DIY Volt Hybrid - Open ReVolt style

[Nerys]

are my posts invisible or something?

[bennelson]

No, Nerys, your posts are not invisible.

Sometimes people don't read up in the posts a bit, or they post something about the same time you do, so they don't get to see it.

I don't know if two tanks will work or not. I need to go talk to an LP pro to check on a few things.

I'm pretty busy with work the next few days, but plan to try to work busy and hard on this project after that.

[Dr. Jerryrigger]

two tanks will work. Each is good for more than 100,000 BTU's, so two will be more than sufficient.

[Nerys]

ok no problem. I had that happen in a forum once. My system said I was posting but nothing was actually appearing on the site for some strange reason. Very odd. just wanted to be sure :-) hehe

you might need a custom hose built but its easy stuff really. then you have the flow rate of both regs which should more than surpass what you need.

on my RV I have one of these since it has two tanks but its a "switch" you spin it one way or the other to use one tank or the other. so should be easy to get a simply "y"

[MetroMPG]

How the heck did I miss this thread, Ben?

Originally Posted by bennelson

ARGGGG!!!! It's too darn cold outside!!! Well below freezing. I have no basement and an unheated garage. I can see daylight through the walls. NOT a good situation for working on a hybrid car!

... or a bicycle, or a ....

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

How the heck did I miss this thread, Ben?

It's easy, I'm usually in the Fossil Fuel Free Forum.

Being in the Hybrid Forum is a new thing for me!

Of course if I had a bio-diesel generator, I could be in either!

[Dr. Jerryrigger]

Originally Posted by bennelson

It's easy, I'm usually in the Fossil Fuel Free Forum.

Being in the Hybrid Forum is a new thing for me!

Of course if I had a bio-diesel generator, I could be in either!

or wood gas....

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by Dr. Jerryrigger

or wood gas....

SHHHH! Don't tell anyone my secret plan!!!!

[dday]

Originally Posted by Dr. Jerryrigger

So how about two 10 lb tanks? Link them together at high pressure, and then feed both into the primary reg with a T.

They are right you can run two tanks and this will solve your problem of the tank freezing up on you and shutting down the gen. That is what was happening to you before when it would run for 3 seconds and stop. Propane runs at -44 F So when you pull too much off one bottle it freezes up and you can't get enough propane out of it any more until you let it heat back up. Make sure you run equal length hoses from both bottles to the reg. You can do this with the bbq bottles, just use two. A bigger tank will work also but you wanted to use the bbq tanks, so do it with two of them.

Also the only other thing I was thinking was that if the Gen ran off of liquid and the original regulator was set up for liquid then you may have problems trying to run vapor. On forklifts they use liquid from the bottle and then the regulator has warm water running through it from the engine, to change the liquid to vapor at that point but the warm water keeps the regulator from freezing up.

The big problem with propane is that it expands 250 times when changing from liquid to vapor (correct me if I am wrong here) so that makes it freeze up really easy when you start to pull big volumes of vapor off the bottle.

Cool project by the way.

[Dr. Jerryrigger]

It's hard to say for sure if it's the tanks getting too cold, the reg is getting too cold, or the tank's valve is too restricting.
If the reg works fine with the big tank; then it's not the reg.
It would likely take the tank some time to "freeze up" (not that freezing has anything to do with it; drop below boiling point would be more accurate, but you know what I mean). One way to test if this is your problem is to time how long it runs on a outdoor temp tank. Then time how long it runs on an indoor temp tanks. 15-20 Kalvin difference should show you about 1/3 more time if the boiling point is really the problem.
If this shows no difference then the valve is too restrictive (which is likely) And two tanks will work for you. If freezing is the problem, than two tanks will likely work too, but two 20lb's would be better than two 10's.
Also, that gen is water cooled.... possibilities.... who needs a rad when you have a big AC unit...

OR:
get a really little propane tank and a very small burner, maybe a colman camp stove. Put this under a 20lb propane tank filled with wood chips. Then you'll need new regs that can take 350F gas. But after that just tweak the carb and your good to go!