I'm seeking a little interest here, we all know that Bus/Vanagon propane tanks manufactured by the Machester Tank and Equipment Company are a sore spot as they age. They suffer from a low quality paint job and from a maldesign in the fact that the welded on ID tag is not painted under and concentrates rust. I have no idea what the wall thickness on these things is but on the 81's under the ID tag after sandblasting it became apparent that around 1/8" of tank was gone. I'd guess wall thickness at 5/16" or so origionally. Now late Bus tanks are also small, real small so for an acessory heater or added fridge you are pushing things, in fact even for the Vanagon a dual tank setup to run my new propane furnace is desireable, one for the fridge/stove, one for the Propex. So anyway at work I'm looking at buying some pressure vessels and looking in the Tomcat Register I notice Manchester. I give em a call. Both the Bus and Vanagon tanks are still available (well they have none in stock so 6-8 week order time) but you have to go though distributor, yada, yada, yada. I'm looking into a direct group purchase but I'm playing phone tag. So I call a local guy, he refers me to someone who distributes for Manchester. The final word is this, for the Vanagon size tank, $230 each, further 10% discount if we get 10 or more orders. VW WANTS $600+ for the same tank folks, so if you are interested act now. It gets better though this guy says they don't sell much Manchester stuff now and says if I give him specs he will look into having them made by his current supplier, he feels at least 15 to get them interested, but thinks the price might be better, PLUS they are a better tank. This supplier powder coats the tanks AND welds the ID tag on at a slight stand-off distance such that it is well coated underneath. I'm CADing up some sketches now to send him to get a quote. At this point I can make some additions as well, such as bracketing matching BOTH the Bus and Vanagon installations, but with the larger Vanagon size, or maybe even a bit larger than that. I intend off hand to make no other changes unless someone could offer any improvements for convenience. A problem I do see is that the FILL and VAPOR locations are opposite on the Van and Bus tank so in order to minimize repiping I will look into lowering/raising the FILL such that the valve and regulator can go off the VAPOR in either direction. I note the above price is bare new tank only, no valve or regulator which will probably set you back another good $75 or so. Anyway at this point I'm interested in who might buy the current Vanagon tank or who might buy the upgraded dual purpose replacement tank. If any of you "commercial" entities out there want to get in on the act feel free. I'd imagine storing away about 10 of these might be a good idea if one had a business, at VW's prices you could easily sell them for $400 and still make a customer happy. Shipping costs will be a bit stiff on these too BTW, I'm not at all sure but would guess we are talking 30-50 lbs each. I'm going to do the legwork on having them made by the other supplier, if I get a bunch of definite interest/orders I will coordinate the purchase and shipping them out. I have no particular interest in making a profit, I've been on this list a long time and have saved people some money with some home brew solutions before, and in fact lost money as a rule on my only previous commercial venture of buying up and distributing the new late Westy fabric the Trim Shop had. I'm hoping for a final price around $150-$200 from the other supplier going by the fact that it is a real simple tank (8" pipe with stock pressed steel ends) and the fact that your average BBQ style cylinder is under $50, but I make no promises time will tell.

John Anderson vwbus@netbiz.net (304)788-3704