I have had a guage on my propane tanks since
I bought my TT in 2004.

We were dry camping at the beach this past
week and at the start the guage showed full,
but after two days dropped to red and was
empty, switch over to the other tank and all
was good, but the guage will need to be replaced since it never showed partial.

Can anyone recommend a decent guage??

With propane pressure and temp are directly related. Pressure and volume are not. A pressure gauge will read the same with a full tank as with one that is almost empty.

George,

Thank you for the information.

Kind of makes one of these guages useless
doesn't it??

If you really want to know how full a tank is pour hot water down the side and feel for the line where the tank temp goes from hot to cool. Weight is another good way, just slide a cheap spring scale under the tank.

quote:

Originally posted by Philip Saran:
Kind of makes one of these guages useless
doesn't it??

Provided you look at it often enough, it at least lets you know that the system has switched over and you are working on the second tank.

My method is not as sophisticated as Stans. I just loosen the holder a little and if the 30# tank is easy to move, it is getting pretty low.

I have one of those white plastic covers over
both tanks and it has a inspection door on top.

I don't have, but probably will want to invest
in one of the auto switch over regulators for
the two tanks, now you have to manually do the
switch from one tank to another.

The reason that motorized RVs have a gauge for propane that works, while towed RVs do not is that fixed tanks have a float in them very much like the one in a gas/diesel tank for a truck or car. That float then moves a needle on a local gauge mounted to the tank and there is a magnetic pick-off attached to the mechanical gauge that then displays it's position inside of the RV.

With the removable bottles that trailers have, no manufacturer has seen fit to equip them with a float indicator, which I would think could be done.

quote:

Originally posted by Philip Saran:
I don't have, but probably will want to invest
in one of the auto switch over regulators for
the two tanks, now you have to manually do the
switch from one tank to another.

Phil,

I think you would find it well worth it to switch. I think I paid a little less than $40 for mine.