Why do you have to do the following in a MH?

[haganap]

Not saying everybody does, but I have never understood this even goin gback to our caravan days.

Why do you have to turn the gas off to travel? and who doesn't?

or in other words what would happen differently if the gas was left on?


Secondly

Gaslow, why does it say you have to ensure the gas is off when filling?

 

[Sundowners]

If it's warm, or we will be on the road for quite a while we leave the fridge/freezer on gas while driving. I don't often turn the gas off when travelling.
I imagine you turn everything off when refilling to prevent excess pressure causing problems with fridge etc. that may be on.
Nigel & Pamala.

 

[flemija]

why do you have to do the following

As I understand it you can drive quite safely with the gas turned on, but if there is an accident and the line gets fractured there is a great danger of fire even with a minor bump.
hope this helps

 

[scotjimland]

It should be turned off for safety reasons.. ie, if you are involved in a road accident the last thing you need is LPG blowing out of a ruptured hose..

The new heating equipment directive has introduced stricter safety requirements for gas systems for heating while driving. The Truma SecuMotion with gas flow monitor and the high pressure hoses with integrated hose rupture protection that are connected to it are the basis for complying with this directive. With SecuMotion you can heat while driving throughout Europe

If you need/want to drive with it on to heat or run a fridge you should fit one of these

Link Removed

Link Removed

In saying that we leave our fridge/freezer on as it has no 12v facility. I've even forgotten to turn it off on the ferry .. :Blush:

 

[Kon tiki]

I'm not sure but I think that I read somewhere it is illegal to drive in Germany with your gas turned on.
Our fridge is one of the ones that automatically uses the best source at the time so it automatically switches to 12 volts when driving. Also our Trauma has the SecuMotion so it looks like they expect you to be leaving the gas on.
Where we got our refillable Alugas bottle from (FES Autogas) the guy there said that there was no need to turn the cylinder valve off whereas Gaslow say it should be turned off. All things considered as I have to open the gas locker to access my refilling point I might as well turn the cylinder off (why take any risk even if it is small)

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[ruffingitsmoothly]

We have always travelled with the fridge on gas as we have no 12 volt option and like Jim have inadvertantly left it switched on on ferries :Blush::Blush::Blush:

Regards Pat

 

[motorhomer]

If you have one of the newish gas set-ups, with an electronic gas control and safety devices on each cylinder (with reset buttons), you can travel with the gas on. This set up will automatically switch off the gas if there were an accident. This is a lot more convenient as you can then just leave the fridge to automatically choose its power source, and if its really cold you can travel with the heating on.

Otherwise you should turn off the gas in case of an accident, gas flowing out of a ruptured pipe is the last thing you want after a bump!

 

[Jim]

I don't know why that USRV fridges do not have a 12volt option, maybe its because they are so big that 12volts wont keep the beer cool. I have my gas on all the time, can't remember the last time I turned it off.

 

[old-mo]

It should be turned off for safety reasons.. ie, if you are involved in a road accident the last thing you need is LPG blowing out of a ruptured hose..



If you need/want to drive with it on to heat or run a fridge you should fit one of these

Link Removed

Link Removed

In saying that we leave our fridge/freezer on as it has no 12v facility. I've even forgotten to turn it off on the ferry .. :Blush:

We have always travelled with the fridge on gas as we have no 12 volt option and like Jim have inadvertantly left it switched on on ferries :Blush::Blush::Blush:

Regards Pat

I think In the interest of safety, I should point out, it may be ok for fridges/freezers in American MH to be left on whilst travelling, (I know little about the workings of these).

But in UK and most European built MH`s and caravans & Caravanettes under No circumstances should these be left on in the gas mode whilst travelling, The 12volt has been installed for reasons of keeping the temperature down while on the move,, gas and mains for site use obviously..

For a gas fridge UK/European it is imperitive to have the fridge 100% level for it to work properly and to it`s full potential..

The reason as said previously for turning the gas off at the bottle is for safety in a RTA.

The majority of Fridge/Freezers fitted to Uk and European units is Electrolux and Thetford.

This is a paragraph pulled from a safety site.. re Fridges/Freezers.

Perhaps one of the trader members can throw some light on the subject (American) of running these units on gas when mobile ? Cos I have an American one now.. :thumb:





.................................................................................................................................

Three-way Fridges

So let's look now at three-way fridges - and if you've had bad experiences with earlier versions of these fridges, forget about them because today's higher ambient temperature rated versions are light years ahead of those of a decade or so ago.

Three-way fridges run from gas whilst camping (or from the 240-volt mains where that is available). Whilst driving they run off the vehicle's 12 volts system (never on gas). They do however draw a lot of power whilst running off 12-volts and whilst this is within the capacity of the vehicle's alternator, they draw too much for it to be feasible to run them from solar. A 180-litre unit typically uses a third of a kilo of gas each day.

..................................................................................................................................


Hope this helps :thumb:


Maurice.

 

[TJ-RV]

This subject gets hotly debated on various RV forums, with strong views on both sides. Another option, which we use while underway irrespective whether I remember to turn the LPG off, is to run the fridge off AC (110V in our case). If you have an inverter on board, and if the inverter batteries are being charged by the vehicle alternator, you can run the fridge without the need for LPG.

Some tunnels here specifically prohibit driving with the LPG turned on.

Whichever way you lean, an equally important safety measure is to turn off any appliance (fridge, water heater, etc), before entering a petrol station. The ignition source for many of these appliances is a repeated spark and, in the presence of petrol fumes, is a recipe for disaster. We did this for years with petrol RVs and have continued to do so since we've owned a diesel coach. The risk of ignition with diesel might be insignificant but, unless we happen to be at a diesel-only truck stop, there's still petrol fumes around. The times I see someone smoking while filling his RV or car with petrol, I leave in a hurry.

Call me paranoid.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[TonyIsh UK]

In theory no more dangerous than travelling in gas powered car.

Problem is, have you seen the gas plumbing in your motor home and how secure is it ? Vibration and copper is not a good mix.

rgds

 

[TJ-RV]

One day I lit the LPG BBQ on our rear deck and went inside while it got hot. Five minutes later I heard a roar from outside and, when I looked out, the BBQ was engulfed in flames. When I realised that there was a fuel leak from the high pressure side of the regulator, I weighed my options. First was for my neighbour and I to pick the whole thing up and toss it into the water behind the house. That's when I remembered I hadn't secured the LPG tank to the BBQ last time I changed it.

In one flash, I imagined the tank falling off as we picked up the BBQ, then rolling around our wooden deck. The deck catches fire, spreads quickly to the (wooden) house, then to my neighbours' houses. Decided that wasn't a good idea.

My neighbour was running down to our boat to get one of the fire extinguishers. Fat lot of good that would have done. I knew the only way to extinguish this was to shut off the fuel at the source, so I asked my wife to pass me a large towel soaked in water. It took a couple of tries and my arm was blistered for months afterwards.

Since that episode, I have a different perspective on the hazards of LPG.

 

[TJ-RV]

A small tip (hint?) (request?) for folks who quote other messages in their replies; Try editing out of some of the content so you're not repeating a long message. Similarly for photos embedded in a quoted message. Here's a quote of Jim's message with the image removed; All I did was delete one line

It should be turned off for safety reasons.. ie, if you are involved in a road accident the last thing you need is LPG blowing out of a ruptured hose..

If you need/want to drive with it on to heat or run a fridge you should fit one of these Link Removed

In saying that we leave our fridge/freezer on as it has no 12v facility. I've even forgotten to turn it off on the ferry .. :Blush:

 

[DF5XG]

I'm not sure but I think that I read somewhere it is illegal to drive in Germany with your gas turned on.

it is illegal in France not in Germany, ED.

 

[duey]

Not saying everybody does, but I have never understood this even goin gback to our caravan days.

Why do you have to turn the gas off to travel? and who doesn't?

or in other words what would happen differently if the gas was left on?


Secondly

Gaslow, why does it say you have to ensure the gas is off when filling?

what would happen if you had a accident or someone ran into you???? A BLOODY big bang if your gas was on. I never never travel anywhere with my gas left switched on, even on site to refill or empty out. It's the first thing I turn off.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[verity23]

Turn off your gas and use 12V

Hi Guy's

Having spent 30 years in the fire service and seen many gas cylinders explode caused by accident!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A gas cylinder will fragment into very sharpe and fast moving pieces of metal coming from ite seems all directions. It's funny how much repect you for gas cylinders after that, not forgetting the fire caused.

I would recommend as a minimum turn off gas when entering a filling station.

A light cig will not ignite petrol, it's not hot enough, I know i Have tried it.

Sorry, if I sound too serious.

 

[Reallyretired]

The manual for my Rapido explicitly says you can drive with the heating operating on gas. It is fitted with the SecuMotion safety device.
This is a French motorcaravan so this instruction does not seem to tally with a previous post stating that you cannot do this in France.

The fridge, which automatically selects the energy source, does not switch from 12V to gas until after a 15 minute delay which is stated to be so you can fill up with fuel without the risk of the fridge igniting any petrol fumes from neighboring vehicles.

Gas must be turned off at the cylinder before using the Channel Tunnel, mine has been checked every time, though the ferries don't seem to bother.

As a bit of an aside, it is probably useful to try to remember to switch the fridge to 12v when travelling. I forgot this last time I came back. I put the van into store with the fridge still on auto with the effect of using a lot of gas, killing the leasure battery (totally discharged for weeks and would then not take a charge) and leaving an inch of water in the bottom of the freezer as the door had been left ajar as usual.

 

[staging lady]

We have an older van and turn off the gas religiously when on the move.

Dave used to be, at one stage, head of combustion at an oil company. So after his training in dealing with hazards, I am probably the only person in the UK who is not allowed to put the washer or dishwasher on if we are going out of the house!

Lucille