Quote: Originally posted by eljaygee on 25/02/2005
We have a motorcaravan and are booked on Eurotunnel this summer. They state that the LPG tanks must not be more than 80% full and that they will check this. Does anyone know how they do this? How can we check - other that weighing an empty tank and a full tank and working out 80% from that?
I think you've almost hit the nail on the head. I imagine your bottles will be the same as ours, in that at the top there will be an aluminium collar, fitted at the time of production/testing. It should be stamped with the empty weight of the bottle. In my case, currently 2 bottles at 13 lbs and one at 12 lb 8 ozs - and they will vary. Sometimes all three bottles have been different weights. Only the numbers are stamped, not the 'lbs' or 'ozs'. So mine are stamped "13" and "12 08" respectively.
I can't remember what the approximate additional weight of the gas is when it's full, but your gas supplier should be able to tell you roughly - or you can weigh the bottles as we used to do and attach a luggage label. Then, it's down to using some Salter Little Samson fishing scales and doing some quick maths!
We haven't used the tunnel for a good few years when towing, but when we did they insisted on checking that the bottles were not attached to the regulator, that they were fully turned off and that the black plastic caps were screwed on to the gas outlet. At that time they did not weigh the bottles.
(It used to be in the conditions of travel on hovercraft and I think on the ferries, that fuel tanks on vehicles were only half full, but in all the times I've crossed the channel, they've never checked. So, whether they will actually check the bottles, I don't know).
On the one occasion we used the Tunnel when carrying calor gas, we were kept back with other gas carriers and put into separate compartments. Perhaps they consider the carriage of gas to be a bigger risk in a more confined space. Certainly, on the ferries it's never been a problem.
BTW, there's another number stamped on the aluminium collar which shows the last two digits of the year that the bottle needs to be re-valved and tested.
My local Calor Gas depot supplied this info some years ago, so you may want to call yours to check that it's still the same. The chap was concerned when I said that I used to shake the bottle around a little to guess how much gas I had left as there can be some foreign matter in the bottom of a bottle and disturbing it is not a good idea! He said that he'd heard of cases of people actually inverting bottles when checking them for content ...... and apparently that is a definite no-no!
HTH
Oozat
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Topic: LPG on Eurotunnel
