Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 15:59:56 -0700
Reply-To: Tobin Copley <tcopley@SFU.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tobin Copley <tcopley@SFU.CA>
Subject: Westy propane tank repair advice needed
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Hi all,
On my last camping trip of the season last summer, I high-centred my
2WD westy while negotiating a decommissioned logging road up in the
mountains in BC. I smeared the wimpy little propane tank skid plate
quite badly, the also smunched the plumbing outside the tank itself. I
now have a slow leak from somewhere in that exposed plumbing. The
smell was noticeable outside the van, but it was faint and the system
maintained enough propane to keep the tank running until I got home a
day later. The tank has since emptied itself out.
I'd like to get the leak fixed.
I am a bit worried that if I bring the camper into a RV/propane shop
here (BC Canada), that they will refuse to work on it or be compelled
via regulations to remove/disable it or some such thing. The tank is,
I believe, original, and therefore 22 years old now, which in itself
may make it illegal to work on (I don't know). The plumbing and tank
looks okay to my untrained eye, but it *does* have some gouges and such
from past and the most recent ground clearance "issues." It doesn't
seem to be rust-laden or anything. The plastic cap that covered the
regulator was squeezed between the smunched skid plate and the tank
itself, and it cracked in a lot of places and has fallen off. The skid
plate that received the Salvador Dali treatment is lying in a warped
condition on my garage floor. I figure with an hour of so of work with
a sledgehammer and other implements of destruction I should be able to
get it reasonably straight and make it fit back on.
The big tabs on the tank that the skid plate bolts to are also bent
quite a bit back. Is it okay to use a huge wrench and a hammer to bend
them back so that they are perpendicular to the tank again?
I suspect that just one or two parts of that exposed plumbing system
have been damaged and that the rest is okay, but I don't want to open a
regulatory Pandora's box by bringing my aged westy into a propane
repair shop. I'm also not entirely comfortable with the idea of
working on the propane system myself--propane kind of freaks me out.
Since there's no propane in the system now, even to identify the source
of the leak I'd have to go to a station and have them put a few pounds
into a system I know is leaky, and I'm not sure I'm cool with that
either.
Reassurance, warnings, advice, admonishments?
T.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Tobin Copley Vancouver, BC, Canada 49deg 23'N-123deg 19'W
'82 Westfalia 1.6L NA diesel ("Stinky")
'97 son Russell =============
'99 daughter Margaret /_| |_L| |__|:| clatter
SPEED KILLS! [. = .| clatter!
Drive a Vanagon diesel ~-()-==----()-~ ~ ~
