I don't see why it wouldn't fit under the driver side. Plenty of room over there. I have a manchester tank there and it's 10'' in diameter. If I would have seen an 8'' diameter I might have tried it. Although if it is concealed up so you won't see it will you still be able to fill it? Not sure on that one. You can definitely see mine from the side although I spray painted it to match my van and I'm ok with seeing it. Skagistan has a good write up on Building Annie on how he did his and I pretty much copied how he did it. But I would think you could get that tank up no problem at all. I'll try and put a pic up tomorrow. I have a few but the camera was going out on my iphone and the propane pic's are all blurry.

 

Thank you Deadwood. It would have been perfect if the brackets that come with it can be used to attach the tank directly to the underside of the Transit without modification. Is fabrication of brackets a reasonable diy job?

 

Installed the higher capacity eurovan (~5gal) under my van. The tank is mounted directly to the floor between the rails and is not visible from side. No loss of clearance as it hangs no lower than the rails. Still easy to access for filling/inspection.

 

camp&ride, that is exactly what I wish to have. Is this install a diy, and did you come up with your own brackets? Maybe a picture(s) to show how it is attached to the van?

 

My tank was installed by Van Specialties in Oregon during my conversion. I'll try to nab some photos of the tank/brackets and post them up in the next couple of days.

 

Thanks so much, very much appreciated!

 

camp&ride, were you able to take a snap shot of the propane tank underneath your van?

 

My underbits:

The bracketry is similar to Annie's. Havent had any clearance issues, its tucked in there pretty nicely, but still easily accessible for refill/mtnc.

 

http://www.fordtransitusaforum.com/170338-post42.html

 

another forum members propane tank install
wasnt sure if it was going to link right

 

Thanks camp&ride. That's pretty neat. Don't know if I can install it myself. Looks like it's a job for the professional installer.

 

Well, it may look a bit more complicated than it actually is. The Espar muffler/exhaust is in the foreground and graywater tank is behind the LP tank. Annie had a pretty good write-up on what it entails. Your call on if you want to install or get installed. For me, made sense to have it done with the conversion so that I didn't create any conflict with the build if I was to install.

 

Sound encouraging. If I think I can do it, I will. Could you snap another picture of it in the front so I can get an idea how the bracket is attach on that end? If I can see the whole picture of from both sides, that will be very helpful.

 

go back to the first page and follow my link, many pictures of someone elses install

 

Thanks for linking to Annie's propane install.
One IMPORTANT thing that isn't shown there is that where the bolts come through the floor, I added some C channel to make things more rigid. The floor sheet metal is too thin to not bend when the bolts are tightened. I talk about that a bit here:
http://www.fordtransitusaforum.com/...er-vans-conversions/11586-building-annie-campervan-conversion-8.html#post180402

 

Do I have this right? Stan's is a 12" whereas Camp&Ride's is an 8" diameter

 

Mine is a 10" diameter.
It's the 7.9 gallon unit (P/N 66-4941) on this page:
http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/lp-gas/rv-propane-horizontal.htm

 

Mine is a 10" diameter.
It's the 7.9 gallon unit (P/N 66-4941) on this page:
LP Horizontal Tanks for Your Motorhome | PPL Motor Homes

Hey @skagitstan are you still happy with the 10-inch propane tank install? Any issues with clearance? If you had a do-over would you still go with the 10-inch tank or go with the 8-inch tank for more clearance?

 

Just in case anyone else is still considering an underbody LPG tank, I just installed the 4.6 gal 8” GoWesty tank on the drivers side. It fits between the wider “east-west” frame rails, and is totally invisible from view when standing alongside the van. I bent the thin single-wall frame brace so the tank could fit higher in the cavity. We’ll see about filling, but I don’t anticipate a problem. Stout brackets were welded to form 2 “C” brackets from two 2”x3” and two 2”x2” L brackets (I think...they were scraps).

I chose the smaller eurovan tank because it fits between the stouter framerails, and is in fact bolted to them. I fished six 1”x2”x1/8” plates with welded-on 5/16” grade 8 nuts into the frame rails, using existing holes in the frame rails (plus a 3rd hole drilled into the more forward rail. So each bracket has 3 bolts going into the frame rail, and 2 bolts into the tank flanges. My welder buddy bitched and moaned the whole thing was overkill, but I think the 3rd bolt was key (Sportcoupe had just posted his pics of his Helwig sway bar mount ripping his frame rail, so I got nervous). So, in effect, the tank flanges are ~ 2.25” below the frame rails. In retrospect, it might have been acceptable to hang the tank 3/4” lower, but it would have been that much more vulnerable to rock hits. BUT, at 3/4” lower, I might not have had to bend the single-wall frame member, and could probably have fit the 5.9 gal GoWesty tank. It’s also possible the 10” tanks currently on eBay would fit like mine, though hang lower (or you could mount them higher into the frame to compensate...again, I think they are short enough, though you might have to trim the mount that comes with the tank....but that’s just speculation

View attachment 132968 View attachment 132969 View attachment 132970
View attachment 132971

 

Thanks for posting exciting and useful information! I saw one end of the bracket, is there a picture of the other end where the tank is attached?

 

If you are asking if both brackets are the same, the answer is pretty much “yes” ... except the drilling is more “mirror image.” So a picture of the other end would look ... like a mirror image ... of the bracket I photo’d. The frame rails bolted to are 24” apart, and that is why I chose the shorter 4.6gal tank...as it fits between the rails being ~23.5” long. If I were going to do this over, I might make the brackets 2.5” to 2.75” tall instead of 2.25,” so the tank would sit 1/4” to 1/2” lower...which I don’t think would be a problem.

My welder buddy had some 2”x2.5” and 2”x2” L-shaped angle iron. We cut 8+” lengths and welded them together to form “U-shapes. Crude diagram might help. Same thing for each end of tank: so 2 brackets (one at each end of tank) which each started out as 2 pieces (so 4 pieces of L-shaped pieces welded into 2 “U” shaped pieces.
View attachment 132966 .

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Thanks a bunch! I'll look into this installation and see if I could tackle this task myself or I'll take it to someone for a professional installation.

 

Well, I tried to add a picture and a diagram,and at the moment, this messed up website/app won’t display any of them, in fact now I can’t view my pictures that were there. I’ll try to fix, but the moderators need to fix some bugs in this forum.

 

Don’t know what’s up with this website, but evidently I can create new post, and re-post pictures, but the original post picture (link) broke...at least for me...so reposting pictures.

 

Website sux, it wigs out whenever I try to attach more than one pic per post. Apparently a new release today...to fix bugs [emoji38][emoji1787][emoji23][emoji2959][emoji2959][emoji2959]

Someone chime in if you can still see the pics originally in post 19 and 21.

 

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Shows thin frame reinforcement which I bent


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