Connecting Generator to Trailer

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   You keep it in the back of your truck and get your wife to lift it.   After all it's not much heavier than a bag of portland cement.
We heat my wife's studio with propane and the tank is outside in the cold.  We've had no trouble lighting the heater even when the temps are down in the single digits.  StephenH, how can you say that there isn't phlogiston in propane?  

Quite frankly, if it's too cold for the propane tank to supply gas, it's not likely that one would be out camping in a marginally insulated rPod.  You'd be going through a tank of LP every day or two just to keep warm.

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lostagain Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 06 Sep 2016 Location: Quaker Hill, CT Online Status: Offline Posts: 2595	Topic: Connecting Generator to Trailer Posted: 22 Jan 2019 at 9:41am
	You keep it in the back of your truck and get your wife to lift it. After all it's not much heavier than a bag of portland cement. We heat my wife's studio with propane and the tank is outside in the cold. We've had no trouble lighting the heater even when the temps are down in the single digits. StephenH, how can you say that there isn't phlogiston in propane? Quite frankly, if it's too cold for the propane tank to supply gas, it's not likely that one would be out camping in a marginally insulated rPod. You'd be going through a tank of LP every day or two just to keep warm.
	Never leave footprints behind. Fred & Maria Kearney Sonoma 167RB Our Pod 172 2019 Ford F-150 4x4 2.7 EcoBoost

StephenH Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List podders Helping podders - pHp Joined: 29 Nov 2015 Location: Wake Forest, NC Online Status: Offline Posts: 6417	Posted: 22 Jan 2019 at 9:47am
	I speak from experience. We were in our RPod when the temperature was about 4F with a strong wind chill. Yes, we were going through a lot of propane. Yes, we did have a propane hose problem that limited the propane flow so that when the furnace was running, the stove would almost go out. Replacing the regulator didn't help. When I replaced the hose, it did. However, it was still a challenge to supply sufficient propane in those low temperatures. How big a tank is supplying your wife's studio? A 100 gallon tank will be able to generate more pressure than a 20 gallon tank in the same conditions.
	StephenH Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,... ouR escaPOD mods Former RPod 179 Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS

lostagain Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 06 Sep 2016 Location: Quaker Hill, CT Online Status: Offline Posts: 2595	Posted: 22 Jan 2019 at 10:07am
	It's normally 10 gallons, but that one ran dry so I'm using one of our Pod's 5 gallon tanks. Thankfully, we leave tomorrow for Colombia and won't have to deal with the cold until the first of March. But I just turned on the heat, 19℉, and it lit just fine. The only bad thing is going out into the cold to get to the studio. The pipe from the tank is in the frozen ground with about a 12 foot run.
	Never leave footprints behind. Fred & Maria Kearney Sonoma 167RB Our Pod 172 2019 Ford F-150 4x4 2.7 EcoBoost

GlueGuy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 15 May 2017 Location: N. California Online Status: Offline Posts: 2702	Posted: 22 Jan 2019 at 10:33am
	We run a lot of stuff on propane at home. The stove, oven, two water heaters, three furnaces, and a gas clothes dryer. We don't get ridiculously cold temperatures, although we've had temps below 20F for a week a couple of times. There has never been a pressure problem. My parents heated their home and hot water with propane in Minnesota. That system worked fine down to -55F at least once that I know of, and it has worked at -30F and -40F almost every winter. So there is a lot more to it than just OAT. In our (and our parent's) homes, the propane line runs underground for some distance. In our case, it's about 140' underground, and in our parent's case it's at least 100'. So I think the relatively "warm" underground temperature allows the propane to revert to gaseous state before its used by the various appliances.
	bp 2017 R-Pod 179 Hood River 2015 Ford F150 SuperCrew 4WD 3.5L Ecoboost

offgrid Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 23 Jul 2018 Online Status: Offline Posts: 5290	Posted: 22 Jan 2019 at 10:54am
	The boiling point of a liquid is not a fixed number, it depends on the vapor pressure above the liquid. When its stated that the boiling point of propane is -44F that means it boils at -44 at standard atmospheric pressure (15psi). Since a low pressure regulator only delivers gas at about 0.5 lbs above atmospheric pressure a propane cylinder shouldn't have any problem delivering enough propane to light an appliance at 20F. If it does I'd suspect that the problem is the regulator and gas delivery line is undersized for the btu capacity of the appliance. That drives the pressure required from the cylinder higher to compensate for the regulator and hose losses, which in turn requires a higher propane liquid temperature to produce. The other problem as StephenH says will be keeping the furnace lit as you boil off propane and the cylinder liquid temperature drops due to boiling off the propane. It takes about 700 btu to vaporize 1 gallon of propane and our 20000 btu/hr furnaces will burn about a gallon every 4-5 hours so they will need about 150 btu/hr of heat delivered to the cylinder to maintain its temperature. That's not a lot but some way of transferring heat to the propane is required. This is where a larger tank helps because its larger surface area absorbs more heat from the environment than a smaller one. Placing the cylinder in a warm location will also help, or just placing it in a water bath.
	1994 Chinook Concourse 1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft 2015 Rpod 179 - sold

ColoradoPK Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 04 Dec 2018 Location: CO Online Status: Offline Posts: 21	Posted: 22 Jan 2019 at 6:57pm
	Thanks everyone. I think I'll let the hose with shut off idea go and just bring a third loose tank along with me for the generator. We set up the double tank idea on the trailer before really thinking about a generator.
	PK Colorado