Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

We plan to mount an 11 lb propane tank on the front of the teardrop, so it's at least a little protected from traffic. Bought the mount for it from AT Overland (same as the one Tony cites in his book) for the cost of two weeks of groceries, or, um... over 20 disposable 1 lb bottles of propane. Oh well! This will be more convenient.

Now we need a hose to run from the regulator, mounted on the tank, to the stove, which we'll set up on a table near the galley. The stove (Cook Partner) came with a 5 foot flexible hose, and it has a proprietary connector going to the stove. The other end is a 1/4" NPT male connector that screws into the regulator.

Our thinking now is to add a 20 foot long hose that will run from the tank in the front under the trailer to a "saddle bag" style box we'll build on the side of the galley. We'll roll up the excess hose and unspool it to the table in camp. The hose will have a 1/4" NPT male connector on one end and a female on the other, so we'll connect the original 5 foot hose to that.

So this is a question about that hose: We want it to be flexible enough to unroll easily, but rugged enough to survive under the trailer. Also, low enough in cost not to equate to too many of those green bottles! Cook Partner quoted us a price of $162. Our friend who makes lines for hot air balloons suggested a really rugged hose for $350 (but we could trust our lives to it!).

Here's a more reasonably priced solution:

https://www.propaneproducts.com/hoses/propane-hose-custom-length-and-fittings-14-i.d.-rubber-hose-738.html

Looks like our hose would be $74.

Any thoughts on whether this would work for us?

Or should we pay more for braided line, or something like that, under the trailer?

Thank you, in advance, for your thoughts!

Tom

Any reason to not just run copper under the trailer back to the galley, and have a another disconnect fitting there where you can attach the stove? The Partner requires high pressure, and I might be a little leery about running a long flexible high pressure line under the trailer.

TCJ wrote:Any reason to not just run copper under the trailer back to the galley, and have a another disconnect fitting there where you can attach the stove? The Partner requires high pressure, and I might be a little leery about running a long flexible high pressure line under the trailer.

When I was cogitating on my propane system, I finally pulled in a good friend that was a propane installer. That's what he did for a living for 30-plus years. I thought about copper and had purchased black pipe for it. I had the pipe roughed into the chassis. He looked at it and said that sooner or later --with road vibrations-- the joints would probably start leaking. He's the guy that told me to go with the rubber hose. In fact, he made the hoses up. I'm glad I went that way.

And yeah, Partner does have a higher than normal pressure, but 27 pounds of pressure is really not much. Think about a tire with that kinda pressure. It's not much.





Tony

tony.latham wrote:

TCJ wrote:Any reason to not just run copper under the trailer back to the galley, and have a another disconnect fitting there where you can attach the stove? The Partner requires high pressure, and I might be a little leery about running a long flexible high pressure line under the trailer.

When I was cogitating on my propane system, I finally pulled in a good friend that was a propane installer. That's what he did for a living for 30-plus years. I thought about copper and had purchased black pipe for it. I had the pipe roughed into the chassis. He looked at it and said that sooner or later --with road vibrations-- the joints would probably start leaking. He's the guy that told me to go with the rubber hose. In fact, he made the hoses up. I'm glad I went that way.

And yeah, Partner does have a higher than normal pressure, but 27 pounds of pressure is really not much. Think about a tire with that kinda pressure. It's not much.

Tony

Yes, I don't think stiff metal pipe is the way to go, for that reason (vibrations). (Anal aside on my part: Thought the black pipes are steel, not copper--we use them for clamps--but either way.)

We're wondering, though, about the (cheaper) rubber hose vs flexible hose with more protection, like nylon or stainless braiding. Of course, the plan is to turn off the gas at the tank before traveling, so if a lucky rock gets the hose, it won't be dangerous until we're in camp, and hopefully we'd realize it right away when the stove pressure was off.

And yes, I can see that 27 PSI is higher pressure than the Propex stove, or a barbecue, but hot air balloons run at 150 PSI (mostly liquid propane through the hoses), so I considered ours a low pressure system. That's why we think the (expensive) high pressure hose our friend recommended is over-kill.

Tom

And thank you for the comments TCJ and Tony! Much appreciated! And, all, please keep them coming!

Tom

TCJ wrote:Any reason to not just run copper under the trailer back to the galley, and have a another disconnect fitting there where you can attach the stove? The Partner requires high pressure, and I might be a little leery about running a long flexible high pressure line under the trailer.

It’s actually not that hard to run copper line.



Flaring the ends is pretty simple too with this tool.



I’ve got it wrapped in flexible plastic conduit and secured with rubberized cable clamps, so vibrations should be less of a concern.





But mine is a low pressure line because I have a regulator up by the tank. The line feeds a Propex heater. You can see the intake and exhaust ports coming through the floor, before I installed the hoses.