turbojimmy wrote:
Caveman Charlie wrote:
The furnace is all self contained. The gas line may have broken going to the furnace but, the furnace can not fill the TT with gas unless the plenum has a crack in it.
Maybe the truck was so bag the rough ride it was giving the trailer caused a line to crack.
The stove getting accidently turned on is another possibility. RV stoves always looked unsafe to me. I can't believe that they still allow a gas stove without so much as a thermocouple and a pilot light. Stoves like the ones in our RV's were outlawed in houses in the 40's for heavens sake. It's time they got rid of them in RV's too. Unfortunately that will probably not happen until a lot of people get killed and it makes the news.
I'm not trying to start a argument here I'm just saying that RV stoves are unsafe.
Not trying to be argumentative but....
My furnace has a leak just after the gas valve, but inside the case. They can leak in a manner that will leak gas into the RV but not into the plenum. It's a small leak that only happens when it's very cold out (I attribute it to the difference between the brass and black pipe fittings). I leave the valve shut off.
The only difference between the residential (and RV) ranges of the 40s and today is the electric piezo ignition (ovens are slightly more advanced). The range burners can still fill a room with gas if the knobs are bumped past the point of ignition, or if the range is unplugged (gas valves are still manual). It happened to me a couple of weeks ago by a carpenter remodeling our kitchen. The new Frigidaire range filled the room with natural gas until he finally noticed.
I'm glad no one got hurt, too, but a little prevention goes a long way. A leak big enough to fill the RV with gas and explode is hard to miss. I'm thinking there was a little carelessness here.
My manual says to leave the propane tank shut off while in motion, so that's what I do. I don't do long trips, however (3 hours or less). If I did, I would probably keep the fridge lit up. Not sure if I'd run the furnace but I'd probably do that too (once I fix the leak).
Differences.....and
"The new Frigidaire range filled the room with
*natural* gas until he finally noticed."
Your kitchen stove (as you indicated) is *natural gas* - which is *lighter* than air.
Unless you have a major leak from an unregulated source - and/or a tightly enclosed area (over a long period of time), it will dissipate.
Also, Mercaptan is an odorant added to natural gas - and really hard to ignore.
Propane is *heavier* than air.
consequently it flows downward - and will "pool" in low spaces..:(
So - in an RV, even with windows open - you could have LOTS of propane gas below window level.
Slowly rises and/or spreads until it finds an ign source = BOOM.
Had a fire victim who was burned due to a propane "flash".
(He was wearing shorts and flipflops - 2nd & 3rd degree to his feet)
Movers had told him to take his BBQ tank out into the backyard, turn it upside-down, and open the valve. (Bad advice!!).
He had a decorative raised edging around the yard (no breeze that day).
Propane pooled and flowed across the yard until it found an ignition source at a spa on the side of his house.
Melted some exposed PVC pipe 50' away in the yard!
Movers had a young kid working for them. He smelled "gas" inside the house, and closed the slider from the house to the yard - or it could have been a lot worse.
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