If you’ve had a travel trailer or a camper for a while, you’ve probably got your propane routine down. Most of the time the tanks on the tongue get filled right where they sit, or they come off for a quick exchange during the trip and go right back on. That part’s easy, and honestly it’s not where we think about straps at all!!
Where we do think about it is everything that happens around the RV… the stuff that rides in the truck.
The ride home from a refill or exchange
Not every fill happens with the trailer hooked up. Maybe the camper is parked at home or sitting at a site for the week, and you pull the tanks and run them into town. Maybe the closest exchange rack is on the way back from the grocery store. Either way, for a few miles those tanks are sitting in a truck bed or a cargo area instead of on the tongue.
That’s the moment worth a little thought. A 20 lb tank wants to ride upright, and it doesn’t take much of a turn or a bump for an unsecured one to tip and start rolling around. Nobody wants to hear that clunk behind them on a gravel campground road… or pull over to chase a tank across the bed.
The spare 20 lb tank
Here’s the other one. A lot of RVers carry a separate 20 lb tank that never goes on the tongue at all. Usually it’s for the portable grill or the griddle at camp. Sometimes it’s a full spare that rides along just in case.
The way we think about a spare at our house works the same way at a campsite. Each thing that runs on propane has its own tank. The grill has its tank. The trailer has its tanks. The spare is just the backup for whichever one runs out first. It’s not about moving one tank back and forth between things… it’s about not having the evening stop because something ran dry.
That spare tends to spend a lot of time riding in the bed or the back of the tow vehicle, which makes it the tank most likely to get knocked around.
Fall and holiday trips
A lot of folks squeeze in one more trip before winter, especially around the holidays. Before you go, it’s worth a quick look:
Are the trailer tanks full, or do you know where you’ll fill up along the way?
Is the grill tank full?
Is the spare actually full? A spare only helps if there’s propane in it!!
If the answer to any of those is “not really,” that’s one errand before you leave… and one ride home with a tank in the truck.
Where Tank Ties fits
The strap goes on your 20 lb tank once and stays with it. When the tank needs to ride in the truck, you clip the strap’s integrated hooks to your cargo hooks or tie-downs and go. No hunting for rope, no wondering what’s rolling around back there.
It won’t change how you fill the tanks on your tongue. It just makes the ride home and the spare a little simpler. You can see it at tankties.com.
Safe travels, and enjoy the campfire!
