Date:         Sun, 12 Feb 2006 10:36:42 -0500
Reply-To:     Edward Maglott <emaglott@BUNCOMBE.MAIN.NC.US>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Edward Maglott <emaglott@BUNCOMBE.MAIN.NC.US>
Subject:      Propane take fill valve anatomy
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

I have been experimenting toward the idea of putting a fill valve on my
westy's propane tank that will be easier to fill and compatible via adapter
with the disposable tanks.  The easier to fill part has to do with finding
some propane dealers unable to fill my tank because they don't have the
correct adapter.  (They all can fill a bbq tank.)  I would also like to be
able, if I run out of propane out in the boonies, to temporarily hook a
disposable propane tank to my westy tank to get me by until I can get to a
refill place.

So I got the idea of taking the valve off of an older bbq tank and fitting
to the westy tank.  I have an old westy tank that someone had fitted a
strange valve in place of the fill valve.  It was actually a "boiler drain"
spigot, like you probably have on the bottom of your water heater at
home.  It has a garden hose thread on the end of it.  Amazing.  I cant
imagine using this to refill the propane tank.  I then found a couple old
bbq tanks.  These predate the current standard "overfill protection device"
tanks.  One of these is old enough that it doesn't have the feature where
if nothing is threaded into it, no propane will come out even if the valve
is open.  The other does have that feature.  So I took the older one off
the bbq tank, and is the same thread as the westy tank.  Here's my
question: This valve has a thin tube that sticks down into the tank a few
inches.  What is that?  Some sort of earlier version of overfill protection
that was supposed to shut off the pump when the tank go to 80%?  I don't
think it sticks down far enough to reach the 80% level.

Other questions/issues:  Because the bbq valve is at 90 degrees, there may
be other issues getting the filler into place.  I'm thinking I might have
to flip up the guard plate and have them go in with the nozzle at an upward
angle.  That's not too convenient, but I usually have to loosen and move
the plate anyway, and they have to get under there to open the little bleed
valve too.  Maybe the same adapter I use to connect to the disposable tank,
could have a fitting to fill the tank?  Other safety/legality issues I am
not considering?

Edward