dumb question time

[DoubleChevron]

Does anyone have a smart way of draining the LPG tank into 9kg bottles. You can buy fillers online for about $100 that will allow you to add LPG, but the one way valve in the filler should stop you going the other way. Maybe you can connect a filler to the liquid line at the converter (you would have to power all of the gas solenoids though ... I'd prefer power to be non-existant if I'm decanting lpg).

Before you yell me down for being "dangerous".... I've filled thousands of gas bottles back when I used to work at a petrol station, so I am well aware of the dangers and what is involved.

seeya
Shane L.

[Homestar]

I once made up a pipe to stick LPG from a 45Kg cylinder into my car, but that would only equalize the pressures between them, but I could get a decent fill out of it. Just an old LPG line off a car with some fittings cobbled to the end of it - no check valves, just open the gas bottles and do it. Didn't fill any 9Kg's or anything so never needed to open the vent or anything on them. I'd stick it upside down and park the car next to it and just open the valves. Yep I'll get the safety hate for this too, but like you understand the potential dangers and regularly filled 9Kg bottles from a proper liquid outlet on a large decanting bottle at work.

You could do something similar which would rescue some of the gas. I actually need to do something similar myself as I have 2 large full tanks of LPG which would be much better in the BBQ bottles this year...

[DAMINK]

Not really relevant but anyhoo......

I found a car gas bottle out in the plantations one day. Decided i would take it home and turn it into an incinerator. Works a treat i have to say!!
Anyway got it home and forgot about it for a while. One day i decided to pull it apart. While it still had gas in it. Although i thought it was empty.

Had about 1/8th of a tank of liquid in it. Getting scared at this point i decide to pour it down my driveway. Steep driveway that leads into an empty park. Was a cold morning.
Anyway i do that and as i do my neighbor drives past as a cloud of gas rolls down my driveway over the road infront of him lol. I thought for a second his car was going to ignite the cloud and blow us all up.

[DoubleChevron]

A car gas bottle has a liquid line.... so you should be able just fill gas bottles in the normal way by opening the filler valve. No-way would I release the gas, its heavier than air..... "BANG" ... LPG is bloody scary stuff. If you just join two bottles together though, yeah, they will just equalise pressure between the two.

I pulled one of the bottles off my brothers caravan a month back to run the pizza oven .... You know, it was bloody cold outside, and I couldn't get any heat out of the pizza oven. The lpg bottle had turned frosty. I'm betting someone filled that sucker with autogas. The butane won't boil off as the ambient temperature is down aroudn zero (that is where the danger comes from. your flame can go out as the butane component of lpg will not boil off at very low temperatures.... then when it warms up your pouring lpg/butane into the unlit appliance).

seeya,
Shane L.

[bee utey]

I doubt if there's any "smart" way to regularly decant LPG from your onboard cylinders, because any method either needs an illegal tee piece or frequent dismantling of existing fittings. A capped forklift connector somewhere under the back of the vehicle would be the least objectionable. Systems fitted in recent times should have an easily accessible line fuse for the tank valve allowing you to hot wire it.

The method I'd pick if I had to is to bolt a spare LPG cylinder to the bed of a LPG converted ute and fill it at the servo from an extra filler point. Pull the cylinder off when you get home and decant it outside away from the vehicle. Not that I use LPG for portable cooking any more, ever since I bought a Coleman stove. If I did need a 9kg, a swap-n-go sounds like a helluva lot less fuss.

[DoubleChevron]

I doubt if there's any "smart" way to regularly decant LPG from your onboard cylinders, because any method either needs an illegal tee piece or frequent dismantling of existing fittings. A capped forklift connector somewhere under the back of the vehicle would be the least objectionable. Systems fitted in recent times should have an easily accessible line fuse for the tank valve allowing you to hot wire it.

The method I'd pick if I had to is to bolt a spare LPG cylinder to the bed of a LPG converted ute and fill it at the servo from an extra filler point. Pull the cylinder off when you get home and decant it outside away from the vehicle. Not that I use LPG for portable cooking any more, ever since I bought a Coleman stove. If I did need a 9kg, a swap-n-go sounds like a helluva lot less fuss.

Oh, I don't want anything permenant. I just filled the tanks on the ****box rangie before it was cleaned up. The tanks are going to weigh a bloody ton if I try to drop them. Emtying them into 9kg bottles would be the easiest way to lighten them

I have no intention of have a permanent connector/leakage point in a liquid line on the car If I just wanted to fill an lpg bottle with autogas... I"d do it from a pump with the readily available connectors.

seeya,
Shane L.

[bee utey]

Oh, I don't want anything permenant. I just filled the tanks on the ****box rangie before it was cleaned up. The tanks are going to weigh a bloody ton if I try to drop them. Emtying them into 9kg bottles would be the easiest way to lighten them

I have no intention of have a permanent connector/leakage point in a liquid line on the car If I just wanted to fill an lpg bottle with autogas... I"d do it from a pump with the readily available connectors.

seeya,
Shane L.

You're over thinking things then. The LPG in the two cylinders weighs around 35kg when full, hardly heavy compared to a transmission or similar. Just lower them using a big trolley jack and some firewood rounds, and drain the tanks when you're not working in confined spaces. I've done this heaps of times and even if you drop them off the jack they won't do anything other than ding a chunk out of your floor.

[DoubleChevron]

You're over thinking things then. The LPG in the two cylinders weighs around 35kg when full, hardly heavy compared to a transmission or similar. Just lower them using a big trolley jack and some firewood rounds, and drain the tanks when you're not working in confined spaces. I've done this heaps of times and even if you drop them off the jack they won't do anything other than ding a chunk out of your floor.

That makes sense. I'll try that... I'd love to see the look on your face the first time you dropped a set of tanks off your jack

[bee utey]

That makes sense. I'll try that... I'd love to see the look on your face the first time you dropped a set of tanks off your jack

Haha, just gotta make sure no body part is between the cradle and the floor when it lands. Dropping stuff that is virtually unbreakable doesn't raise much angst.