TC Horizontal LP Cylinders
How many of us have them? They seem to be exclusive to truck campers. My Lance has two Manchester 30 lb OPD horizontals, and I’ve noticed some TC’s have two 20 lb horizontals. All of the horizontal...
Forum Discussion
narcodog wrote:
Looking at the above post my tanks never had a red plug and more times than I can remember technicians have loosened the adjustment screw to fill the cylinder. Instead of using the OPD they allow a small burst of gas to flow from the valve.
That screw they are loosening is the one labeled “Bleed Off Valve” in the picture below. The screw under the red cap is the adjustment for the “Pressure Relief Valve”, and it needs to stay at the correct setting. That’s why the cap is supposed to be there, to indicate that it hasn’t been touched. The pressure relief valve is a safety device to vent the tank in case of over-pressurization, like in a fire.
But, I’ve got some old 20 lb cylinders as well that are missing the cap, and I can’t swear that they ever had one either. I suspect they did when they were new, and it just fell out at some point.
I’ve gotten the distinct impression from some of the documentation I’ve read that if you wanted to go to the time and expense of having your LP cylinders tested using the “External Hydrostatic Expansion” method, you could then go another 12 years before recertification. But, where would you go to get such a test? Probably the same place that inspects scuba and welding cylinders.
Considering how cheap (frugal) and lazy (energy conserving) most of us are, I think I’ll just stick to the 5 year visual recertification. Now that I think about it, Ferrellgas didn’t charge me ANYTHING for recertification of the two horizontal cylinders. They charged me for filling each one, and $5.00 each for replacing the valves that I had ordered and carried in.
:):)
