Do you drive with your propane on?
In the 30 some odd years I've been camping in truck campers and a motor home I have always driven with the propane on to run the fridge. All these years I had never concidered this might be dangerous ...
Forum Discussion
Well, I wasn't going to add my two cents worth but changed my mind. :B
So many people get all dialed up about propane exploding and burning the place down and killing everything in a 2 mile radius etc etc etc ad nauseum......
I once had a very catastrophic steel belted radial tire failure. Completely destroyed my TT by the time I noticed I lost a tire on a single axel trailer. 69 Prowler.
Steel belt tore through everything in its path. Wiped out the floor, shower, kitchen cabinets, fridge, water lines, propane lines, shore power, electrical and....
oh wait! Did he say propane lines?
Yeah, fully charged propane lines. The one feeding the fridge and HWT
When I noticed the tire had come apart, I had smoke billowing out back, sparks flying, debris scattering, and so on. Looked like a scene from a movie.
Pulled over to the side of the road. Got out to inspect, got down in the wheel well, or what was left of it. The entire inner wheel well galvanized lining was ripped open like an old style sardine can and crumpled into a pile at one end and dragging on the ground, sending a shower of sparks back directly onto the now fragmented, torn open propane line.
Contrary to popular belief, my TT didn't go off like a bomb, nothing exploded, nothing caught fire.... ( that was a small miracle) but the damage was so extensive that the trailer was a total write off. I sold it for parts.
Even back in 69 they had a very simple built in safety feature that if your gas line gets ruptured, the sudden change in flow pressure simply shuts off the gas flow before anything serious can take place.
Could it have blown up? Yeah probably, but it didn't.
I think the chance of a propane explosion or fire issue is next to nothing. Unless you leave a burner going and it takes a spark from somewhere. But that will happen regardless of whether you're driving or parked somewhere.
I always have and always will run with the gas on and the fridge running...
So many people get all dialed up about propane exploding and burning the place down and killing everything in a 2 mile radius etc etc etc ad nauseum......
I once had a very catastrophic steel belted radial tire failure. Completely destroyed my TT by the time I noticed I lost a tire on a single axel trailer. 69 Prowler.
Steel belt tore through everything in its path. Wiped out the floor, shower, kitchen cabinets, fridge, water lines, propane lines, shore power, electrical and....
oh wait! Did he say propane lines?
Yeah, fully charged propane lines. The one feeding the fridge and HWT
When I noticed the tire had come apart, I had smoke billowing out back, sparks flying, debris scattering, and so on. Looked like a scene from a movie.
Pulled over to the side of the road. Got out to inspect, got down in the wheel well, or what was left of it. The entire inner wheel well galvanized lining was ripped open like an old style sardine can and crumpled into a pile at one end and dragging on the ground, sending a shower of sparks back directly onto the now fragmented, torn open propane line.
Contrary to popular belief, my TT didn't go off like a bomb, nothing exploded, nothing caught fire.... ( that was a small miracle) but the damage was so extensive that the trailer was a total write off. I sold it for parts.
Even back in 69 they had a very simple built in safety feature that if your gas line gets ruptured, the sudden change in flow pressure simply shuts off the gas flow before anything serious can take place.
Could it have blown up? Yeah probably, but it didn't.
I think the chance of a propane explosion or fire issue is next to nothing. Unless you leave a burner going and it takes a spark from somewhere. But that will happen regardless of whether you're driving or parked somewhere.
I always have and always will run with the gas on and the fridge running...
