Bongo Fury

I have just bought a Bongo from JAL and discovered that the gas pipe for the hob doesn't have a regulator attached and the recommended bottle size from JAL is 2.75kg Butane. But I want propane as we want to do year round camping. Two problems; I can't seem to find anyone who sells the 2.75kg bottles in butane secondly, propane doesn't even seem available in that size.

Can anyone help please, as JAL don't seem to know either!!

Smallest propane you can get is this....3.9kg

http://www.calor.co.uk/shop/product/3-9 ... inder/821/

It's the size a lot of plumbers use.

List price for the first cylinder inc. the "hire" fee is £49.74 (may vary depending on where you get it from)

Refills are £15.49 list but again this can vary from place to place.

A regulator should be available for less than a tenner.

EG.............
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/27105940 ... 80&ff14=83

Hi, thanks very much. I'm not sure we can get that size in the cupboard but we'll have a look.

Thanks for your help.

Probably the cylinder that JAL refer to is the Campinggaz 907 which is butane only. I just mange to squeeze a 3.9kg propane under the RandR bed. Dimensions are 340 x 240 mm.

Butane doesn't freeze as such, in fact it's boiling that causes it to stop working at 0.6 degrees C. Your van would have to be pretty chilly inside for that to be a problem and the water for your brew would be frozen too .

We've used CampingGaz 907 cylinders for a number of years without any problems even in December and January.

If you are lucky you may get an empty gas cylinder from your local recycling centre, I was lucky enough to get two free years ago but it depends on the local councils policy and if the council man at the centre is having a good day.

I would not be too fussy about what size of empty camping gaz bottle you get. I have often found that camping gaz outlets are not too fussy about you changing the size of the bottle when you do an exchange for a full bottle.

Tony

hi,

Car boot sales can be a good source for cylinders, but use a new regulator rather than a second hand one.

Peter

MountainGoat wrote:I would not be too fussy about what size of empty camping gaz bottle you get. I have often found that camping gaz outlets are not too fussy about you changing the size of the bottle when you do an exchange for a full bottle.

Tony

Any Camping Gaz cylinder can be swapped for any other size, but with Calor only certain sizes are (officially) swapable.

Kg for Kg Camping Gaz is over twice the price of Calor Gas.

BigPanzer wrote:hi,

Car boot sales can be a good source for cylinders, but use a new regulator rather than a second hand one.

Peter

If you connect ya own regulator
Spray the connection with a soppy mixture ( fairy liquid and water )
It will bubble if you have a leak
But you should be ok with correct sized jubilee clip for the hose
I spray the union connection from regulator to bottle as well

Thanks everyone, lots of help and some great tips. We did manage to get the smaller butane cylinder, regulator and jubilee clip from MG Caravans in Todmorden. We expect some pretty low temperatures as we're going to be touring Northern Scotland for some months through winter, so I might try the Propane 3.5kg under the R&R bed although I guess that'll mean replacing the current hose with a longer one and a propane regulator.

Yorky63 wrote:Thanks everyone, lots of help and some great tips. We did manage to get the smaller butane cylinder, regulator and jubilee clip from MG Caravans in Todmorden. We expect some pretty low temperatures as we're going to be touring Northern Scotland for some months through winter, so I might try the Propane 3.5kg under the R&R bed although I guess that'll mean replacing the current hose with a longer one and a propane regulator.

Same importer and same problem; I couldn't fit the smallest propane cylinder available into the cubbyhole provided and got the camping gaz 907 instead. Would have been good if the nice man had mentioned that in the first place! But two of these will fit in so you can carry a spare. The temperature is only an issue if the cylinders are outside as far as I can see. It's very unlikely that they will see sub zero temperatures inside the van, even in Scotland

The only drawback is that refills are about £20 and you have to find a calor/camping gaz dealer rather than an independent gas supplier.

While Camping Gaz is relatively expensive, it's widely available at many service stations & on the continent. I believe the French equivalent of Calor have different fittings, so an adaptor or alternative regulator would be required.