Advice pls, LPG underslung tanks good yes or no?
Is it a good idea and if so where in Scotland fits them?
Moderator Comment - Moved from Story Section, questions should be asked in the discussion area.
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I dont know whether this should be in the story section or in the main section. Others with more knowledge will move it if necessary.
In our current van we have a Gaslow refillable system with one 11 kg and one 6kg cylinders. They are filled via a "hole" in the side wall, much like your fuel fill point. Same applies with an underslung tank. Our previous van had an underslung tank. Prior to that we had caravans with ordinary cylinders. When we bought our first van we didnt know much about underslung tanks etc but our experience with that system meant that given the choice with this van to have either gaslow or ordinary cylinders, the gaslow was a no brainer. Ours was installed by the van dealer (bought the van new).
Negatives: I am not sure there are any. Filling can be a bit fiddly and because you dont fill very often (unless using a lot of gas for heating) you are almost relearning each time. All pumps seem to be slightly different. But having now filled several times I think we are getting the hang of it. If you go to mainland europe you will need an appropriate adaptor to fill up. Our system came with set of several adaptors. I believe they are easy to buy.
Positives: No lugging heavy cylinders around.
No need to wait for cylinder to be empty. Fill up when you want - just as you do with diesel.
LPG is cheaper than exchange cylinders.
If you travel to europe mainland, lpg is readily available and obviously you cannot exchange UK cylinders over there. Leaves you with ensuring you have enough or use Camping Gaz which is expensive.
Just overall more convenient.
Some will say LPG is disappearing. Not so. There are lots of scare stories about this but a search through various forums will give you a different perspective. It is true that some fuel stations are no longer stocking lpg. Other places eg Marquis motorhomes have installed pumps in at least one of their showrooms. Brownhills motorhomes have had an lpg pump for ages. There are several apps to show you where lpg is available. We do have a local garage here in Lincs but our last fill was in SW Scotland on holiday, around Newton Stewart. You fill up on your travels. And in any case exchange cylinders, especially calor dont seem too easy to get hold of.
I cant comment on how easy it is to retrofit an underslung tank, or give any advice about fitters. I would have thought that refillables like Gaslow would be easier and cheaper as it would just take up the space of your cylinder cupboard, but you dont say what sort of van you have.
I would have a look at a forum like Motorhome Fun which has loads of of info about lpg and gas systems.
In conclusion - we like our system and if we were to change our van we would want either similar or an underslung tank.
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Good post.
just to add, we also have a second bottle, a large Spanish Repsol....this allows us to stay long term without having to go to an LPG station to fill. The Repsol is on a par price wise with Spanish lpg.
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On my previous motorhome, I had it converted to take the Gasit refillable bottle, which allowed me to use one 11kg bottle in the locker as opposed to the two 6kg when we got it. As mentioned it means you can fill up any time, not wait until you think the bottle might be empty to replace it and maybe "losing" gas if the old bottle isn't empty. This also gave me a bit of storage in the gas locker. On my current motorhome I decided to get the underslung tank version. The tank is fitted between two cross members in the chassis. There are kits for specific van types if you want to try DIY, but I'm not sure about the legal side with regard to insurance if you do. Mine was fitted by a dealer and also has an LED gauge on the dashboard. Once it shows less then 50% I look to refill. It is cheaper to buy the gas per litre this way, but I'll have to use it for several years to recoup the cost on fitting. I had an on/off tap fitted in the gas locker, where the underslung tank conects to the exisiting gas manifold, to save having to get under the van to turn off the gas on ferries. and now use the gas locker for dirty boots, EHU cable and towel for my dog. There are several apps that show locations of LPG points, search for sites and Autogas app are two I have.
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I have posted elsewhere on this but it is probably worth emphasising that Wildax have switched back to gas cylinders having for many years had underslung LPG tanks on their van conversions. I am sure that this is due to difficulty obtaining pumped LPG. Certainly in the Home Counties where I live there are very few LPG filling stations to the extent that when I bought a new van from Marquis Newbury they couldn’t fill the LPG tank.
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