LPG pumps on campsites

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  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited January 2020 #152

    I had not realise/considered that Tinny. For a motorhome conversion it does seem a strange 'extra' to me though.

  • Rufs
    Rufs Club Member Posts: 4,073 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited January 2020 #153

    dont know what all the fuss is about, good piece of turf or surf done on a gas bbq with some garlic bread= 10 mins max to cook/heat, served with lashings of salad washed down with a cheapo bottle of plonk,  lovely. Normally spend 3 months on Spanish site EHU 7kw per day and a tad over 6kg of LPG for the 3 months, and i carry 6kgsx2 in front locker, no problems with 100kg nose weight. Go away to enjoy myself not worry about about all these trivialities.

  • Takethedogalong
    Takethedogalong Forum Participant Posts: 17,060 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2020 #154

    Imagine filling a 4litre vehicle to the brim with fuel, and being able to pay for it with a tap on the card machine (so under £30), that was us. We sold it to BIL who has long lusted after it. Still a very cheap but fast and powerful way to get about.

    If we could convert MH to using LPG for both mileage and cooking/heating, then I am sure we would. Bye bye hooking up to EHU in the Winter months. Hello huge savings. 

  • Rocky 2 buckets
    Rocky 2 buckets Forum Participant Posts: 7,101
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    edited January 2020 #155

    No, it makes you a savvy shopper. Hello mr TW would you like A-it has 5 good things or B-it has 8 good things. Mmmm, I better go for A I don’t want to be classed as a ‘must have’🤣🤣🤣. B-every time & twice on sundays, that’s a savvy shopper TW👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻

  • Tinwheeler
    Tinwheeler Forum Participant Posts: 23,146 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2020 #156

    Thankyou, Rocky👍🏻. You’ve put it in a nutshell as it’s the whole package which suits best which we go for irrespective of whether that carries a 'must have' label in some folks' books.😃😎

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
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    edited January 2020 #157

    Yes, I'm surprised that the Co-op let me buy bread and milk whilst I do my main food shop at Tesco.

    CAMC policy is to refuse to sell water/waste unless you also buy a pitch/ loo/shower and EHU. looks pretty stupid in those terms, doesn't it?

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited January 2020 #158

    CAMC policy is to refuse to sell water/waste unless you also buy a pitch/ loo/shower and EHU. looks pretty stupid in those terms, doesn't it?
     

    Not to me it doesn't. I don't go into a local butchers and ask to pay to make use of his toilet facilities and make a brew as well. The Co-op on the other hand relies on selling the groceries to whoever wants them. Without that they would go out of business. Different scenario. Try going into a classy restaurant and pulling out your packed lunch and ordering a soda water 

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,310 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2020 #159

    The saving would be a bit more than half. 3.9 kg is 7.64 litres. So works out at £2.16 a litre. Last time I filled up it was 64p a litre.

  • cyberyacht
    cyberyacht Forum Participant Posts: 10,218
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    edited January 2020 #160

    Notwithstanding ET's minimal gas usage which, I would guess is less than the majority of vanners, tugged or driven, I am surprised that so many still pay Calor's rip off prices for LPG in preference to a refillable with the significant price saving it brings plus the security of supply whilst abroad.

    If there was a significant swing in the leisure industry away from rental bottles, there would be ample demand to justify installation infrastructure but, of course, "we've always done it this way". I swapped to a refillable about five years back when I still had a caravan. It has paid for itself already.

  • Unknown
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    edited January 2020 #161
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  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited January 2020 #162

    I was basing it on using 6kg using our 3.9kg bottles which presently costs £16.5 for 3.9kg. So about £25 for 6kg

    6kg of autogas I said was about 12 litres @ 64p a litre would be and so presently would actually save about £25 - £7.60 = around £17 a year. 

    I was saying that with a safefill costing £157 It would take 8 years to break even for us even allowing for a proportional increase a gas prices over that time given our usage to give a £20 saving on gas. 

     

  • Cornersteady
    Cornersteady Club Member Posts: 14,428 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2020 #163

    Of course it would not, because those things are on sale, while a stop for water and drain, showers is not.

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,310 ✭✭✭
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    edited January 2020 #164

    If we had stuck with a caravan it wouldn't have been so much the saving as the ease of handling, with the demise of the Calor lite. A lite refillable, or alternatively a fixed system, would have meant I wouldn't have had to manhandle the heavy Calors.

  • Unknown
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    edited January 2020 #165
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  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited January 2020 #166

    Indeed it would be unlikely to be refused by the warden but you are in the general public area. About 5 years ago I had left a site having one gas bottle empty on the site and no 3.9kg available. As I was going for a meal with ex work colleagues and with a 1 mile diversion of the Chester CC site I gave them a call and asked if it would be convenient for me to call by between 1.30 and 2pm to exchange and then did so after the meal. 

    I purchased the gas from the seller - the warden. I did not ask the warden to sell me a service on behalf of the CMC which the CMC does not in fact sell. 

    I phoned the warden first as a courtesy and assumed he might be otherwise engaged with arrivals or cleaning if earlier

  • ocsid
    ocsid Forum Participant Posts: 1,395
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    edited January 2020 #167

    I am surprised that so many still pay Calor's rip off prices for LPG in preference to a refillable with the significant price saving---

    As I have said many times it is a route I would go as a big LPG user, but not do so as the availability of refilling is very bad now, and I can't see any improvement coming as motor vehicles, those using many litres relative to us, move away from LPG powering.

    It is only attractive if available without undue hassle, and driving several miles to seek it out very soon tips the economies in finding cheaper LPG.

    Add to that many lighter users will not see the investment return in the pressure vessel's 10 year certified life.

    We are a case where if available the sums add up, but few of those I know are so big users.

    The French availability of LPG is so easily addressed by renting a French product. Then the more typical UK visitor summer holidaying in France, if on an EHU, is going to use so little LPG they can get through with one 6 kg Calor. It changes if avid  off summer "aire" users, but as said they sell LPG exchanges over there.

    ________________________________________

    The only swing away from rental bottles I can forsee coming is the use of more EHU and thus little or no LPG use. That IMO will reduce the rental exchanges to a lower turn over, not a move  to refillables for the vast majority of leisure vanners.

    Time will tell, but I don't forsee LPG vehicles, the driver for automotive LPG growing in the present environmental push away from all carbon fuels. Without them there is unlikely to be enough throughput to support a few off EHU campers with their modest use.

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited January 2020 #168

    A full 3.9kg is maneuverable and weighs under 10kg when full. The calor light was heavier at 10.5kg and was less easy to manoeuvre into lockers due to its height of nearly 6'' taller.

    Hence why I stuck with two 3.9kg bottles

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited January 2020 #169

    Not necessarily , if it was an extra , would you have it fittedsurprised

  • Unknown
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    edited January 2020 #170
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  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited January 2020 #171

    I should hope you do not have trouble with obtaining if needed 100 kg nose weight as on nearly all caravans that is the max weight of the the coupling headcool

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited January 2020 #172

    The ccc have that facility, I wonder what the take up issurprised

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited January 2020 #173

    What you don't realise is that our usage of 6kg over 4.5 months a year is not abnormally low. Many don't get 135 nights a year due to work and other commitments. 

    I use gas on the hob for most cooked meals in conjunction with the electric hob. Oven less often. Many un EHU use it for heating, one ring of hob, boiling water and perhaps even a toaster. I find modern caravan grills are poor for toast. 

    Your gas usage is obviously higher than many tuggers. Is that due to gas fridge on the go? Or more time off EHU?

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited January 2020 #174

    Depends if the office is open, and the wardens who is the retailer of said goods ,is willing to stop what else they doing and open the office for 50p or lesssmile

    Or go to Hillhead where there is a franchised shopwink

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited January 2020 #175

    I chose a time when he would be in the office for arrivals but after the initial influx. Consideration. He did not have to check that I knew what I was doing or that I was filling a legit bottle. I think that 'naysayer's said that a likely risk assessment would require oversight of what was actually being filled - a bit like on most garage forecourts where they are likely to turn of the pump if they see you trying to fill an old oil tin with petrol or with a fag in your mouth. They also said they did not want an influx of those not using a site so that they could use facilities - in my case whether charged for or not. With present staffing levels selling gas to non stayer or stayers would impact.

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited January 2020 #176

    Yes as you would get your exchange via the office opening hours usually, where as other member of the team would be out on site somewhere ,so not availablecool

  • Unknown
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    edited January 2020 #177
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  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited January 2020 #178

    But then if you go abroad then it may work out cheaper in the long run ,but then in the UK when as with most  site users EHU is king and  We would take years to cover the cost of installation alone against our gas use with our site usage,  which seems  is far more than the majority of those who post on here either here of overtherecool

  • Unknown
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    edited January 2020 #179
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  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited January 2020 #180

    I said office opening hourssmile

  • MichaelT
    MichaelT Forum Participant Posts: 1,874
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    edited January 2020 #181

    So why are you worried about the club installing (or probably not) LPG pumps, you may or may not use them but perhaps some/many would.  

    We did visit a site in Cambridgeshire that had an LPG pump on site, the site did have quite a few seasonal American RV on site so maybe to service them but at 86p a lite we did not use it, if it were more like the 65p most places charge then we would have used it for the convenience.

    For us the cost is sort of irrelevant as we want to be self sufficient where ever we are be it in the UK or abroad and we frequently stay on site without EHU so use more gas and it would be inconvenient to have to wait for a bottle to empty before changing whereas with a refillable we an top up when we see a pump, rather like fuel for your car.

    Strange how such a thread can once again get turned into a MH v Caravan by a few people who would not use a facility so do not want anyone to benefit from it.  It is no different to the club installing hook ups for electric car charging to benefit a few people who would use it, of course in future that will change. 

    I doubt the club will do this as they are tied in with Calor and I think it is Flo Gas who do this but as most sites use Calor to power shower blocks for heating etc. it would make a few quid as they are buying bulk so getting to cheaper so could charge the going rate and make some dosh but I guess not as much as they make from selling bottles.