Date:         Fri, 14 Aug 1998 11:56:44 -0700
Reply-To:     Björn <bratjen@DIRECT.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Björn <bratjen@DIRECT.CA>
Subject:      Re: A close call with propane....
Comments: To: vanagon@vanagon.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

At 10:13 PM 13/08/98 -0700, Dane Tessler wrote:
>Thought I will share this mistake with the list in the hopes that someone
>else can avoid it.
>
>I was with my family this week at the Ft. Wilderness Campground at Disney
>with our Vanagon, "Das Puppenhaus".
>
>While we were playing outside,  our little girl, Caroline (5), went into the
>van to get something from the top bunk.  She has learned how to hike herself
>up by stepping on the closed sink/stove console.  On the way up....she must
>have hit the stove knob with her foot and turned it to full on.  She got
>what she needed,  climbed back down,  shut the sliding door and returned to
>playing.
>
My stove and actually all my propane appliances have an automatic shut off.
When you light them you have to keep the button pressed for about 20sec in
order to heat up the safety shut off valve. My fridge and heater (Truma)
have an automatic ignition which actually acts faster than the shut off
valve and hopefully reignites the appliance, if not the shut off will turn
the propane off.


>I smoke....and it was a 50/50 chance that I would have had a lit cigarette
>dangling from my mouth when I opened that door.  

One more reason not to smoke... :)

Björn Ratjen

Mill Bay, B.C. 

1987 Syncro Est Alia (self camperized)
1995 Passat TD
(1982 Vanagon Diesel)
1979 VW Bus (self- camperized)