Trailer propane lines - rubber, iron or copper?

[dward51]

Yeah, I thought about those Parker fittings early on. The Summit Racing warehouse and retail store is about 5 miles from me. You know for the life of me, I don't understand why a simple 3/8" MPT to barbed fitting with a hose clamp would not work. It's low pressure propane at 11" WC and not in an enclosed compartment. I would think the exposed rubber hose would be more subject to damage from road debris before a good double hose clamped barbed fitting would.

As an update, I have figured out the easiest thing to do is to remove the flared end of the existing rubber hoses and snake the hoses back down through the trailer floor and just take that whole 5 legged octopus of hoses out "as is" in a single piece. I can then get the underbelly back on (if it ever quits raining?). Then just snake the existing hose back up and reconnect to the flare on the appliances. I'll tie a pull line to each hose before I pull it down and out. That will make getting it back in the right place much easier as the fridge line and the oven line go through both the floor and another layer above it inside the trailer. Furnace and water heater are straight runs through the floor.

I will need to gently remove the black mastic they used to seal the hose into the floor opening inside the trailer though. It will need to be replaced at some point. Any idea what that black stuff is? It's not super hard and has a slight bit of give to it, but its also not sticky like some mastic sealants I've seen. It was clearly shot out of a tube and not some sort of peal and stick mastic ribbon.

[dward51]

Just wanted to update this thread. I'm going to try and drop of the existing LP lines to try and reuse them after installing the new underbelly. Plan be is black pipe and copper.

OMG!!!! Why did they use this stuff in a trailer? The black sealant around the rubber LP hoses inside the appliance bays has so strong a bond, it is actually ripping the wood underlayment apart. Yes it must be polyurethane sealant. Like those cursed power ram nails holding the underbelly to the frame, whoever spec'ed this stuff should be flogged in the public square.

I started with the trailer's fridge LP line today. Started cutting with a razor knife but ended up switching to a pair of diagonal cutters and needle nose pliers and mostly just pulling and pulling and pulling. Took about 45 minutes to get the LP line clear. I have 3 more lines to go. I know the water heater has the same goop on it, but have not opened up the furnace and stove/range but presume they have it (may not as they are interior to the trailer and don't have direct venting to the weather like the fridge and water heater do).

Needless to say I *WILL NOT* be using polyurethane sealant when I put this back in. I'm thinking a more standard caulking or even Ideal exterior duct seal putty. Yes that is wood bonded to the plug of sealant in the 2nd photo after I got it totally off the hose.





Yeah, I need to vacuum out that compartment.

Good news is I can just tie a line to the hose fitting and drop it down out of the trailer and use the line to pull it back up later. I needed to pull the LP hoses to put in a new underbelly or coroplast.

Oh, and look what I found trapped inside the LP hose at the flare fitting. Yes it was in there since this trailer was made!!!!!! Fridge worked on on LP too.

[dward51]

I just wanted to update this thread. I've been working on the trailer off and on for the past couple of weeks (around the weather and the job that is paying for these mods). One thing I have discovered was all of the propane lines are not only attached at the appliance, they have multiple zip-ties that have a screw fitting and these zip-ties are then screwed to the floor of the trailer in the most inaccessible places. It's like FR intended for the LP lines to never be removed or replaced.

Yesterday, I was using a fiber optic cam to confirm my suspicion that the oven LP line had another zip-tie behind the back wall of the lower cabinet (which it does - of course). It then dawned on me I really don't need to unhook ALL of the LP lines to clear the path for the single sheet coroplast underbelly to be put on (I ended up buying a factory replacement as a single sheet).

I only need to drop the LP from the tanks and the furnace. All of the remaining lines are together at the back of the trailer and about 8" away from the rear wall. I can just pull the LP octopus backward and flip it up on the rear bumper to slide the coroplast in place and fasten it. Yes I will have to make 3 short slits to the holes for those rear LP lines, but that is short enough I can deal with it using black gorilla tape on both sides of the slit to seal it back up before screwing the back edge to the frame.

Don't know why I didn't see this before......

Here is a drawing of the layout to help visualize what I'm talking about. Look at the top drawing of the existing lines. The furnace line, LP tank line, and the distribution block are easy to unhook (furnace is a straight drop and easy to access). Then just pull the remainder out the back of the trailer and install the underbelly.