Club 80-90 Forums

Hi there,

Having owned my T25 "Auto-Sleeper" conversion for about 9 months now & spent a serious wedge getting a new gearbox, engine rebuild & other mechanical fettling done over the winter, my wife is fed up using the aerosol canister camping stove we've fumbled along with on our last 4 trips.

We purchased the now 30 yr old van early last June & the previous owner explained that in his 'gap year', as he pootled round France, that he'd had it converted at a roadside garage, to accept French gaz bottles. So it's had new white hose with jubilee clips fitted to a 28mbar, type 637B Totalgaz regulator, which is secured to the copper microbore pipe that feeds the cooker, in a similar fashion. Needless to say before he left France he sold / traded in all the bottles, so I've never used it.

Speaking with a colleague at work who previously owned & ran a fleet of x8 VW campers for rental in her spare time, she's recommended getting it Gas Safety surveyed.

While I'm happy to do this, my query is to whether I should have it converted back to the 'standard' UK regulator, or should attempt to obtain a GAZ bottle & use this.

I'm aware that I'll probably need the smaller 4.5Kg / pancake type bottle (It'd be helpful if anyone can reply with the model number - led to believe it might be a type 607 ??), as the vented cubbyhole that it should live in is quite shallow in depth.

Any words of advice / help would be appreciated

If you're going to get it gas safety checked just ask whoever does it to swap the regulator for you. Personally I've swapped my regulator a couple of times depending on what bottles I've got cheap over the last couple of years. I use an o-clip on the hose and leak check it after fitting with a squirt of Snoop. The reg I've got on at the moment is for the 907 size bottles, but I've still got a reg for the 3.9Kg propane bottle I got given by a neighbour in case I go back to using it. The only problem with the 3.9kg bottle was it wouldn't stand up in the cupboard I usually keep the bottle in, and laying it down might have frozen the regulator.