Yesterday I spoke to Ruth Heckler (800-396-0790), the woman at Marshall Gas
who is responsible for the 260 model propane regulator used on Vanagons
manufactured by Marshall Gas. As you may know, this model has been
discontinued but there remains a cache of these available for purchase at
Delta Six.

Ruth told me that the regulator was supposed to last around 15 years in
normal service, but she confirmed that the regulator will degrade over time
even in storage. She said this was because there were certain elastimers or
polymers or something inside the regulator that gradually break down. 

She said the 260 regulator has been discontinued for about three years but
said that a three year old regulator in storage ought to be still fine. She
advised, however, that she wouldn't buy a regulator that had been in storage
for five years or more.  She said a date was stamped on the bottom of each
regulator so the mystery over date of manufacture isn't that hard to solve.

I plan to call Delta Six up today and find out the latest date of regulator
they have for sale. If it is more than five years old, I am going to go with
the newer, more hard to fit, model 290.

Derek
___________________________________
Derek Drew
drew@interport.net (main address for e-mail)
derekdrew@aol.com (alternate/backup address, checked infrequently)