Date:         Sun, 21 Jan 2007 00:07:08 -0800
Reply-To:     Keith Ovregaard <kovregaard@COMCAST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Keith Ovregaard <kovregaard@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      Re: Driving with LP gas on
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed

Reminds me of the time when my 84 Westy was up on the rack at the local
gas station in the tiny town of Joseph Oregon. There was a problem with
tire vibration and the kid who worked there proceeded to lift the van
on the rack, but sorta missed getting one of the pads lined up (the one
closest to the LP tank) and it slipped! I thought the van was going to
crash down, but it stopped falling when the pad made contact with the
underside of the floor. It also made contact with the LP lines coming
out of the regulator. The fridge was running and the gas valve was open
all the way! I heard the hissing and jumped for the valve to shut it
off. Luckily nothing caught fire. It could have taken out the whole
shop as well as my beloved camper. Scared the livin' you-know-what out
of me!!!

Moral of the story: shut off the LP before doing any mechanical work.
And I would go as far as bleeding down the residual gas in the lines,
too. Just light the stove until it flames out. You will be amazed at
how much fuel is left in the lines. It's enough to melt down a
porta-potti that was sitting in front of a catalytic heater. The LP
valve was off and the thermostat was all the way down, but it was cold
enough to trigger the thermo and fire up the heater just long enough
for the meltdown.

Keith O



> Date:    Sat, 20 Jan 2007 12:04:35 -0800
> From:    Loren Busch <starwagen@GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: Driving with LP gas on
>
> RE: Driving with LP on....
> Let me give you an example of worst case scenario, a real life example
> from
> me.  I rolled my '85 Westy on a Forest Service road at 0415 19 Nov
> 2001.
> Over onto the right side, up on to the top, down onto the drivers side,
> about 30 feet down a steep bank.  I climbed out through the missing
> windshield (had popped out as we came to a stop) but my passenger was
> injured and needed assistance, took several minutes.  And we (was in a
> caravan of about ten vehicles) could all smell gas.  Was the propane
> shut
> off?  Couldn't tell, the rig was laying on that side.  Was the fridge
> lit on
> propane and still lit, providing an open flame source for any gas
> fumes?  To
> this day I don't know.  Probably knew at the time if it had been lit
> but
> didn't even think about it.  And this was a not very violent crash,
> just the
> roll over, virtually stopped when it finally went because of the not
> evident
> soft shoulder.
>
> Up til that time I had run many miles with the fridge lit on propane.
> Now,
> in my '90, I have second thoughts about it, usually run on 12v when on
> the
> highway.