Gas bottle on or off when travelling

[Derek Uzzell]

There's a tendency (and not just with English) for words like "should" and "must" to be treated as synonyms.

 

In the gas-related chapter of John Wickersham's "The Motorcaravan Manual" is the following advice:

 

"SAFETY - Before taking to the road, it is important to turn off the gas supply at source. There are isolation valves in modern motorcaravans to cut off the supply to different appliances within the system, but the best precaution is to turn off the supply AT THE CYLINDER. This should be part of every motorcaravanners' routine, prior to starting the engine."

 

JW, being an ex-teacher, is a bit careful with words. His book targets the UK motorhome market and, if there were general regulations in this country demanding that gas-cylinders MUST be turned off while a motorcaravan was being driven, then I'm confident he would not only have said that, but also have stated the law's reference. I'm sure that, within the UK, a motorcaravanner is NOT legally obliged to turn off his vehicle's gas-bottles before taking to the road. Realistically, if there were such a law, then we would all be fully aware of it. Best practice and good sense - Yes: UK legal requirement - No.

 

Abroad is another matter. The UK has relatively lax laws regarding adults drinking alcohol or committing adultery, but you can get into deep trouble doing either (or both!) of these things if you pick the wrong foreign country in which to do them. The simplest and safest course of action (whether it's booze, marital hanky-panky or leaving gas-bottle valves open that's involved) is, of course, the negative one - don't do it - but I think it's still worth exploring any potential foreign legal consequences just in case you suddenly get the urge or (in the case of turning off gas-bottles) just forget to do it.

[BGD]

Despite having ahad a bit of a ferret around, I've not yet been able to come up with anything legal/definitive about the gas cylinder on/off issue for here in Spain.

 

I'll keep looking, but if anything else finds anything, do please post it here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS: Slightly off track perhaps, but for information -

 

There was a very recent and well publicised case here in Spain, only about a month ago, of someone stopped by the Guardia Civil and given a ticket when they found he was carrying two of the standard orange 15kg Spanish butane cylinders in the boot of his car.

(As some people may know, this is standard practice in many/most areas of Spain, as we don't have mains natural gas here, and it's only in towns that the Gas Man actually comes to your house to swop your empties for full bottles....thus loads of people take their own empties to Repsol fuel stations/distribution depots to swop them).

The ticket was for carrying too much of an explosive substance in a private vehicle.

The guy appealed, and the Judge quashed the ticket, saying that it was OK for an ordinary vehicle to carry up to 2 cylinders (ie about 26 kgs of liquid butane/propane) full of gas.

The Judge declared that the regualtions restricting the transport of bulk amounts of such substances were not intended to include Joe Public swopping a couple of these domestic gas bottles at his local Repsol garage.

 

Sorry that this doesn't help with the debate about laws on valve on/off, but it is reassuring that at least in Spain the Law on amounts of gas carried has been tested, and the court has decided that you can carry at least two full standard Spanish bottles loose in a vehicle.