ATF: North Trail - Propane bottles

After a lot of research, we finally bought a North Trail 22fbs on November 3rd 2011. The trailer pulled very well even better then I was told. Our first trip was over the 4th and 5th Awesome is all I can say. Can we exchange our 20lb propane tanks for 30lb tanks? We ran out of propane in one tank, it was 30 degrees out. Are there issues with doing this? We do grill and cook a lot.

Should not be any trouble at all. Just need longer threaded rod to anchor them to the frame. Will probably do the same some time down the road. There will be a little more hitch weight but that is usually a good thing.

I thought about doing that, but when I saw the price of the bigger bottles plus whatever the new cover would cost, I opted to just carry a third 20 pound bottle with me when we are dry camping or are going to use the furnace a lot. It provides the same amount of gas as the bigger bottles will. I had a couple of extras from gas grills so it is a free fix plus I have portable bottle if I want to grill away from the rig. So far though I have never had to use the extra bottle.

PeternLiane said:

After a lot of research, we finally bought a North Trail 22fbs on November 3rd 2011. The trailer pulled very well even better then I was told. Our first trip was over the 4th and 5th Awesome is all I can say. Can we exchange our 20lb propane tanks for 30lb tanks? We ran out of propane in one tank, it was 30 degrees out. Are there issues with doing this? We do grill and cook a lot.

Click to expand...

As a gas saver, I purchased a small ceramic heater at Wal-Mart for those very cold days. The furnace does not come on as often and it warms the 21FBS surprisingly well.

The best and safest electric space heater we have ever owned or seen is now on sale at Camping World. It is a Pelonis ceramic. Here is the link. http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/pelonis-disc-furnace/19119

or


http://www.amazon.com/Pelonis-B-6A1...MCS8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1322355491&sr=8-2

pegmikef said:

I thought about doing that, but when I saw the price of the bigger bottles plus whatever the new cover would cost, I opted to just carry a third 20 pound bottle with me when we are dry camping or are going to use the furnace a lot. It provides the same amount of gas as the bigger bottles will. I had a couple of extras from gas grills so it is a free fix plus I have portable bottle if I want to grill away from the rig. So far though I have never had to use the extra bottle.

Click to expand...

I have a 5er so I have the 30lb bottles, there is a drawback to them and that is you have to have them filled. With the 20s you can exchange at a Blue Rhino or Amerigas at a convenience store in a pinch. I have had to go on the hunt for somewhere to get my tanks filled and depending on where you go it can be difficult. I got refused because I couldn't prove that the bottle had been purged? WTH that was about I haven't a clue. So like Mike was saying, you might be better off just carrying a spare 20. BTW when I say 20 I'm talking about LPG bottles not rims

On our last SOB camper, we ran into the same problem. I ended up putting 40# bottles on it. I just put on longer all-thread to replace the shorter stock hold down rod. The gas line had enough extra length to allow the taller bottles. The only drawback was that the only cover I could get for the tanks was a vinyl one. I tore two of them up, just driving down the road. I bought two of the solid covers and cut one and fitted it to the other to make one that fit the 40# bottles. It made a huge difference on how long the bottles lasted. It was worth it to me not having to keep exchanging bottles every couple of days in cold weather.

Thank you for your responses. We'll be getting a space heater. Glad to know that we can add the 30lb tanks, so we will also be adding our 30lb tanks. Thank you.