Aluminum propane tank

[ShrimpBurrito]

Howdy folks,

Have any of you had to replace your propane cylinders? I was at West Marine today and stumbled upon a collection of aluminum cylinders, and they even had a 20lb horizontal cylinder. Fortunately, I had my existing steel tanks with me since I was on my way home from getting them filled, so I was able to check the mounting hole patterns....bummer.....as they are not the same. Close, but the aluminum tank has a collar on the bottom, which makes the distance between the front and rear holes longer.

Maybe it's not all bad...vertical and horizontal are $230 and $270, respectively, and at that price, they are twice the price of steel horizontal tanks, which are like 3-4 times as expensive as vertical steel tanks.

Some of them are here:
http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...5&classNum=668

Cheers,
Dave

[Bill]

My folks had a series of big Airstreams during their RV-ing years. My Dad upgraded from 20-pound steel tanks to 40-pound aluminum tanks, and the aluminum made a huge difference in his ability to horse around a full tank of propane.

I'm not sure I'd bother with 20-pound tanks, although the lack of rusting would be attractive.

Bill

[CAmark]

I have also seen some composite fiber tanks at the equipment rental outfit near us; though I did not check on price or horiz/vert availability. Nice technology...but I'd bet they are more $$ than the aluminum tanks.
mark

I friend of mine has a fiberglass horizontal tank on his GMC. That's all we know about it...

[ShrimpBurrito]

Just came across these composite tanks. Did a little searching, and a few places (RV Supply Warehouse) have 20 pounders for ~$85. Might be worth considering, especially if you really like to know exactly how much fuel you have.

http://litecylinder.com/index.html

Dave