The last time I changed a gas bottle, which happens about every 5-days now, I noticed the hose was leaking gas at one of the crimps. I checked the other hose and it was leaking too.

The way the pig-tail hoses are arranged between the tank and the regulator seems a bit chintzy. There is a 45-degree turn in the hose right at the regulator followed by a tight 140-degree turn to get lined up with the valve on the tank. This puts a lot of strain on the hose-crimps. The hoses started leaking at the hose-crimp on the tank end of the set-up and it was made worse if the hose was side-loaded.

I emailed my contact at Outdoors RV and explained the situation. Within a few hours arrangements had been made for me to get new hoses and they showed up on my doorstep a few days later (turns out it was still covered by warranty). Outdoors RV has been great to work with when things come up with my travel trailer. I gotta say they are about 10,000 times more responsive than the dealer (a division of camping whirled).

The first thing I did with my new parts was to run to Home Depot and get more parts. I bought a couple of elbows and some nipples to make a hard-pipe connection that turns the first 90-degree bend. Then the hose only needs to make a sweeping 180 to reach the tank. All of the hose in the pig-tail is available to make the 180-turn so the radius is bigger and kinking is reduced. Even though the loops are bigger they still fit under the tank cover just fine.

I leak-checked the hoses and fittings a couple times and they hold gas pressure. I’ll check them again on a warmer day because the pressure will be higher than on the cold, gray, windy day I did the repair.

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RV-ing means getting to work on your coach in exciting new locals!