Propane tank gauge?

[Kokopelli]

How do you know how much propane you have left in your tank? Guess, fill up periodically and before any longer trips, or is there some sort of gauge out there to tell you how much fuel is left in the tank?

Thanks!

 

[Barko1]

Mine came with a guage. Not perfectly accurate which I attribute to the horizontal tank, under represents how much fuel I actually have left.

 

[pvstoy]

Same here...

When mine hits empty that means 3 gallons used and got a little over 1 gallon to go (depending on the air temp).

Even though it is a 5 gallon tank you can't fill or use 5 gallons. It is somewhere around ~4.2 to 4.4 gallons.

Heard if you stand the tank up and pure hot water on it you will see the line of the gas.

 

[Ted]

the tank is 16 lbs when empty, 36 lbs when full. I weigh it before going on a trip. I try to fill it around 20 lbs, or less than 1/4 full.

 

[pods8]

Great question and knowledge, I was wondering about that one...

 

[camelracer]

My tank has the gauge but it's not that accurate. I've run it quite a way past empty and still only been able to put 3.8 gal into it. I like Ted's idea of weighing it. I wish I had a accurate empty weight. It would be easy enough to carry a fish scale for checking on the road.

Dick

 

[Jack]

One of the more important FWC-ATC questions!

For us, the gauge is just, shall we say, somewhat helpful.

For a recent Christmas, as requested, my spousal unit gave me a 50lb hand-held fish scale. Someday, I hope to weigh a fish that tips the scale significantly, but in the mean time, I weigh the propane tank. For us, the tare is about 20lbs, and full, it comes in at about 34lb (approx 4.2 gal). One day we stopped in at Camping World, and they had the thermal strips that you paste on the side of the tank for $1.99. Unfortunately, while both methods work quite well, they both require removing the tank and, that's a PIA. So, to reference a recent post: http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1785&highlight=propane
we've ordered an adapter so when the 5gal tank runs out, we switch to a 1lb Coleman propane cylinder/can (or two) and fill up the next day or so. The up side is that a lot of propane stations now charge by the fill-up, not by the gallon, so we will be filling up an empty tank. U-Haul, by the way, still charges by the gallon.

 

[brett13]

I think the tare weight empty is stamped on the tank somewhere.

 

[HERR42]

we could use two improvements:

1. obviously a way to measure the fluid content.

2. a better method than the tank hold down bolt....that requires 40 revolutions! some sort of lever quick release would be desireable.