genny or hook up calor or refillable

[freespirits]

thanks for the bbq info, as i said this is already fitted to the van so it may be the route i go, its all a bit confusing with so many contributing an answer, Gaslow was the way i thought about but some say not to so im not sure now. the bbq still presents a problem in as much as having to connect up every time we stop for a cuppa which is frequent!!! although we dont use camp sites and will be wild camping all the time for 1 night in each place i need a semi permanent solution. The house has been cleared now and sat on camp chairs and sleeping on a mattress on the floor until g/f finishes work end nov.. good to go as it were.. cant wait.... see some of you guys somewhere nice.. thanks..

 

[freespirits]

just as easy extend the main feed to the bottle and stand it outside.
i thought the problem was what bottles to take . i say get a foreign one . what ever you do dont go the gaslow route . you could be running around to get it filled.
not certain most people use sites . certainly not in winter .

Hi Alan, thanks for your input to my questions, lots of replies too... so. im still not totally sure the way to go. you say get a bottle in the country im in with a regulator to match and just connect that to existing system. correct? your def against Gaslow. why? it seems perfect on paper. i would rather listen to experience than sales talk and pretty brochures so your input in invaluable. thanks Alan, are you abroad now. and what is that in your pic that your lugging around. looks like a truck not camper..lol.

 

[pochaie]

hi, newbies here about to go fulltime m/h, off to france dec heading south to portugal to slowly overwinter through to spain then back up through enjoying france, any help appreciated on following aspects. internet regularily and tv a must to check financial movements ie footsie.. gas.. whats the best way to go regarding gas and whether to go for a genny or hookup, we are wildcampers full time and usually manage ok but neither of us has done france portugal or spain. maybe back in uk next summer, maybe not.. any suggestions appreciated. thanks.

Hi, i fitted Gasflow in my camper and it has been brillant it saves on taking different bottles etc. Ok it is expensive to get fitted but i would not be without it. :wave::wave:I am new at all this but last year i decided to do exactly the same as you and loved every minute especilly Portugal ,i leave again in december. there are a lot of places in France and Portugal to fill the the bottles up with GPL. Spain did not seem to be so organized but that was only North and middle.I live most of the time in France nr Anger so i can tell you that most of the aires etc are great with no problems.call in on your way down if you like free parking he he......

 

[lebesset]

freespirits , 2 x 6Kg bottles ...

is that the biggest bottles you can get in or could you actually fit ones twice as big?

what regulators do you have , are they on the bottle with a rubber hose to the gas pipe or screwed to the wall of the gas compartment with a high pressure hose from bottle to regulator ?

depending on your answer to this the recommendation is different !!!

I will presume for a moment that you have the regulator on the bottle system , and use 6Kg bottles

1] leave the uk with 1 full bottle of propane only ...will be more than enough to get you to spain in december !


2] as soon as you get to spain , go to the nearest repsol garage that sells butane in 6Kg bottles [ they nearly all do ] , buy a bottle [ €20 deposit on the bottle , you don't need propane in spain , butane is fine [ in an emergency in the mountains you will have propane left in your uk bottle ]
keep the receipt for the deposit

3] go to the nearest ferreteria or supermarket and buy a clip on regulator for spanish gas bottles [ they all use the same ] , usual spout to push on the rubber hose

4] install in the empty slot you have left in your gas locker and connect , your uk bottle is now your emergency reserve

5] you can swop this repsol butane bottle at virtually any repsol filling station in spain or portugal

6] when the time comes in the spring to go back to france , run this bottle out , go to a repsol garage that sells gas , hand the empty back in with the receipt and get your money back

7] cross the frontier into france , go to the nearest Intermarche supermarket / filling station and buy a 9Kg Energas propane / 10Kgbutane bottle [ your choice ] same size as you uk 6 Kg bottle ; buy a regulator [ detendeur ]that screws on to this , and install ....modern regulators are 30Mb for both propane and butane ....if you have or can find a regulator for the old blue calor 4.5 Kg uk bottles [ probably 27Mb ] before you leave home that will do just fine ; I just got an extra Energas bottle and they charged me €1 for the bottle ; if you look at the Energas website you will find a list of points of sale , I think there are over a thousand in france , they are everywhere

so for an outlay of about €20 max you can have easy availability of gas wherever you go in spain/portugal/france


btw , wouldn't go to portugal in december , weather is far superior in SE spain in december/january , so go around the other way

 

[vwalan]

hi, i think gaslow is far too expensive. you can fill normal bottles for a very small outlay. i have had an adaptor for doing it for about 40yrs. there are nice neat tidy adaptors available on ebay, .
yes thats my mini artic camper. it goes all over the plce . mountains ,desert ,through rivers . yoyu name it i take it. 20ft of living space and a 7 seater unit up front . length is less than most cars towing a 10ft caravan. at 10mtr. 3mtr high. 7ft6ins wide. had it 11yrs now.
although i can fill bottles leave uk with a full one of uk gas. on arrival in spain exchange my spanish bottle . you would need to get one. if you ask in a fereteria or hardwhare shop in spain they can sell you a straight throughadaptor that can either fit a pigtail or one to take an old uk .french style reg.if you google auto gas uk ,they carry lots of adaptors . may pay to speak to them.
if i,m going to morocco i carry a spanish and a moroccan bottle , make sure i exchange the spanish before leaving spain. use the maroc and exchange it when empty .leave maroic with a full bottle and change back to spanish . use the other as a reserve in each country . i,m sure you get the idea. arrive back in uk with both bottles just about full ready fo next year.
like i say if you get along pigtail or a long piece of high pressure gas hose just extend the hose to allow the bottle stood outside. not good for wild camping but ok on sites (prison camps).
i really cant see how some say they save the cost of gaslow in 18months . abroad bottles are very often cheaper , even here you would have to use alot of gas to recoup that sort of money. i would say its impossible.
30 quid for ebay adaptor easily recouped . but that brings in another discusion.

 

[freespirits]

freespirits , 2 x 6Kg bottles ...

is that the biggest bottles you can get in or could you actually fit ones twice as big?

what regulators do you have , are they on the bottle with a rubber hose to the gas pipe or screwed to the wall of the gas compartment with a high pressure hose from bottle to regulator ?

depending on your answer to this the recommendation is different !!!

I will presume for a moment that you have the regulator on the bottle system , and use 6Kg bottles

1] leave the uk with 1 full bottle of propane only ...will be more than enough to get you to spain in december !


2] as soon as you get to spain , go to the nearest repsol garage that sells butane in 6Kg bottles [ they nearly all do ] , buy a bottle [ €20 deposit on the bottle , you don't need propane in spain , butane is fine [ in an emergency in the mountains you will have propane left in your uk bottle ]
keep the receipt for the deposit

3] go to the nearest ferreteria or supermarket and buy a clip on regulator for spanish gas bottles [ they all use the same ] , usual spout to push on the rubber hose

4] install in the empty slot you have left in your gas locker and connect , your uk bottle is now your emergency reserve

5] you can swop this repsol butane bottle at virtually any repsol filling station in spain or portugal

6] when the time comes in the spring to go back to france , run this bottle out , go to a repsol garage that sells gas , hand the empty back in with the receipt and get your money back

7] cross the frontier into france , go to the nearest Intermarche supermarket / filling station and buy a 9Kg Energas propane / 10Kgbutane bottle [ your choice ] same size as you uk 6 Kg bottle ; buy a regulator [ detendeur ]that screws on to this , and install ....modern regulators are 30Mb for both propane and butane ....if you have or can find a regulator for the old blue calor 4.5 Kg uk bottles [ probably 27Mb ] before you leave home that will do just fine ; I just got an extra Energas bottle and they charged me €1 for the bottle ; if you look at the Energas website you will find a list of points of sale , I think there are over a thousand in france , they are everywhere

so for an outlay of about €20 max you can have easy availability of gas wherever you go in spain/portugal/france


btw , wouldn't go to portugal in december , weather is far superior in SE spain in december/january , so go around the other way

i like you.... you talk sence that i understand, sounds a good way to do it and sounds simple, also like the idea of doing Spain first.. thats a good one, thanks.. steveh1982@hotmail please get in touch. thanks. Steve

 

[freespirits]

Hi, i fitted Gasflow in my camper and it has been brillant it saves on taking different bottles etc. Ok it is expensive to get fitted but i would not be without it. :wave::wave:I am new at all this but last year i decided to do exactly the same as you and loved every minute especilly Portugal ,i leave again in december. there are a lot of places in France and Portugal to fill the the bottles up with GPL. Spain did not seem to be so organized but that was only North and middle.I live most of the time in France nr Anger so i can tell you that most of the aires etc are great with no problems.call in on your way down if you like free parking he he......

only do free parking.lol even in uk, but i do hate the knobheads over here who post clamping and fines labels everywhere, its my couintry and my beach.. go away.. and another thing.. castles over here now ripping us off to see our heritage, i cant wait to get away from it all.. might check Anger out on the way thru, im full of it at the moment with this country..lol. thanks..

 

[pochaie]

only do free parking.lol even in uk, but i do hate the knobheads over here who post clamping and fines labels everywhere, its my couintry and my beach.. go away.. and another thing.. castles over here now ripping us off to see our heritage, i cant wait to get away from it all.. might check Anger out on the way thru, im full of it at the moment with this country..lol. thanks..

During my trip last december , i travelled for 12 week's thru France,Spain and Portugal spending a total of ZERO euro's on overnight stop overs in some fantastic places with no probs. ps, it is also easy to stay off the motorways...total paid out for tolls 2 euro's. Really looking forward to the next trip and to meet up with people i met last year....Have a great time

 

[Byronic]

only do free parking.lol even in uk, but i do hate the knobheads over here who post clamping and fines labels everywhere, its my couintry and my beach.. go away.. and another thing.. castles over here now ripping us off to see our heritage, i cant wait to get away from it all.. might check Anger out on the way thru, im full of it at the moment with this country..lol. thanks..

That's the spirit.... my sentiments also.

Hundreds of posts on this forum, and others, from responsible Motorhomers expressing near paranoid fear of spending a couple of overnights' free parking (camping?) in their own country! Worrying if a sign is legal, or is it not, or will the sight of a fluorescent jacket give them a heart attack, o dear me perhaps the local landowner will give a disapproving scowl as he walks by.

Never mind castles, how about St Pauls +£14 even if you're in the club, ie a Christian!
I've a tent you can have, you can check out your Anger on our behalves, I don't think they charge outside St Ps.

 

[Haaamster]

You can get calor gas bottled in Belgium at a company called Praktigas,I have had mine refilled more than once.

 

[freespirits]

That's the spirit.... my sentiments also.

Hundreds of posts on this forum, and others, from responsible Motorhomers expressing near paranoid fear of spending a couple of overnights' free parking (camping?) in their own country! Worrying if a sign is legal, or is it not, or will the sight of a fluorescent jacket give them a heart attack, o dear me perhaps the local landowner will give a disapproving scowl as he walks by.

Never mind castles, how about St Pauls +£14 even if you're in the club, ie a Christian!
I've a tent you can have, you can check out your Anger on our behalves, I don't think they charge outside St Ps.

aha, no im not in the club as it were, also you can keep your tent thanks.. weve wild camped all summer and only stayed on a campsite 1 night to meet family, who were in a caravan, not for me thanks, i love wilding and sourcing my needs, we did a few week long trips during the summer to iron out things in the van and adapt others, all going well and cant wait. we have now decided to go sooner too, 28th nov will see us on the ferry heading for Barcelona, any routes suggested greatly appreciated. love this site.. thanks guys/girls... Steve n Sue.. freespirits.....:wave:

 

[Byronic]

aha, no im not in the club as it were, also you can keep your tent thanks.. weve wild camped all summer and only stayed on a campsite 1 night to meet family, who were in a caravan, not for me thanks, i love wilding and sourcing my needs, we did a few week long trips during the summer to iron out things in the van and adapt others, all going well and cant wait. we have now decided to go sooner too, 28th nov will see us on the ferry heading for Barcelona, any routes suggested greatly appreciated. love this site.. thanks guys/girls... Steve n Sue.. freespirits.....:wave:

You may know from personal experience, or from this site, that wildcamping has become more problematical over the years in France Spain and Portugal and Spain, especially the obvious areas. A great deal of Spain is owned by a landed gentry, the black and white small roadside signs "Privado de Caza".....(Private Hunting Ground) seen everywhere are a testament to that. So not necessarily that much different to here.
Would be very interested to know where that ferry to Barcelona leaves from!! And don't forget to download i-campingcar.fr for the French Aires Listings.

 

[lebesset]

freespirit , sounds like I guessed right about you having the regulator on the bottle system !

are you taking a laptop computer ? if you are , go here

CAMPINGCAR-INFOS

as you can see , you can look for free any time , but for a few euro's you can download this on to your laptop or a usb stick [ or buy on a usb stick ready loaded ]
this guy has done a fantastic job and his data base is in a class of it's own ...you will find it invaluable

here is the energaz site for when you come back to france


énergaz les nouvelles bouteilles butane & propane

as you can see there are points of sale everywhere ...although it says the price for the bottle is €5 I have always been charged €1 for some reason

with regard to a route across france in december , the weather is , and always has been , unpredictable ; in southern france we have had temperatures as high as 25C in november ...but as low as -17C !!!! so the important thing is to choose a route where you can get through if the weather turns against you [ hence leaving the uk with propane rather than butane ]

what tends to happen in france is that the valley routes get blocked if there is snow , but the west coast and the massif central route normally keep open ; personally I don't like going down the west coast as when you cut across to get to the med the route is not the best [ I don't pay for motorways ] ; in any case it is [ I think ] a long way round and if you are coming north from portugal in the spring you will be using that route anyway
my preference is [ presuming you are coming from calais/boulougne/dunkirk /le havre ] is rouen [ motorway from abbeville to rouen is free ], then chartres , orleans , bourges/ clermont ferrand and south to the med on the A75 [ which is free except for the millau viaduct which is one of the great sights of the world ...google it !] ; I've been over it once , but usually go through the town and stop at the aire ; the A75 is fairly new but has never been closed as they have more machinery than you can shake a stick at [ funded by the EU !]

anyway ...enjoy

 

[freespirits]

freespirit , sounds like I guessed right about you having the regulator on the bottle system !

are you taking a laptop computer ? if you are , go here

CAMPINGCAR-INFOS

as you can see , you can look for free any time , but for a few euro's you can download this on to your laptop or a usb stick [ or buy on a usb stick ready loaded ]
this guy has done a fantastic job and his data base is in a class of it's own ...you will find it invaluable

here is the energaz site for when you come back to france


énergaz les nouvelles bouteilles butane & propane

as you can see there are points of sale everywhere ...although it says the price for the bottle is €5 I have always been charged €1 for some reason

with regard to a route across france in december , the weather is , and always has been , unpredictable ; in southern france we have had temperatures as high as 25C in november ...but as low as -17C !!!! so the important thing is to choose a route where you can get through if the weather turns against you [ hence leaving the uk with propane rather than butane ]

what tends to happen in france is that the valley routes get blocked if there is snow , but the west coast and the massif central route normally keep open ; personally I don't like going down the west coast as when you cut across to get to the med the route is not the best [ I don't pay for motorways ] ; in any case it is [ I think ] a long way round and if you are coming north from portugal in the spring you will be using that route anyway
my preference is [ presuming you are coming from calais/boulougne/dunkirk /le havre ] is rouen [ motorway from abbeville to rouen is free ], then chartres , orleans , bourges/ clermont ferrand and south to the med on the A75 [ which is free except for the millau viaduct which is one of the great sights of the world ...google it !] ; I've been over it once , but usually go through the town and stop at the aire ; the A75 is fairly new but has never been closed as they have more machinery than you can shake a stick at [ funded by the EU !]

anyway ...enjoy

thank you lebesset for all your helpful info, found some gas regulators in the back of the shed.mmm good oh... again thanks.. Steve

 

[freespirits]

take 2 calor bottles,when first is empty,dump it by a bin and find a local bottle and regulator,keeping the other calor for back up. 2 batteries and a panel are good but worth having a small genny for times you may need it.these are big spaces and i rarely found myself near enough to anyone to worry about the noise.

dump it by a bin?? tut tut...

 

[freespirits]

You may know from personal experience, or from this site, that wildcamping has become more problematical over the years in France Spain and Portugal and Spain, especially the obvious areas. A great deal of Spain is owned by a landed gentry, the black and white small roadside signs "Privado de Caza".....(Private Hunting Ground) seen everywhere are a testament to that. So not necessarily that much different to here.
Would be very interested to know where that ferry to Barcelona leaves from!! And don't forget to download i-campingcar.fr for the French Aires Listings.

ha, driving across France to Spain... and that campingcar site is in French,, lol cant understand it, going to get the book off Amazon..cheers..

 

[Byronic]

The icampingcar guide is generally in pictorial form, thought it was encouragement to learn a little French!!

 

[vwalan]

hi ,byronics idea is a good one. i use the french book camping car le monde version. its good to learn another language.french /spanish /arabic /german. cant expect the world to speak english. saves a fortune if you buy them in france. geta french dictionary as well. you know it makes sense.

 

[Byronic]

As you would know Alan, and I realise it's off topic but it's worth stating that a few words of Arabic from a European is much more appreciated in Morocco than would say be a few words of French spoken in France.
As most of us know the French expect everyone to speak their language (as do the English and the Spanish of course)a colonial legacy.

 

[vwalan]

byronic tu parle francais.
habla espaniol
anta tikahlum arabia.
sprecken deutche
nip den cows kernewek
bit i cant understand is campsite . never learnt that bit.
hope you have fun this winter , bob turned up today.
spain could be quiet with out me . ha ha .