Autosleeper Harmony (1999) gas bottles and hose

[RichardB]

Hi all
Bought our 1999 Autosleeper Harmony on Peugeot Boxer in September and have spent the last few months sorting out a few issues.

It went for a habitation check at a local dealers but I was not very impressed so will be getting it done again in a month or so.

One of the reasons I was not impressed was that the rubber gas hose has a date of 2006 on it and I thought this should have been noted or changed but they said it was ok.

That aside, the gas locker has 2 bottles (both orange whatever gas that is) one large (6kg I think) at the back and a smaller one at the front.
What I would like to be able to do is have them both connected at the same time as it is not easy changing them over.

Is that something that is easy to do, what do I need to buy to do it and can I also connect using metal hoses instead of the rubber type?

Any help appreciated


Richard

 

[n brown]

I believe lpg hoses need changing after 5 years,but imagine that has a safety factor built in. I assume your bottles are calor propane with a screw in regulator that has a left hand thread ? if so you can get new regulators that can be tightened by hand ,so no spanner work. you could either get an automatic changeover system,fairly expensive,or put a brass 'T' joint in the pipe and attach 2 regulators,and turn off the empty bottle before opening the full one-but you won't gain much,as you have to disconnect to get the bottle refilled.

or look into the Gaslow set up

 

[Deleted member 5816]

Richard having had quite a few Auto-Sleepers including a Harmony I had a Gaslow Gauge for two bottles I opted for the Manual version as I wanted to know when the bottle was empty I always run the small bottle first then swapped to the back larger bottle but back to the smaller bottle when replaced as this is far easier to change than the back one.
A benefit from the gauge is withe all the gas appliances turned off turn the bottle valve on wait 5 seconds turn the valve off, You can then note the reading on the Gaslow gauge this should hold it's reading if it falls rapidly you have a gas leak.I also use the Gaslow Stainless steel hoses the Gauge has moved from van to van on the last 5 vans. With The Stainless steel hoses I opted for the ones with the hand wheel on the bottle end it's far easier than with a spanner in the restricted gas locker you have

Alf

Hi all
Bought our 1999 Autosleeper Harmony on Peugeot Boxer in September and have spent the last few months sorting out a few issues.

It went for a habitation check at a local dealers but I was not very impressed so will be getting it done again in a month or so.

One of the reasons I was not impressed was that the rubber gas hose has a date of 2006 on it and I thought this should have been noted or changed but they said it was ok.

That aside, the gas locker has 2 bottles (both orange whatever gas that is) one large (6kg I think) at the back and a smaller one at the front.
What I would like to be able to do is have them both connected at the same time as it is not easy changing them over.

Is that something that is easy to do, what do I need to buy to do it and can I also connect using metal hoses instead of the rubber type?

Any help appreciated


Richard

 

[vespalien]

I fitted an auto-switchover system to our van because I did not like the gas going out in the middle of cooking a meal and then having to go outside in the rain to fiddle with pigtails and spanners to change it over. It was relatively cheap (under 40quid inc postage from e-bay) but I may have just got lucky.

However, it does have it's own minor issues. You do need to regularly check what is happening with the levels in the two bottles or you will simply use up both bottles and run out of gas with no full spare available! All you need to do is take a look in the locker every few days to see when the main bottle is empty - and this can be done in good weather at a time of your choosing. When you see the red bottle empty indicator, switch across to the new bottle and switch off the empty one. All you have to do then is remember to buy the refill and fit it!

Now I know that seems simple enough, but it's amazing how often one's confidence in auto switch over leads to forgetting to check, especially if one is a pensioner.

I don't remember now if our bottles are 11kg or 6 but it was a hard size to find in Eire. In the end we went to an LPG depot that fills the bottles & they simply filled ours for us for the cost of the gas - which was half the cost of buying a correct sized refill, but still dearer than the 41p/ltr I pay for my bulk LPG at home.