Marshall Brass makes adapters that get installed between the outlet
valve and regulator that will allow connecting a disposable tank for
emergency use. It also allows the on board tank to be used to supply a
BBQ or portable stove. Look for "Extend-A-Stay" products. The Westy tank
is a permanently installed, ASME rated tank. As such, it is required to
have that fill valve which incorporates a check valve, (liquid goes in
but can't come out}, the overfill protection, and a purge valve. Since
that valve does not fill at the top of the tank, it can not be replaced
with the potable tank valve. That extension tube on the valve you have
is the liquid purge. There is a screw plug on the side of the valve. As
the portable tank is filled, the plug gets opened and when liquid
appears, the tank is full. If you really have trouble finding places
with the adapter to fill your tank, buy one and carry it. Any legitimate
propane supplier will have one though as fixed or horizontal tanks
require it.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Edward Maglott
Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2006 10:37 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Propane take fill valve anatomy

I have been experimenting toward the idea of putting a fill valve on my
westy's propane tank that will be easier to fill and compatible via
adapter
with the disposable tanks.  The easier to fill part has to do with
finding
some propane dealers unable to fill my tank because they don't have the
correct adapter.  (They all can fill a bbq tank.)  I would also like to
be
able, if I run out of propane out in the boonies, to temporarily hook a
disposable propane tank to my westy tank to get me by until I can get to
a
refill place.

So I got the idea of taking the valve off of an older bbq tank and
fitting
to the westy tank.  I have an old westy tank that someone had fitted a
strange valve in place of the fill valve.  It was actually a "boiler
drain"
spigot, like you probably have on the bottom of your water heater at
home.  It has a garden hose thread on the end of it.  Amazing.  I cant
imagine using this to refill the propane tank.  I then found a couple
old
bbq tanks.  These predate the current standard "overfill protection
device"
tanks.  One of these is old enough that it doesn't have the feature
where
if nothing is threaded into it, no propane will come out even if the
valve
is open.  The other does have that feature.  So I took the older one off
the bbq tank, and is the same thread as the westy tank.  Here's my
question: This valve has a thin tube that sticks down into the tank a
few
inches.  What is that?  Some sort of earlier version of overfill
protection
that was supposed to shut off the pump when the tank go to 80%?  I don't
think it sticks down far enough to reach the 80% level.

Other questions/issues:  Because the bbq valve is at 90 degrees, there
may
be other issues getting the filler into place.  I'm thinking I might
have
to flip up the guard plate and have them go in with the nozzle at an
upward
angle.  That's not too convenient, but I usually have to loosen and move
the plate anyway, and they have to get under there to open the little
bleed
valve too.  Maybe the same adapter I use to connect to the disposable
tank,
could have a fitting to fill the tank?  Other safety/legality issues I
am
not considering?

Edward