Club 80-90 Forums

the tunnel is a fantastic way to cross. really quick. the LPG thing is in the same sort of category as using a phone in a petrol station, load of old tosh!!!!

Nij wrote:Am I right in thinking the tunnel is the cheapest way to get across to the continent if you book well in advanced?

It's not really the cheapest - but it can be pretty competitive with the ferries if you book in advance and pick an off-peak crossing.

It's certainly the most pleasant though - way quicker than the ferry, straight onto the motorway at each end, and you get to stay in your van rather than wander round one of those god-forsaken hell-boats.

So LPG conversions are banned from tunnels in Switzerland too then? Does that rule Switzerland out as a destination if you have an LPG conversion?
Thanks,
Tim.

timski wrote:So LPG conversions are banned from tunnels in Switzerland too then? Does that rule Switzerland out as a destination if you have an LPG conversion?
Thanks,
Tim.

Nope, far from it. As far as I know only the Mont Blanc is closed to lpg vehicles. We went down through Switzerland from Austria 3 years ago and other than not being able to get lpg at all in Switzerland we made it down as far as Interlaken via Zurich and Bern and back via Basel with no problems at all.

Ian

The long tunnel (11 miles ?) from Bregenz (Lake Constance) up towards Munich had no restrictions on it nor did the tunnel at St. Die through the Vogue mountains in France near the German border.

If anybody is interested in the real reason LPG vehicles are banned from the tunnel here it is.

You cannot turn off LPG tanks completely like you can with a bottle of butane or propane. Vehicle LPG tanks are fitted with a 'burp valve' that allows overfilled or over pressurised tanks to vent surplus lpg gas to the atmosphere. This happens when there is a few degrees rise in ambient temperature causing the liquid gas to expand in your lpg tank and force out through the safety or 'burp' valve. (you may have noticed the smell of gas around your van sometimes if you keep it indoors, or when there is no wind about.) This prevents the tank on your van from exploding. In the tunnel, burped lpg gas would collect at the bottom (being heavier than air, it would trickle downhill) until sufficient gas had collected to spontaneously explode thereby shooting any train in the tunnel back out again like a cannon ball.

I know it's easier to moan about things than to bother to find out why they are the way they are. You would soon moan if you managed to survive a fire in the tunnel though. Safety rules are there for a reason even if you don't understand what the reason is.

Thanks for taking the time to write that Bob, very informative.

Madwitch wrote:Haven't figured out the difference between a small LPG tank to run the vehicle on or two LPG tanks in the locker to run the cooker and fridge. As far as I can tell, the latter is OK as long as it's switched off!

.....1/...yup you can take as many LPG bottles as you like in ur van......the maximum amount of LPG you can take is 50kg.
.....2/..no dual fuel or lpg conversions allowed.
.....3/... your bottles must be turned off....the security will check before you get to the platforms.