We're off to brave the chance of weather from Hurricane / Tropical Storm / Low Pressure "Sandy", whatever she may be by the time she gets up the eastern seaboard to Pennsylvania. Hopefully, not till mid-day sunday so we can get packed back up from our last camping trip. Bummer! It's the last one already! (most campgrounds close around our area on Nov 1st)
Upcoming posts will obviously be about this weekend's Holloween Adventure at the campground, but then we'll also have a post about winterizing and also a summary Campground Score-card for our adventures this year.
Check back soon!
Friday, October 26, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Measuring Propane Use
Ever wonder how to check propane level in your tank? After using the propane this season for 5 trips now, cooking and using the heater occasionally, and then using the heater nearly all night this past trip as the temps dipped below freezing got me thinking, how much propane did I use?
First, you need to have some sort of scale that you can place your tank onto or suspend from. I think the grocery stores would frown upon you taking the tank inside!
On the tank someplace you will find some valuable information stamped into it. This is more commonly found around the tank handle since it would not damage or impact the tank. Sometimes it may also be placed on a placard attached to the tank. Here you will find the water weight capacity (W.C.) the tank is able to hold, which converts to a propane weight using a common ratio of these liquid densities. You will also find the Tare Weight, or empty weight of your tank.
In my case, I see on my tank that my W.C. is 47.6 lbs. Going to the chart, I see that 47.6 is nearly equal to 20 lbs of propane. I also find on my tank that the empty weight is 19.0 lbs.
Following our trip this past time and really running the furnace, I could definitely tell that the tank was lighter, and here in the photos you can see that it measured approximately 31.6 lbs! That's 5.4 lbs of propane used in just one trip! The heater worked great, but wow, did it suck some propane!
Now, 31.6 lbs is the total weight currently, so subtracting the 19 lbs of the tank weight I still have 12.6 lbs of propane remaining, enough for our last trip out this coming weekend, even if it gets really cold (which it currently is not forecast too, looks like mid 40*'s for the lows at night).
So, armed with this information, I can now check my tank periodically and get an estimate of the propane left in my tank.
Bonus Note: 1 lb of Propane can yield approximately 21,600 BTUs! So, if you are trying to figure how much you can run that furnace or particular appliance in the camper, take it's rated BTU output/hour and divide by 21,600 BTUs, and you'll have how many pounds you can expect to use per hour.
Happy Camping!!
First, you need to have some sort of scale that you can place your tank onto or suspend from. I think the grocery stores would frown upon you taking the tank inside!
On the tank someplace you will find some valuable information stamped into it. This is more commonly found around the tank handle since it would not damage or impact the tank. Sometimes it may also be placed on a placard attached to the tank. Here you will find the water weight capacity (W.C.) the tank is able to hold, which converts to a propane weight using a common ratio of these liquid densities. You will also find the Tare Weight, or empty weight of your tank.
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| Propane Conversion Chart |
In my case, I see on my tank that my W.C. is 47.6 lbs. Going to the chart, I see that 47.6 is nearly equal to 20 lbs of propane. I also find on my tank that the empty weight is 19.0 lbs.
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| Water Weight - Top, and Tank Empty Weight TW, Bottom |
Given this information, my full propane tank will weigh in at 39 lbs when full. To determine how much propane I have remaining in the tank, I just used a digital fish scale that I could lift the tank up off the ground with and get a reading. Prior to our camping trip to Quakerwoods, I measured our tank to be 37 lbs. This meant that in our prior 4 trips, when we predominately used the stove and grill for cooking quick meals, we used approximately 2 lbs of propane.
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| Weighing the tank with a digital fish scale |
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| Close up of the scale |
Following our trip this past time and really running the furnace, I could definitely tell that the tank was lighter, and here in the photos you can see that it measured approximately 31.6 lbs! That's 5.4 lbs of propane used in just one trip! The heater worked great, but wow, did it suck some propane!
Now, 31.6 lbs is the total weight currently, so subtracting the 19 lbs of the tank weight I still have 12.6 lbs of propane remaining, enough for our last trip out this coming weekend, even if it gets really cold (which it currently is not forecast too, looks like mid 40*'s for the lows at night).
So, armed with this information, I can now check my tank periodically and get an estimate of the propane left in my tank.
Bonus Note: 1 lb of Propane can yield approximately 21,600 BTUs! So, if you are trying to figure how much you can run that furnace or particular appliance in the camper, take it's rated BTU output/hour and divide by 21,600 BTUs, and you'll have how many pounds you can expect to use per hour.
Happy Camping!!
Monday, October 15, 2012
Quakerwoods Campground - Oct 12-14, 2012
Another week of work, followed by an exciting camping retreat at Quakerwoods Campground in Quakertown. Not a far drive, and really easy for us to navigate to since we are so close to the turnpike. 34 minutes from pulling the camper out of the driveway to pulling into the campground, can't beat that.
The forecast was looking to be a cold wintery feeling Friday night, but moderate on Saturday and Sunday. We made up for all other campsite short comings with this trip and everything ran like a fine made swiss watch with regards to setting up the camper and closing it down. Becky and I seemed to be right on the same track with each of us working together perfectly. Not bad for our 5th camping trip!
Quakerwoods is a nice campground that has the seasonals occupying the perimeter and a few weekender sites mingled in. The main sites are in the center with easy access roads and all the low branches cleared from the trees. In fact, 80% of the campground is gravel, since it is all sites and roads, with grass areas only found around the pond and soccer/softball field. This is one negative for the kids. Our site was huge, plenty of room for our camper, 10x10 canopy, two cars, and room for the fire ring and chairs. The bathhouse was moderately tiled and nice, actually one of the better ones that we have been in this season according to Becky.
Friday night it was cold and damp, with a light breeze blowing in thru the woods off the field. I ran the propane furnace most of the night to keep everyone comfortable and had the heated mattresses turned on too. At 5am, the weather on the iPad said 26*! Couple that with the raw damp wind, and we were cold. It was best to stay inside the camper for breakfast and stay out of the wind till the sun really could get to work outside and warm things up. Even then, we realized we weren't really prepared for the cold, not having gloves or mittens, or even pull over hats for the kids. Everyone had hooded sweatshirts and fleece jackets, but even wearing both they were getting cold. By mid-day, we decided to go for a wagon ride on the tractor since it was warming up a bit and it would get everyone moving.
Then we saw that the pond was being hit with full sun, and decided to give fishing a shot. This way, the kids could have something to do and they would be out of the damp woods and in the sun, which would have worked better if the fish were biting! We only caught two fish in nearly an hour, so everyone was bored and wanted to get back to the campsite.
The afternoon was filled with playing in the leaves, going for walks and playing at the playground with Grammy, and of course, having a great dinner and cooking smores on the fire! We burned a good amount of wood this weekend and had a good time. I recorded a lot of video which I'll assemble soon in the 'off season' to add to the blog.
The forecast was looking to be a cold wintery feeling Friday night, but moderate on Saturday and Sunday. We made up for all other campsite short comings with this trip and everything ran like a fine made swiss watch with regards to setting up the camper and closing it down. Becky and I seemed to be right on the same track with each of us working together perfectly. Not bad for our 5th camping trip!
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| Our Massive Site. |
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| Great sign. The things you see at Campgrounds. |
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| Family Photo!! GoPro style! |
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| Stayin warm by the fire and makin Smores! |
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| Poor Madie, I had to put socks on her hands as mittens. Here she is napping. |
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| Ally catching one of the few fish today |
The afternoon was filled with playing in the leaves, going for walks and playing at the playground with Grammy, and of course, having a great dinner and cooking smores on the fire! We burned a good amount of wood this weekend and had a good time. I recorded a lot of video which I'll assemble soon in the 'off season' to add to the blog.
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