Date:         Thu, 28 Sep 1995 06:55:28 -0700 (PDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Tobin T. Copley" <tobin@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca>
Subject:      Re: LP-less Westy Advice?

On Wed, 27 Sep 1995, Jay Goldberg wrote:

> My new '77 Westy came with no LP tank.  I think that it'd be cool to
> cook (I mean at least coffee); I have this great stove.  Is there
> any way to hook up a little campstove LP tank to my stove for some
> cooking?

I also have an LP-less Westy.  Although I'd love to have a "Deluxe 
Campmobile" (the version that came with LP tanks, among other goodies), 
the LP-less version of the Westy offers certain advantages, particularly 
in regard to cooking arrangements in hot climates.

Here's the deal: get a Coleman 2-burner propane camping stove (the big 
ugly green kind), a 10 (15?) pound propane tank, and the appropriate 
connections necessary to connect the tank and stove together.  We have a 
long extension-type hose (maybe 10 feet long), so we can leave the tank 
where we store it in the camper and place the stove where ever.

The really great part is this whole arrangement is that everything fits 
perfectly in the Westy cabinet directly behind the driver's seat in or 
'76.  I think this cabinet was designed to store the spare tire, but we 
don't use it for that purpose since our camper has a button nose (spare 
mounted on the front of the van, with a white cover).

The whole thing works great, and in really hot weather we just take the 
whole arrangement outside to cook.  That way, we don't have to heat up 
the van with cooking heat.  

We bought a propane barbeque grill earlier this summer, and absolutely 
love it--definitely taking our grill with us to Inuvik!  One winter 
project is going to be setting up the proper connections so I can run the 
grill off our big propane tank, instead of the pissy little one pound 
disposable tanks the grill is designed for.  

Tobin
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tobin T. Copley                  Currently              =============  
(604) 689-2660                    Occupationally       /_| |__||__| :| putta
tobin@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca      Challenged!        O|             | putta
                                                       '-()-------()-' 
Circum-continental USA, Mexico, Canada 15,000 miles... '76 VW Camper! (Mango)