Oliver Propane - Convenience vs Capacity

[technomadia]

The Oliver trailer comes with either two 20lb propane tanks, or you can upgrade to two 30lb tanks for some extra capacity.

 

The nice thing about choosing 20lb propane tanks is that they are easy to swap out almost anywhere - even at many grocery or hardware stores. Because they are so commonly used for BBQ'ing, cylinder exchange stations are easy to find, and usually pretty cheap.

 

The 30lb propane tank option however gives you a lot of extra capacity, and this can be particularly useful for running a generator converted to use propane fuel. (We are leaning towards a Honda EU2000i converted to use propane, or maybe the Yamaha 2400...)

 

The downside of 30lb propane tanks though is that you can not swap tanks at a tank exchange station, and refueling stations for propane are often tough to find.

 

So -- the idea struck me - why not have one of each, and get the best of both worlds?

 

I talked to Daniel at the Oliver factory, and he thought this was a great idea and he is going to engineer a custom bracket to allow for the mismatched tank sizes.

 

With this setup, the primary tank will be the smaller 20lb propane tank, and when it runs dry the regulator will automatically switch to the larger 30lb tank which will serve as the reserve. The small tank will be easy to swap out when necessary, and whenever we run across a propane filling station we will be able to take advantage of the opportunity and keep the larger reserve topped off.

 

With this hybrid tank strategy, I will have all the convenience of the 20lb tank option, and nearly as much capacity as with the 30lb tank option.

 

I am also hoping that the extra space above the 20lb tank will provide convenient storage for our freshwater hose too.

 

- Chris

[stuartw]

Chris,

 

The Laurel & Hardy (or is it "Mini-Me"?) propane rack sounds like an interesting idea.

 

Personally I would challenge the factory to figure out a rig for three of the smaller tanks in line across the a-frame vs. two ... this would actually give you slightly more total capacity vs. two of the larger tanks with much greater flexibility for refills.

 

Understood that plumbing all three together via automatic cutovers, pressure regulators, etc. might not be supported but at least you could have the third bottle there and ready to go while the other is being exchanged at Wal-Mart, etc. ... the plumbing wouldn't be changed at all this way.

 

Some other RV manufacturer (the brand escapes my aging brain) offered this feature a few years back. As a frequent lugger of large propane bottles I thought that it was a brilliant idea and so I included this feature on my wishlist for the 'bigger' Oliver (see the thread for my complete list).

 

Cheers,

 

Stuart

[technomadia]

30lb tanks are the same diameter as 20lb tanks, only taller. This makes it easy to design brackets that fit both.

 

To fit 3x 20lb tanks on the other hand would require a totally different design for the Oliver's tongue and fiberglass front shell. Possible, but not really practical.

 

- Chris

[stuartw]

To fit 3x 20lb tanks on the other hand would require a totally different design for the Oliver's tongue and fiberglass front shell. Possible, but not really practical.

 

Hi Chris,

 

Understood about the need to change the fiberglass shell and that's why I said that going with three would be a challenge. But maybe if they're starting from scratch with the next model it's something that they could consider ... I think that Oliver is all about innovation and exceeding customer expectations, so this might be a really neat place to prove that concept!

 

Just my $0.02 ...

 

Stuart