Resetting your clock? Why not check your gas fittings, too?

R&T De Maris

What cost us about $25 could have been a lot worse. As I inspected our parked travel trailer the other day, my eye caught a "something's wrong here," signal as I looked at the LP cylinders on the trailer's A-frame. A second look confirmed what initially struck me as odd – the high-pressure pigtail gas line had blasted apart at the fitting. Not only did this little hose-job set me back for parts, the freshly-filled 20 pound LP cylinder was now empty, its contents blasted off into the atmosphere.

While the time and money expended were a bit of a frustration, I got to head-scratching. How many of us have rubber gas lines with pressed fittings inside our rigs? They're a popular after-market add-on when it comes to installing a catalytic or blue-flame style heater. Simply find a nearby copper gas line, pop open a fitting, and screw on that new rubber line and run it out to the new heater. A quick, cheap fix.

I would have to guess that the likelihood of a gas line blasting apart inside your rig like my pigtail did is probably (and hopefully) fairly remote. After all, those gas lines inside the rig should be on the low-pressure side of your regulator, and hence, a whole lot less internal pressure to work against the security of your fittings. But nonetheless, those fittings are due for their fair share of road vibration and wiggling when you move the hose or the heater around. They wouldn't necessarily have to blast apart like mine did, only develop a minor leak.

The gent that filled up my empty propane container remarked that he'd had the sad opportunity of watching an RV thrown up in the air like a ragdoll, and blasted apart by a propane explosion, leaving two people dead in the aftermath. Some sort of internal LP gas leak had build up, and when the unfortunate occupants had tried making breakfast, they unknowingly had already consumed their last meal.

courtesy amazon.com

The upshot of this story? Invest in a good LP leak detecting tool like this one, or at least a bottle of soap bubbles. Then, twice a year, maybe when you "change your clocks," walk through your RV and carefully check each and every gas line fitting, whether on a flexible rubber gas line or on the more solid, factory equipped stuff. You may not find a leak, but you'll sleep better knowing you protected yourself and your loved ones.