Interior Gas inside van

Dean Anderson

Well-Known Member
Feb 7, 2014
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Isaac Region
Fantastic that everything worked out great. Did you ever get a final virdict from the insurance company with regards to the cause?

Would a gas detector have actually helped in this situation? By looking at the photos it appears that the gas build up was actually behind an enclosure/cupboard adjacent to the oven. It appears the gas build up was well enclosed within he cupboard, probably due to poor venting to the outside. And to top it off there was an ignition source somewhere behind the stove/cupboard, or such a build up of gas that it reached the height of the stove.

Not that I'm knocking detectors, but would a passive safety measure be more reliable? i.e. an extra vent behind the cupboards to the outside? This is why gas fridges are pretty safe. They need huge levels of ventilation to work in the first place.

Should we all get our LPG systems pressure tested annually (especially on new vans)?
 
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Rockape

Well-Known Member
Nov 20, 2012
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Hills District, NSW
Hi @Holden_man ,
I have to say reading this post has made many more people, including myself more aware of the dangers of gas. I installed a LPG leak detector a week after reading your posts. I also turn off the gas bottles at night, unless I need to run the fridge on LPG. If running the fridge, I turn off the isolating valves under the caravan to the other LPG appliances. I also check the pipes and fittings for leaks on a regular basis.
This could have been so much worse for your parents and sharing their experiences has hopefully made caravaning safer for many people. I just wish that they would make LPG leak detectors mandatory!
Cheers
Nick
 

Drover

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Nov 7, 2013
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In it's original form this thread was most informative and an important heads up for people on the dangers of gas appliances, it inspired many to take action to make their equipment safer BUT now the thread has been sanitized for whatever reason and history has been rewritten the thread has no relevance as it's just a jumble of chit chat and I think should be deleted..............
 

Marv_mart

Well-Known Member
Jan 3, 2014
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Adelaide
Seems obvious to me anyway that a legal/insurance compliance has forced all those posts to be deleted (muzzled?), fair enough, had that happen to me as well on an entirely diff matter. Thread still made many take positive safety steps so a good thing IMHO.
 

rags

Well-Known Member
I'm not sure if it was a personal decision to remove the content or at the request of the van manufacturer, can't see it being the insurer as they are happy for examples of gas explosions in vans to be posted on a auction site to enable them to recover some costs. Unless it is a result of further litigation and subsequent settlement.
The links that I previously posted include references to similar explosion. This auction link shows an example of a van explosion.
http://www.manheim.com.au/dv/itemimages/zoomdisplay?itemID=000000000004118053&title=2013 Lotus Freelander 2013 Lotus 20.5FT Caravan Caravan ** Internal Gas Explosion **&price=NA&divID=DV
 
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Dobbie

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Jun 18, 2014
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The perils of litigation and beaurocratic fiddling.

Yes. The original post was a warning and the subsequent posts gave many possible solutions which were tried and tested....all in the interests of safety.

As said, many of us added the gas detector to our vans as we were made aware that the dangers could be avoided.

We also added carbon monoxide detectors so the awareness went way beyond just gas.

Now, we're almost as accurate and reliable as the pre polls in Australia and Britain....