I have just had a chassis service carried out by an Approved Caravan Workshop technician.

After the normal sharp intake of breath and "what cowboy fitted that" he declared amongst other things that my flexible gas hose between the bulkhead regulator and the gas cylinder was an illegal length, too long at 75 cms. He got a new hose that was about 45 cms from his van but it was too short in my opinion as the hose would be very tightly kinked and strained to fit. The technician then decided that the bulkhead regulator was too low, thus causing the lack of fit.
I declined his offer to fit the very short hose and left him to carry on with the chassis service.

In my initial search for confirmation of the legal length of hose, I was unable to find any reference.
My preferred hose has a handwheel connector for the cylinder end and is freely available in 3 different lengths.

Anybody else come across this and had to move their bulkhead regulator?

I was told that my hoses were motorhome length, presumably the longer length, why that should make a difference I have no idea

On my last service my flexible gas hose got exchanged too, for a shorter one. I did look it up afterwards and this is the correct new regulations i'm afraid. I was miffed as I had very recently purchased a metal one (75cm) that I wanted to replace it with and wondered why a caravan shop would sell them still if they are not legal?

I'm still hoping somebody could point me to the new regulations, I haven't found them yet after a lot of searching.

Surely, if a hose greater in length than 450mm was illegal, it would also be illegal to sell them?

The problem appears to be with the risk of liquifaction where the gas turns back into liquid in longer hoses. This guide suggests that the hose should be as short as practical and lead downwards from the regulator to the cylinder without any dips. I suppose that this is why 75cm would be too long. It seems to affect installations where the regulator isnt on the cylinder. Para 2.2 states that the maximum for touring caravans is 50cm. (BS EN1949)


https://www.liquidgasuk.org/uploads/DOC5FE0C7E19ED2F.pdf para 4.6.

Thanks Stevejoyce,

now I know why and what to look out for.

Gas_small.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

No chance of getting a downhill run from regulator to cylinder with a 6kg cylinder

Also a 450mm hose length makes the bends very tight. I would have thought that there was more chance of stress and damage to the hose and the subsequent gas leak than the risk of re-liquifaction.
From the guidance doc: "The length of the flexible connection shall be sufficient to prevent excessive strain on it or its end
connections and to allow smooth swept bends without kinking or twisting when assembled"

Even the short hose would be at risk of re-liquifaction.

Is this why continental vans have bottle mounted regulators

So on reading this, the gas bottle should be chosen so that the coupling is lower than the regulator or the regulator position moved to accommodate the selected cylinder. Not too high though as you can only use a 18” hose.
It’s tempting to change back to the old cylinder regulator. 🙂

Second that with a cylinder mounted regulator.

Now looking for a hose adaptor that will fit the top gas pipe connection on the bulkhead regulator.

So, my project to fit a cylinder mount regulator has stumbled to a halt. I purchased an 8mm hose adapter but the thread does not match the Eriba steel pipe fitting going in to the top of the bulkhead regulator. It's a strange size that I can't identify even with a vernier caliper and thread pitch gauge.

Anybody help with that? I've googled for a long time but can't find any information.

I will also need to fit an inline gas test point somewhere. There is a convenient straight steel pipe adapter within the gas locker that I could replace with an inline test point but again it's this strange size fitting.

Hmm,

beginning to think it's because steel fittings are for higher pressures and are therefore it bit bigger than the equivalent brass fitting for copper pipe.

Maybe a steel to brass adapter?