To reinforce this point:

I ended up filling the van up at a dedicated gas place that did have
purging equipment, and he told me he would purge the tank.  But then when
he opened the bleeder and no (inert) gas came out, he said purging was not
needed and he filled the tank normally (which seems to have worked
completely fine).

He said purging would only be done if the tank had been pressurized with
nitrogen.

On Sun, Jun 12, 2016 at 6:18 AM, kenneth wilford (Van-Again) <
kenwilfy@comcast.net> wrote:

> This is not needed.  I have installed many of these tanks and never did
> this.   I think they have nitrogen inside to keep the inside from rusting
> on the shelf.
>
> Ken
>
> On Sat, Jun 11, 2016, 11:58 PM pickle vanagon <greenvanagon@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I installed a new gowesty propane tank on our vanagon.
>>
>> I'm having trouble finding someone local to "purge" the tank before
>> filling.
>>
>> One idea I had was to have the local filler put in a half gallon, and then
>> vent gas out of the bleeder valve for 20 seconds or so, and then fill the
>> rest of the way.
>>
>> I imagine this would exhaust the vast majority of the air in the cylinder,
>> since the propane will be evaporating and trying to displace as much
>> existing gas as possible.
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>> Thanks!
>> -Wes
>>
>