Gaslow system (1 Viewer)

[DesRes]

If the filling connection was actually in the door of the gas locker, so you filled it from the outside without opening the door, would you get away with that in France?
I've promised myself not to drill any holes in this new van....

 

[Roryboys Dad]

The hole is not drilled in the door - that is a no-no - you fit a metal bracket just inside the door and the Gaslow filling kit attaches to the bracket.

You have to open the door to attach the Gas nozzle to the filling kit, just like putting fuel in your car.

The internal bracket saves drilling a hole in the Van itself and is a damn sight quicker, easier and less stressful than making a hole that, if you decide later that Gaslow isn't for you, needs filling or covering up.

 

[aba]

having the filler fitted in the sidewall of the van so then you don't need to open the locker to fill can save time at filling time as some will have to come out to check what you are filling after you have opened the locker door.
mainly due to the use of those illegal ebay adapters for filling calor bottles.

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[JOHNSTEY]

Our van came with Gaslow and I love it!:thumbead easy to fill, cheaper to fill, no mucking about with heavy cylinders.OK if you were to fit it you need to do the cost benefit analysis for yourself but now I have it I wouldn't want to be without it.

 

[jb0371old]

forget the gaslow system get a gasit system exactly the same but red bottle. Apparantly the kit is made in the same factory just painted a different colour

 

[GJH]

The hole is not drilled in the door - that is a no-no - you fit a metal bracket just inside the door and the Gaslow filling kit attaches to the bracket.

You have to open the door to attach the Gas nozzle to the filling kit, just like putting fuel in your car.

The internal bracket saves drilling a hole in the Van itself and is a damn sight quicker, easier and [HI]less stressful than making a hole[/HI] that, if you decide later that Gaslow isn't for you, needs filling or covering up.

having the filler fitted in the sidewall of the van so then you don't need to open the locker to fill can save time at filling time as [HI]some will have to come out to check what you are filling after you have opened the locker door[/HI].
mainly due to the use of those illegal ebay adapters for filling calor bottles.

Which is why we got somebody we trusted - Dave Newell - to make the hole in the side of our van

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[Roryboys Dad]

GJH - Which is why we got somebody we trusted - Dave Newell - to make the hole in the side of our van

I've no doubt he made a good job of drilling the hole - but he didn't do it for free.

The bracket fitted inside the door can be done by anyone, at no cost, who has no more experience than someone who is capable of fitting a shelf in the kitchen.

If you want someone else to fit the System for you then go to a 'professional' but if I can fit a complete system successfully in less than two hours then 99% of the rest of you should be capable of doing the same.

 

[aba]

GJH - Which is why we got somebody we trusted - Dave Newell - to make the hole in the side of our van

I've no doubt he made a good job of drilling the hole - but he didn't do it for free.

The bracket fitted inside the door can be done by anyone, at no cost, who has no more experience than someone who is capable of fitting a shelf in the kitchen.

If you want someone else to fit the System for you then go to a 'professional' but if I can fit a complete system successfully in less than two hours then 99% of the rest of you should be capable of doing the same.

its the fitting of the filler inside the locker that can cause problems when you are trying to fill the system.

some fuel stations will simply not authorise the pump if you have to open the locker to fill up without someone coming to check exactly what you are filling.

its not just them being awkward there are real serious risks if they authorise the pump and you just happen to be filling a bottle not designed to be done at a filling station with an adapter you bought from flebay.
thousands of litres of petrol , diesel , and LPG make one hell of a hole in the community.

in my opinion these gas systems should be fitted by or at least checked by a professional before using them.

 

[GJH]

No, Dave didn't do it for free - but he did it properly and professionally and saved me from the possibility of making a mess of it I believe in doing things I know I am competent to do but have no qualms in paying a professional for those that are beyond my capabilities or that I am unsure of doing

I agree with Andy re both avoiding problems with filling stations and having somebody qualified checking something as potentially dangerous as gas.

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[MikeandCarolyn]

Personally I would always use a qualified gas fitter for anything to do with gas.
When I had our underslung tank fitted I ended up with a certificate saying that it had ben fitted to the required standard by a certified gas fitter.
It's my understanding that the insurance would be invalid if,after a gas related incident,it was found that there was no certification for any work carried out on the system.

Mike

 

[G8WVW]

Heavy gas user experience with Gas-IT

Not read all the posts under this thread so similar experiences may have already been documented.


I fitted a 2x 6Kg Gas-IT system to my Merc Cipro. Being a later vehicle it already had the correct 80mB regulator however did not have the auto-changer over system so I bought the combined regulator-changeover unit with the kit. If the bottle selected as 'main' is drained then it seamlessly flips over to the second bottle and displays a red flag. The new regulator fitted directly in place of the old one pipe-wise but the two fixing screws were in different places. Easy.


I fitted the filler into the vehicles side wall using a standard DIY hole cutter being mindful to avoid areas that may have hidden services and drilled from inside first to ensure I'd missed anything structural in the wall. If having cut through the inner wall board there had been anything other than insulation behind, I would have sealed the cut piece back in, moved position slightly and started again but no such problem was found and the whole operation took something less than an hour. I also used the proper Sikaflex 531 UV sealant; no bathroom grade silicon here!


One selling point of refillable system is the level gauge; my experience with the Gas-IT level gauges are that they are useless at accurately determining contents. They do not move off 'full' for a long time then go to 'empty' in to time at all. In fairness the website warned that these are for rough indication and not accurate. I would say treat them as indication that the tank is getting empty. In fact, I do not rely on them at all. When the change-over valve shows a red flag, one bottle is empty so I start to think about finding a LPG station; no urgency as they last for ages and I can wait until passing one of the cheaper suppliers.


Costs … I am a 'heavy' gas user staying aboard 121 nights in 2012 incidentally visiting nine countries. In total the LPG consumption was 119.4-litres costing £96.92. On Calor that would have been 10.7 x 6Kg bottles as £19.99 each making £213.65 making my saving on gas £116.93 … sounds great?


The conversion cost with fancy change-over regulator, postage and doing all the work myself was £336.20. I could have recovered some cost by reselling the old regulator and bottles however I have kept these. So with the saving above, after one season of heavy touring I am still £219.37 out of pocket and at this rate it will be almost another two full seasons before a real saving materialises so I would say it is difficult for the 'average' user to justify the conversion of pure economics alone.


I could have saved more by shopping around for better LPG prices. Over the year, cheapest fill was 64.7p at ASDA Cribbs Causeway near Bristol and most expensive 86.9p at Tebay Services in Cumbria. A useful iPhone App called 'MyGas' helps locate the sensibly priced supplies. I not obsessive above the cost but really object to being ripped at motorway prices!


In summary I think the system is brilliant, very convenient but payback is over many years. Would I do it again? Without question but now I've more confidence with the concept, I would consider a fixed tank as used in LPG equipped Land Rover conversions. There is sufficient space in my Merc chassis to accommodate this, has a greater capacity, reliable fuel gauge, cheaper and leave the gas locker free for something else; maybe a Honda EU2000i LPG generator. I do love the convenience of being able to fill with gas at the same place I fill we diesel, there's no lugging bottles about nor fumbling about in a tight gas locker with hose connects.


Hope that is objective and useful.


Cheers.

 

[GJH]

Personally I would always use a qualified gas fitter for anything to do with gas.
When I had our underslung tank fitted I ended up with a certificate saying that it had ben fitted to the required standard by a certified gas fitter.
It's my understanding that the insurance would be invalid if,after a gas related incident,it was found that there was no certification for any work carried out on the system.

Mike

Good point. Our insurance requires that the gas system (the whole thing not just the bottles) is checked by a qualified engineer at least annually anyway.

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[sedge]

So Graham, did your hab check cover that bit?

 

[TheDogMan]

And then go one step further and install an underslung tank
The locker that used to hold 2 x 13kg bottles now holds my hookup leads,my hose pipe,the Cadac and a load of bottles of toilet fluid and grey waste freshener.

Yes,Spain is a bit difficult-you need to plan with LPG stations in mind,and,just in case, I'm going to have the gas plumbing modified so that I can attach a pigtail with a Spanish regulator on it.

Mike

had a 55L underslung fitted a year ago,its brilliant and for me its about the convenience and balancing that against the price, we use our van a lot but certainly don't top it up very often, My gas locker took 2 x 11k so its a real useful extra storage locker now

 

[GJH]

So Graham, did your hab check cover that bit?

Oh yes, most definitely

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[magicsurfbus]

Some extra points (that others may well have mentioned):

On our Gaslow cylinder the factory-fitted level gauge isn't especially accurate, and the needle will jump around a bit. I've found myself thinking it's empty but only having to half fill it.

Some UK garages specify a minumum 5 litre gas delivery, so make sure you're reasonably empty before re-filling.

Be careful if unscrewing an adapter straight after re-filling, as the liquid gas makes the metal extremely cold - I wear a glove.

The Gas-It continental filler adapter set is much cheaper than the Gaslow equivalent.

 

[GJH]

None of the gauges are all that accurate. When Dave fitted our first bottle he told us up front that the gauge will read towards full until the bottle is half full, then drop to half way and stay there until it drops again when the bottle is getting towards empty.

The way we use our gas it doesn't matter all that much. We simply top up when we know we can fit in more than the minimum and there is a handy filling station. That way we get nowhere near the empty bottle stage.