Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I have seen most RV's and Tears with propane tanks on the tongue of the trailer. Are most of those plumbed to the appliances (have gas lines running through the trailer)? Or do people just move the tank to the appliance when they camp?

I am thinking I will just move the tank to the grill when I need it, but wanted to confirm that is the norm.

My tank travels out on the tongue but I just move it when I want to use it for the stove or fire ring. I decided it was too much trouble and too much risk to run high-pressure through hard plumbing under my 65-year old teardrop.

<Chas>

What chaz said!

The pressure regulator is at the tank outlet on conventional installations. There should be no high pressure gas anywhere except in the tank. BTW, propane is not under high pressure. 150/200 psi. Welding cylinders are considered high pressure. There are millions of RVs out there with propane lines running under and through them. If you're going to use the gas for other purposes that require portability, like lanterns and fire rings, then I would not run lines through the trailer. Otherwise, it seems like a PITA to remove the tank and drag it back to the galley each time you want to cook for some, perceived, safety issue

Unless you are willing to invest in low-pressure (11" W.C.) appliances intended for RV use, you pretty much have to run high-pressure (tank pressure ~160 psi) gas because appliances intended for 1# tanks have built-in regulators that don't work properly unless there's tank pressure behind them. And each appliance uses a different pressure, my high-output propane turkey cooker burner wants 18 PSI, my low-output portable fire ring wants 3 PSI, and I suspect that my Coleman stove needs something on the order of 12 PSI. There's no easy way to satisfy all those different requirements.

That said, I don't run high-pressure propane anywhere. I remove the tank from the tongue and set it next to the appliance being used, and connect the appropriate hose/regulator.

<Chas>

If you have a single stove (low regulated pressure at tank) and its mounted in galley area, there is no problem of putting tank on tongue and running the low pressure line under trailer ... Do not put propane line through "living" compartment, EVER!.

IF you have several "intermediate" pressure devices (requires tank pressure for their individual regulator) it may be wiser to have tank portable and use a "tree" connector to connect devices to and arrange them so hoses are not a tripping hazard or you manage to jerk appliance off table or what ever....

Dale

If you look a few threads down you can see a trial of what I plan to do for gas on my teardrop. I'm putting the cylinder out front and regulating to ~16psi then plumbing it under the camper to the rear with a disposable tank fitting in the galley to connect my coleman stove to. If you're appliances you are wishing to connect have their own regulators built in just make sure the pressure you are supplying to the system is greater than what they regulate to and you should be fine. I.e. if you want to connect an 18psi turkey fryer and a 12psi grill just run the system at 18psi+ and connect the individual appliances to the system through their own regulator.