Background: My Sun Valley has two tanks, but only a single-hose regulator. Translation: A huge PITA when I have to get up in the middle of the night to change the hose after the heater goes out. So, I bought and installed a dual-tank, auto switch regulator today. The original regulator had a single hose that came out of the top of the regulator and connected to the tank. No problem. The new regulator has two hoses (obviously) that come out of the regulator on either side. Herein lies the rub, quite literally. The hoses press right against the tanks, with a fair amount of pressure. Also, the regulator screws onto the bracket backwards, so I can't see the empty tank indicator or the knob that indicates which tank is being used. I'd like to relocate the regulator, and have a few questions. First, how hard is copper hose to work with? Do I even have to use copper, or can I use flexible gas hose? Second, where do you all have your regulators mounted? Thanks in advance.
The direction of the vent port on the regulator is important. You do not want dirt and water in it. You can mount it anywhere and use the correct size rubber hose to connect to the copper hard line.
Some install the changeover so indicators face backwards. One reason is some thinks it's more protection. Whether that or not, our TT has them facing the rear. We use a mirror.
well that sounds like a PITA, too.... it may be my best bet, though. I still need to move it, though, so it fit between the two tanks. That is the much bigger issue.
To answer your question about copper tube or gas line, you can go to any hydraulic shop and have a hydraulic line built that will handle the pressure and is very durable and mount your regulator any where it is convenient for you. Common hydraulic hose will handle 5000 psi with no problem you can get double braid or even triple braid but it is vert stiff and is not needed.
The mirror isn't all that difficult. We have hand held one in the camper anyway. If angles were a bit better, we might be able to just use the diamond plate on the camper. If the LP tanks were just a tad farther forward, the mirror might not be needed, but our A-frame is more crowded on the TT than it was on the pup. Do you have a pic of the current installation, I'm having a difficult time understanding where things are so crammed. Here's the install on our pup, no hoses close to being rubbed: 3 updates by Andrea Vaughan, on Flickr
