yes, attendant says no! I reckon I'll soon have to call at every listed station on route on the off chance of finding one which has not taken the facility out, yet! Not good given the experience so far is concerned.
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Can’t say I blame you micky for getting a tad hacked off. I agree that the main East Coast Road should have refill facilities. The problem as I see it is that the refillable market arrived after the LPG car trade nose dived leaving rigs unused for most of the time. I know that it costs the retailer quite a bit to keep them on site as Calor and co test the facilities and change seals and such like. I just hope that the refillables market makes them realise there is a market for pumped gas. I always ring ahead and make sure the service station where I’m headed still has the pump and is still selling it. I hope you find somewhere soon.
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Cheers Merve, I think I'll adopt your strategy and be a little more proactive in finding 'it'. I'll make sure I always top up whenever and wherever I can just to be on the safe side. Don't think there is a minimum number of litres delivered or charge is there?
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You’re welcome Micky as always. It’s probably a bit easier for me as I have a Safefill of all three sizes. Depending where I’m going determines which Cylinders I take. If I know that LPG is available in the area I will take my 10kg and 5kg, empty or not but if I’m not sure I can get gas - it’s always the 10 and the 7.5 so I know that no matter what happens, I’ll be OK for gas. Our nearest point is at Corby 10 miles away so I can always nip there fill up and know I’ll be OK. I just hope that the refillables market can build a head of steam now that Morrison’s have accepted Safefill and it will encourage some LPG fill points to stay open!!
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Just received an email from Matija Matvoz @myLPG.eu singing the praises of the newly updated and improved website which is supposed to provide up to date information about the supply of LPG.
Out of interest I checked those service stations I mentioned earlier in the week which I unsuccessfully attempted to purchase fuel from and guess what?
Oh dear!😠
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Topped up with LPG at Murco, Winterbourne Stoke on the A303 today. Took me several goes to get the nozzle to grip though. Seemed a bit more fiddly than the usual nozzles.
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The news that Calor are now abandoning the lightweight market completely may promote that head of steam. Calor are actually saying that the growth in popularity of fixed refillable tanks is one of their reasons for dropping the product from their range. Let's hope this situation improves or at least maintains the availability of autogas around the country.
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I'll take a guess that the one you had trouble with is this type :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FBewiV3FJA
I find these ones far far easier :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsun2rYfaU4
I think there are only the two, in the UK at least.
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Sorry that will be both fixed and removable refillable tanks which Calor will be referring to I'm sure, apologies!
I do understand the position this places our fellow caravaners who do not have these which the loss of calorlites wil bring mind.
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I do understand the position this places our fellow caravaners who do not have these which the loss of calorlites wil bring mind.
I am not sure how popular calorlites are. I have never had any interest in calorlites as for me, personally, they are totally pointless. I am always on EHU when sited and over 120 nights away we use no more than 6kg. A 3.9kg propane bottle weighs around 10kg whilst a calorlite holds 6kg weighs 10.5kg and is bulkier to manoeuvre into the locker. Presumably because of being less popular they are not as common it would seem. Whichever I chose I would still carry two bottles. I have never considered them to be an advantage over the 3.9kg for those reasons.
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Calorlites are perfect for us, where every extra Kg. Counts against travelling overloaded, and yet providing useful gas supply. 3.9kg are nearly the same weight yet with just over half of the gas.
A shame that Calorlites are being discontinued at the same time as Autogas self fill pumps are being removed from forecourts of filling stations.
Surely with Diesel vehicles being slowly forced off of the roads NOW would be the time for large engined LPG converted petrol tow cars and Motorhomes. Electric Vehicles have no real infrastructure to compete or pull our large Caravans and Motorhomes.
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So if Calorlites are hard to come by use Gaslight, plenty of stock at Flogas outlets. My 10kg bottle lasts me all touring season at £29 per swap, and they will deliver for free although there is a Flogas nearby for me.
Unfortunately Flogas have a few sparse areas also, but my outlet is only 6 miles away.
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Maybe I'm just thumbs, Justus2. It was the second type that I was struggling with although from the YouTube video, I'm not entirely sure why I ended up fiddling for so long. The other type is a doddle. Must just be my age.
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For anyone considering converting a vehicle to dual fuel, I came across this while looking at other LPG things. Paragraph two is interesting regarding fuel duty, if we can trust our governments!
https://www.drivelpg.co.uk/about-autogas/what-are-the-benefits/
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