We finally pulled the trigger and ordered a Partner Stove. Should be delivered in February.
We designed our galley for a removable stove, which, with our folding table from tent camping days, works well for us and gives us some flexibility in setting up our kitchen
The Partner stove should fit right in the same cubby hole when traveling. So the next question is: should we buy an adapter and keep using the green 1 lb propane cylinders, or spend more up front, get a 10 lb tank, mount it to the tear, and plumb it so we can run a hose to our desired stove location? We are leaning to the latter, but honestly, as the costs add up, those 1 lb cylinders are beginning not to look too bad.
One idea would be to mount the tank behind the left fender, and use the hose that comes with the stove. But, I saw an old thread here where folks don't like how exposed the tank is to traffic. Of course, if they hit us hard enough to detonate the tank, they ruin the tear anyway, and an exploding tank may leave permanent reminders on their vehicle and persons, so there is that...
(Naw, I'm not really that callous.)
Another option is to mount the tank in front, next to the cargo door, and run a hose back, the way Tony did for his last build.
Originally, we thought about some sort of quick disconnect under the galley, and then a 5 foot, or so, flexible hose to wherever we want the stove. However, with the quick disconnect, we might trap propane in the hose, which seems like a bad idea. So another idea would be a longer flexible hose from the front, to the area behind the left fender, where we could build a "saddle bag" style box that would hold the curled up last few feet of hose. Then we just run that out to the stove and screw it in when we set up camp. That would be, maybe, up to 20 feet of hose total. Incidentally, if we make the saddle bag correctly, we might also fit our power cord in there, in separate compartments.
Another option: we keep it coiled up next to the tank in the front while traveling, and run it out from there every time we set up camp. That might spare the hose some wear and damage from part of it living under the tear.
So, our options for the hose fabrication are
1. Have Partner Stove make it for us out of whatever flexible hose they use between the regulator (included with our stove) and the stove. Seems like the simplest if, in fact, that kind of hose works for 20 foot lengths and can stand whatever abuse it gets sitting partly under the tear. (I'm about to email them for a quote.)
2. Buy "braided liquid motor fuel line", which evidently is what Tony used. (Can you suggest a vendor Tony, if only to get a cost estimate? Thanks!) We may talk to our cabin propane vendor to see what they know about it.
3. This may or may not be the same thing, but our ballooning friends use this:
https://www.hydradynellc.com/product/ss25ul-6-rl/ss25ul-series although they are running liquid propane through it at 150 PSI. (The balloon burners have metal spiral tubing they run it through that goes around the flame, to vaporize the propane. This tubing costs $12.61/foot, so it wouldn't be cheap for 20 feet!
So this project looks like: $150 for the mount for a 10 lb tank, $70 or so for the tank, $?? up to $250 for the hose (yikes!) That's a lot of green cylinders, if we can still get them for about $4 each! Last Summer, we used a bunch of nearly empty ones from earlier tent camping trips, before starting to buy full ones, but I doubt we used more than 2 full ones a week. Just not sure...
Anyway, we are very interested in comments and suggestions. Thanks!
Tom
by pchast » Tue Oct 19, 2021 9:34 pm 
