Sweartagod, every propane system upgrade goes like this.
This fitting/hose/pipe/whatever doesn’t fit. Wait a week, get the right part (alternate version: Wait a week, get the wrong part.) That hurdle cleared, move on to the next fitting/pipe/hose/whatever. Which won’t fit. Repeat.
But success always eventually ensues.
For the benefit of any reader who wasn’t raised in an RV park, the bypass regulator is the answer to the very important question, “what happens when my propane bottle sucks dry?”
They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. It means “The Ultimate Argument of Kings,” and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. “We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it’s about: You’ll do as I say or I’ll send my goons to kill you.”
I thought about that for a long time. If there’s an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I’ve got bullets – he’s got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that’s not going to happen. So if there’s an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain’t bullets.
It finally came to me – and that’s when I abandoned the city and most of my stuff, and gave all that was behind me a good stiff Randian Shrug.
The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.
Little Bear 2009-2018
Laddie the Amazing Torso Boy 2011-2020
"Freedom Outlaw. It’s not what you do; it’s how you do it. It’s an attitude — from which actions always follow. It’s a do-it-yourself occupation. And a lifetime vocation."
- Claire Wolfe, Backwoods Home Companion, 6-07-10
I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.
- G. K. Chesterton
"If every Jewish and anti-Nazi family in Germany had owned a Mauser rifle and twenty rounds of ammunition and the will to use it, Adolf Hitler would be a little-known footnote to the history of the Weimar Republic."
- Aaron Zelman
"Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from the threat of force."
- Barbie
"Never underestimate the ability of shit to find a fan."
- F. Paul Wilson
"You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs." The sophistry of villains - Bah!
- Robert A. Heinlein, Double Star
“Truth is, I’m not specifically interested in an armed society. What I want is a free society.”
- George Potter
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.
- D. H. Lawrence
Aristippus passed Diogenes as he was washing lentils.
He said, “If you could but learn to flatter the king, you would not have to live on lentils.”
Diogenes said, “And if you could learn to live on lentils, you would not have to flatter the king.”
Sandy Hook was a Gun Free Zone. So was the Westroads Mall. And the Aurora Theater. And Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Should I go on? They were all Gun Free Zones.
– Reality
“Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”
- Robert A. Heinlein
"Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
- Ayn Rand
If ever a man should ask you
For your business or your name
Tell him to go and fuck himself
Tell his friends to do the same.
For a man who'd trade his liberty
For a safe and dreamless sleep
Doesn't deserve the both of them
And neither shall he keep.
- Frank Turner
Don't be afraid to try something big, just because you're an amateur. The Ark was built by amateurs. The Titanic was built by professionals.
- Anon
"Nothing scares a police officer more than the threat of being treated the way that they treat people every day."
- Anon
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."
- Gen. James Mattis
"Lust for power is the most flagrant of all the passions."
- Tacitus
"The man who knows what freedom means will find a way to be free."
- F.A. "Baldy" Harper
"The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude."
- William James
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
- Viktor Frankl
The free man will ask neither what his country can do for him nor what he can do for his country.
- Milton Friedman
“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”
- William Faulkner
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.
- Ernest Hemingway
"Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has it has stolen."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
John Moses Browning - The most badass Mormon who ever lived.
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'"
- Ronald Reagan
The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.
- James A. Baldwin
"It is better to be a warrior in a garden than to be a gardener in a war."
- Anon
“I tried to live in such a way that, when dying, I would rather feel happy than scared.”
– Witold Pilecki
Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.
- Sallust
"Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark."
- Lazarus Long
Read, every day, something no one else is reading.
Think, every day, something no one else is thinking.
Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do.
It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.
– Christopher Morley
“I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceases to be a man.”
-Frederick Douglass
ESSE QUAM VIDERI –
To be, rather than to seem
– Marcus Tullius Cicero
“A Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give.”
– Ida B. Wells
Do what thy manhood bid thee do; from none but self expect applause.
He noblest lives and noblest dies, who makes and keeps his self made laws
– Sir Richard Burton
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
– Winston Churchill
“Happiness is a journey, not a destination. Dance as though no one is watching you. Love as though you have never been hurt before. Sing as though no one can hear you. Live as though heaven is on earth.”
― Father Alfred d’Souza
Have never had to deal with this device. Does it sense when pressure in tank “A” is near zero and self switch to tank “B” which the owner prays is full? 😉
If I decide to heat my barn with propane, this might be a good solution as like you, don’t want to hump 100 lb tanks for refills. A pair of 40s would be manageable.
Yeah. You can select which bottle to start with. When both bottles have pressure, there’s a green indicator that goes red when the second bottle kicks in. That way you can tell at a glance when you’ve got a bottle to fill or switch out.
I’ve explained it to soooo many people, soooo many times. When you hire a plumber, you’re paying for his portable parts warehouse. It’s EASY for a plumber to have $6-10k in parts and fittings in his truck. It is an admission of FAILURE, and A MARK OF SHAME to have to send your helper off to get a part. Guy who shows up in a basic truck, no Koening bed, is not serious. He probably takes his wife out to dinner in that truck. Raised roof Econoline or Transit van, with shelving units on both sides and an aisle down the center full of toolboxes, with a roof rack of tubing stock? That’s your man. Never wants to see the inside of a plumbing supply wholesaler again. Keeps a spreadsheet on his laptop, puts in an order once a week with his supplier every Friday for pickup at Will Call on Monday early. Has his helper go in and collect it, while he hangs out in climate controlled comfort. Drives his wife’s car when they go out to dinner on Saturday night.
RE: Jc Collins’ comment above – Absolute truth. It’s “Homeowner Legend” that any plumbing task will require multiple trips to the home center/hardware store/etc. to complete, and task complexity is measured in number of trips: “that was a 5 trip job.” The guy with the Storeroom on Wheels – and the expertise to use it intensively – is worth the $50-75/hour.
On an earlier post I asked about a couple 100 lb tanks on a small trailer and you responded with a mention of “….a lot of low-income hermits without wells haul their water. 300g tank permanently mounted on a little utility trailer of some sort.”
Am I to assume small utility trailers work well for 2400 lbs of water but fail miserably when the cargo is 200 lbs of propane?
Used to work at HD in the plumbing dept. Any guy that came in looking for a part I used to say ” that’s a 3 trip job” Of course he never came back to HD the 3rd time, he went to Lowes.
I had to swap out the 2017 vintage Flame King bypass regulator. Tank A went empty, and it didn’t switch to Tank B. Putting a full tank in A didn’t help, so it was off to the ‘zon for a replacement. Since I knew the fittings were a PITA, I got an identical one. Actually two, because it’s a kind of important heat source. (It keeps my pumphouse from freezing in the winter. I have mains for backup, but the system normally runs on solar, and it’s a bit of a challenge to keep it warm enough in winter with electricity. Our personal coldest has been -28F…)
OTOH, the generic bypass regulator in another outbuilding has been going strong since 2005. It’s outlasted one set of pigtails. If either building were close enough to the big tank, I’d go that way, but noooooooooope.