Horizontal 20 Pound Propane Tanks

[jpendoley]

Has anyone installed 20 pound tanks mounted horizontally in the gas locker?  Does it fit and what are the issues to be aware of?  The little ten pounders are not sufficient for my needs now that I have a propane stove and oven, fireplace and may be getting a propane water heater as well.
Jim

[PeteW]

That's a lot of propane below deck. So your locker needs to gravity vent above the waterline. Not to the bilge. So they need to sit in a box.

If you are looking to really max out your carbon footprint might I suggest a propane fuel cell to complement your growing list of gas fired onboard appliances.

http://www.ultra-fuelcells.com/Data/Pages/613c81b0df715451f5d2c0d62115934b-90192A-PDS-D350.pdf

Don't laugh, the power to weight ratio of this system is one tenth of a lead acid battery.

A commodore at our club said she was cold all the time living on her boat in Missions Bay during the winter. My innocent suggestion was to start baking bread and pizza in the oven. I do that and I also like to bake up a Cornish game hen. 350F for 45 minutes. Keeps the boat toasty for hours afterwards.

Pete

[jpendoley]

Pete,
The appliance list looks like this: oven and stove top, instant hot water heater (Precision Temp Marine-the only marine rated water heater on the market)-and then  maybe a P12000 Dickenson propane fireplace-more for ambiance then heat asI  am installing a Planer diesel forced hot air system this week.

I've lived aboard for years at a time on a smaller Pearson, a Vanguard, and pretty much had it down to a science Once the hull was insulated I could be very comfortable if I ran the P12000 and supplemented with a little ceramic heater on the really cold nights.
Twenty pounds is a lot of fuel- in the summer I might go through one tank a season, but in the colder months the Dickinsen would burn through a twenty pounder in five days running 24x7.

[PeteW]

You can probably fit 80 lbs into  your dock box. They make ideal propane lockers and they are outside.  Pete

[jpendoley]

It would have to be a floating dock box-I will be on a mooring

[Della and Dave]

FYI, we have 2 20 lb propane and tanks in our locker.   It works fine for us, but we use diesel to heat, and only use propane for the stove, so it will probably last years.  I had to slightly modify the Worthington Propane cylinder by cutting off one of the two hold down brackets.  10 minutes with a hack saw and it was done. The propane police may come and take me away, but it looks stock if you don't know what to look for.  (They are related to the mattress police I think).  Otherwise it didn't fit in the existing fiberglass saddle in the propane locker. 

Ours is original Pearson as far as I can tell, but it seems like Pearson must have had a couple of different configurations.  I have heard from others on this forum that their setup is different than ours and still stock.   There are a couple of pictures of ours from post a few yeas ago.   Here is a link to the old post with our old tanks.  It's clean and has new tanks with OPD valves now.  If you go back to the regulations, horizontal tanks don't actually require them, but try explaining that to the guy at the gas station filling your tanks.  I couldn't convince our insurance company even with a copy of the reg in my hands. 

http://www.pearson365.com/forum/index.php?topic=1266.msg6848#msg6848

[jpendoley]

Dave, thanks for this posting. I just bought a Precision Temp Tankless propane heater-expensive, but its a drop in replacement for the Kuma electric and engine coolant heater I had before. The Precision Temp seems like a nice piece of kit, vented overboard with a power vent all the ABYC required safety features. am looking forward to the "unlimited hot water" capability aboard. The previous heater had a six gallon capacity, but after three gallons, it was more like lukewarm than hot. Living aboard on a mooring would have required running the engine for 45 minutes before hot water was available for the morning shower-bad for the diesel and bad for the captain.
My propane tanks are vertical, but I plan on building acommadation for two horizontal 20 pounders. Will have to buy new horizontal model tanks and they seem expensive. I'm thinking a dual saddle built out of multiple laminations of marine ply sealed with epoxy and attached in the locker...it will be a project no doubt.
Jim