Changing Propane Bottle Size

[Bill RSV4]

I have the feeling that this has been covered before, I want to put 30# propane bottles in place of the 20# standard on my 2021 Imagine 2600RB. We have found that we quickly exhaust the 20# bottle. (about 48 hours) with the trailer all on gas. Don't know for sure if that is typical. There must be a regular hold down lenght, for the bottle clamp. Does G.D. have a set up for this? The gas line to the regulator looks to have enough reach stock to raise the connections to the valves on the 30# bottles. Has this been covered previously! I would be surprised if it hasn't come up before.
One other question is the standard regulator an auto switchover? We got our trailer very recentIy and are breaking things in! I am new to the forum and hope folks can direct me to the right place, thanks!
Bill

[howson]

I have the feeling that this has been covered before, I want to put 30# propane bottles in place of the 20# standard on my 2021 Imagine 2600RB. We have found that we quickly exhaust the 20# bottle. (about 48 hours) with the trailer all on gas. Don't know for sure if that is typical. There must be a regular hold down lenght, for the bottle clamp. Does G.D. have a set up for this? The gas line to the regulator looks to have enough reach stock to raise the connections to the valves on the 30# bottles. Has this been covered previously! I would be surprised if it hasn't come up before.
One other question is the standard regulator an auto switchover? We got our trailer very recentIy and are breaking things in! I am new to the forum and hope folks can direct me to the right place, thanks!
Bill

No worries on asking questions, Bill. That's why we're here! There's a Welcome Letter to New Members https://gdrvowners.com/forum/main-fo...to-new-members that if you'll take a few minutes to read through you'll learn a lot about how to get the most from your time here on the forum.

For the 2600RB propane question, I'll leave that to the owners here with your rig or experience with your issue. One regular here that immediately comes to mind is Jim, known here at Guest . I'm sure he'll be along soon to chime in. He'd be a great resource if you have any other 2600RB-specific questions, too. (There's many more, too!)

Howard

[ThePowells]

Bill RSV4 Welcome to the forum and the family!

[Guest]

I have the feeling that this has been covered before, I want to put 30# propane bottles in place of the 20# standard on my 2021 Imagine 2600RB. We have found that we quickly exhaust the 20# bottle. (about 48 hours) with the trailer all on gas. Don't know for sure if that is typical. There must be a regular hold down length, for the bottle clamp. Does G.D. have a set up for this? The gas line to the regulator looks to have enough reach stock to raise the connections to the valves on the 30# bottles. Has this been covered previously! I would be surprised if it hasn't come up before.
One other question is the standard regulator an auto switchover? We got our trailer very recently and are breaking things in! I am new to the forum and hope folks can direct me to the right place, thanks!
Bill

Bill,

The standard regulator on my older Imagine is an automatic transfer where yours is most likely the same. Move the lever on the regulator left or right and point to which tank you wish to consume first. The valves on both tanks need to be turned on in order for the auto feature to operate. Once the auto feature has switched over, a red tab in the clear window will be seen to indicate that the first tank is empty. I honestly do not use my auto feature but will use one tank at a time and will open both valves at night if I feel one bottle is close to running out. This way I can monitor things more closely since the monitoring window is inside the tank cover and cannot readily be seen.

Here is a great site that will give you all the information you need to compare a 20lb tank to a 30lb tank and more. One thing I would be sure to look at are the frame supports to be sure they can handle the additional weight. A call to GDRV can clear this up very quickly.

20 lb vs 30 lb vs 40 lb Propane Tank- The Right One for RV - Camper 101

Jim

[Bill RSV4]

Thanks for the information guys. I believe you have answered my question Midwest Camper. Another question you might be able to help me with. In cold, (but not freezing) weather how long can you run your heater heater on one tank? Also what size are you currently running 20# or 30#?

[Guest]

Thanks for the information guys. I believe you have answered my question Midwest Camper. Another question you might be able to help me with. In cold, (but not freezing) weather how long can you run your heater heater on one tank? Also what size are you currently running 20# or 30#?

Bill,

I have two 20lb tanks. I can run the heat for several days on one tank. Temperatures were in the mid 40s in the daytime and mid thirty's at night. We kept the heat on at 72F in the daytime and 68F at night.

Depending how long you want to camp in the cold, you should be able to easily camp for a solid week on two tanks, plus carrying a spare 20lb tank would give you the 60lb capacity.

Jim

[Bill RSV4]

Midwest Camper, We have been staying on the Oregon coast (very humid) but have been back and forth, staying some alternate nights. Running mostly gas, water heater, forced air heater, and minor stove use, Letting it cool the interior seems to get down to aboout 50°F one 20# tank has been giving about 36 hours. That of course means we are using a lot to get the temp up on arrival, but it seems like we are going through it quickly. Therefore the desire to switch to 30# tanks. You seem to be more economical of gas than we have been. I don't think we could get more than 4-5 days on two tanks. Thanks again for the info!
Bill

[Giesis]

Midwest Camper, We have been staying on the Oregon coast (very humid) but have been back and forth, staying some alternate nights. Running mostly gas, water heater, forced air heater, and minor stove use, Letting it cool the interior seems to get down to aboout 50°F one 20# tank has been giving about 36 hours. That of course means we are using a lot to get the temp up on arrival, but it seems like we are going through it quickly. Therefore the desire to switch to 30# tanks. You seem to be more economical of gas than we have been. I don't think we could get more than 4-5 days on two tanks. Thanks again for the info!
Bill

36 hours seem a bit short. I just camped 5 days using the heater at night, the fridge and cooking everyday and didn’t even use a full tank.

[Cate&Rob]

The furnace is by far the largest user of propane.
A gallon of propane contains about 90,000 BTU's. The furnace in our Reflection runs at 35,000 BTU's per hour. A 30 lb propane tank holds about 7 gallons of propane.
90,000 x 7 / 35,000 = 18 hours of run time . . . which would be 36 hours on a 50% duty cycle. (About what we get in cold camping)
You can adjust these numbers to fit your situation to get a reasonably close estimation of propane use. Fridge, stove and water heater will use a small amount in comparison to the furnace.

Rob

[Guest]

A smaller unit will use less where ambient temperature, how many times the door is cycled along with power vents, hot water tank usage and more will result in more or less fuel consumption. We are able to go several days on one tank of fuel where my duty cycle while not being measured has not been 50%. I would estimate my duty cycle at 25% on our last trip and less at night.

Already looking forward to spring, since we have a few inches of snow today.

Jim

[Cate&Rob]

Reworking the numbers for a 20 lb (4.5 gal) tank running a smaller Imagine (25,000 BTU/hr) furnace on a 25% duty cycle . . .
90,000 x 4.5 / 25,000 x .25 = 65 hrs furnace use per tank.

Rob

[mbergthold]

IMO the OEM 20# tanks are a joke. All 4 previous trailers had had 30#. I don’t do propane exchange even for BBQ. Will be changing these to 30s, would do 40s if wife would boondock. Even with 30s I ran out of propane one winter night, bought electric heaters the next day.