Dear Chuck,I noticed this morning when I left an RV resort in Palm Desert, California, that one of my LP tanks was empty. I figured I could get it filled near my destination so I didn’t ask about it when I left.
I checked into Pirate Cove RV Resort in Needles, California, this afternoon. It’s our first time at this resort. When I checked in I asked the woman in the office where I could get an LP tank filled. She looked at me and asked, “What’s that?” I told her it was a liquid petroleum tank. “What’s that used for?” she asked. I said that LP gas provides fuel for the water heater, stove-top and refrigerator when we’re traveling or not connected to electricity.
She said she didn’t know but would be back in a minute. Out comes a person with a red shirt with “SECURITY” on the front. He asks, “What are you looking for?” The conversation was basically a repeat of the one I had with the young lady. His reply was, “I don’t know but they might have something like that in Lake Havasu.” He suggested I should drive down there and ask.
I said that I saw a sign that a Shell station to the west about five miles had LP. The man said he never heard of anyone in Topock having LP. The fact that Topock was east of Needles and the Shell Station was west didn’t seem to register with him.
I thanked him and walked back to my RV, wondering if I should laugh at the responses or feel sorry for them. In my 37 years of travel with an RV I had NEVER run into this type of answer before. I know that Pirate Cove is fairly new but I think they’ve been around at least three years now. I guess their lack of information for a basic item that an RV uses shouldn’t surprise me, but it did.
Did you ever run into this type of response before? Just wondering. —Tom Gutzke
Dear Tom,
No, I’ve never had an issue with the understanding of LP gas. But I’m sure there have been other, similar discussions that I can’t recall at the moment. But, really, working in an RV park and not knowing what LP gas is — that can’t be very common.
##RVT940
You probably would have gotten a lot better response if you had used LPs much more used name – propane. That is what most people call it.
PROPANE
Propane and propane accessories
I would have assumed that those workers are new and are not campers and changed my question to for PROPANE.
Different people, different parts of the country have different words for different things.
If you go to a store in New York City and ask for pop..An old guy might pop out of the back.However if you ask that question in the Northwest they would point you to the soda section.
Ha, you are so correct Eric. the fact different people have different words for different things is how you folks tell us Canucks from everyone else – EH!
Oh forgot to add, ask for Hawkins Cheezies anywhere south of 49 and they point you to Cheetos or something else cheesy in the junk food aisle.
And yes “soda” yet undiscovered in most parts of the great white north -Canada – but POP he’s everywhere.
Here in the Blue Ridge Mountains old timers will call a paper bag a “poke”
Or even bottle gas. The TERM LP I seldom here used.
and you did not have the wherewithal to ask for propane after your 37 years of RVing? Come on, hardly credible.
As a kid in our 65 Shasta trailer, didn’t we call it Butane? I understand now that Butane is a different product, not to be used interchangeably.
Maybe a regional variation? Our family’s first trailer when I was a kid was a Kit, at least that old and maybe more. I always heard it called propane (in California).
In ’65 you may have had a Butane stove in that Shasta – my folks had one in that era. My RV has a Propane tank, but I also have a “bug-out / hurricane emergency” portable Butane stove, instead of my old Coleman white gas stove. The Butane is much easier to carry and handle.
The hard product to find is ethanol free gas. Always call ahead to save a useless drive.
If the clerk answers and you ask if they have ethanol free gas, they often say “no”. Either they don’t know, or they have a different lexicon. So you try names that the 18 year old, who has no clue, just might recognize:
– non ethanol, pure gas. non oxygenated gas, E0 gas, Real gas, Race gas or Race fuel (except there are much higher octanes in that category)
Then the brand names that may or may not be ethanol free (depending on region)
– BP Ultimate, Shell V-Power 91 & 93, Citgo 91, Murphy Ethanol Free 87
Note1: Many ethanol free offerings are denoted as blue at the pump, except when blue is used for E15, E20, E30 and E85, Super+, or all unleaded fuel. Easy Peazy!
Note2: Why ethanol free? It tends to gum less when sitting for periods. If you are going to be parking motorhome for weeks to months, get your fuel tank low, then fill to at least 30% with ethanol free. (Most generators fuel lines are at about the 25% level of the tank, to prevent you from accidentally running yourself out of gas when parked and using generator while camping. Run your generator for a little while, then while generator is running turn off fuel cutoff to the generator.
Note3: This fuel is also good all the time for lawnmowers, boat motors, home generators, power saws, trimmers, snowblowers, pressure washers, where they often sit for weeks (or months) between uses. For off season, always run these dry. Pour unused fuel tanks into your car.
Note 4: https://www.pure-gas.org/ Your mileage may vary on the accuracy of the site. It’s an ever-changing landscape.
Mark B, Sta-Bil gas addictive available everywhere – cheap – dump in the required amount – end of problems – end of discussion.
Some places nearer the water call it “Marine Gas” as alcohol destroys the rubber fuel lines for outboard engines.
Maybe if you asked for liquefied propane (or just propane) they might have known what you were talking about😉. Liquefied petroleum is a general term to signify diesel, gasoline or any other liquid purified from crude oil.
Well, no. That’s not correct.
Liquefied petroleum gas is a standard term that comprises a large number of gases, including propane and butane. Liquified petroleum, without “gas” appended, means nothing at all, since the natural state of petroleum is liquid and it therefore cannot be liquified. Modifying to it one of the other states of matter would result in the terms “solidified petroleum” or “gasified petroleum,” however.
We can’t understand the states closing their state parks to camping but allowing daytime use! It makes absolutely no sense. If they would close their bathrooms and showers and stay open to campers with their own bathrooms they could still make some money and campers would have (mostly) beautiful places to stay.
LP can include both propane and butane (mixed, or either). It all depends. Propane is a specific composition with specific carbon and hydrogen atoms (C3H8). Just ask for propane for RV or grill tanks.
From Wikipedia:
“Liquefied petroleum gas or liquid petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas), is a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases used as fuel in heating appliances, cooking equipment, and vehicles.
It is increasingly used as an aerosol propellant[1] and a refrigerant,[2] replacing chlorofluorocarbons in an effort to reduce damage to the ozone layer. When specifically used as a vehicle fuel it is often referred to as autogas.
Varieties of LPG bought and sold include mixes that are mostly propane (C3H8), mostly butane (C4H10), and, most commonly, mixes including both propane and butane. In the northern hemisphere winter, the mixes contain more propane, while in summer, they contain more butane.[3][4] In the United States, mainly two grades of LPG are sold: commercial propane and HD-5. These specifications are published by the Gas Processors Association (GPA)[5] and the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM).[6] Propane/butane blends are also listed in these specifications.
As a full timer, I have never heard it referred to as LP. Everyone I’ve ever met has called it propane.
Evidently, many people don’t use LP, just the electric they get at RV resorts.
They use PROPANE
That reminds me of the time I went to Home Depot after moving to deep S. Texas on the border and asking what aisle the furnance filters were in. The girl responds “whats a furnace”. Really, you don’t know what a furnace is? So I walked the aisle until I found them. I was later informed that a lot of people here don’t have furances or ducted heating.
In El Paso had a simple vertical wall gas furnace in the hallway to heat up the house whenever it got cold in the winter which was not very often,
I live in San Diego, CA, which is on average warmer than probably anywhere in Texas in winter, and a lot of people have central heat here. If what they told you is true, that’s astonishing.
I would buy it for older houses (ones built in the fifties and sixties in San Diego often had wall furnaces, too, but many have been retrofitted with central heat and air), but if newer construction only has wall furnaces too, that’s amazing.
It’s called propane out here.
Reference your story on LP Gas. Perhaps if the more common term, propane, had been used there wouldn’t have been as much confusion.
Instead of saying “LP”, try “propane”. It’s great to be bilingual!
I don’t know all this LP and Propane stuff… I always ask for Tri-CarboOctahydrogen compressed into liquifaction in accordance with standard tri-phasic reference charts. If they still don’t get it, I ask for wet charcoal, suck out the oxygen and assemble CH3CH2CH3 chains myself…
way too funny!!!!!
Wolfe, I work at a university and any time that I have gone to the physics building and have asked them to fill my tank with Tri-CarboOctahydrogen compressed intoliquifaction in accordance with standard tri-phasic reference charts, they just fill my tank and I am on my way. I don’t understand the confusion either.
😆 —Diane at RVtravel.com
They use buggies at the grocery stores in the east, and shopping carts out west.
… and park in driveways and drive on parkways all over… wait…. what was the topic here?
No I have lived Baltimore,NY,NJ DC,ect and never heard buggie until Atl,Ga.
1) The LP in “LP-gas” stands for “liquefied petroleum” and includes both propane and butane. Both propane and butane may be available in the marketplace and, if given a choice for use in a recreation vehicle, choose propane.
2) Propane containers used in recreation vehicles are either Department of Transportation (DOT)/Transport Canada (TC) cylinders or American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) tanks. Tanks are typically used in Class-A, B, & C rigs. Cylinders are typically used in travel trailers & fifth-wheels (as well as BBQ grills).
3) I think you wanted to get propane for your DOT cylinder. Of course, the “DOT cylinder” would probably confuse many so I would just ask about getting my propane tank filled or where in town do they sell propane.
Communication is a two-way street.
Acronyms are a big deal today, so big if you’re not connected to the current way of communicating you might be out in left field in some conversations. Having said that I would expect someone working in the RV industry to have knowledge that the acronym LP is for Liquid Propane.
I think us old guys and gals better get used to this, if it can’t be looked up on a “device” the question may not have an immediate answer – another form of “isolation” I picked up on years ago.
Last week, I stopped at a grocery store. I asked a store clerk if they had any Isopropyl alcohol. He looked at me for a few seconds and said it should be by the beer and wine. I rephrased my question, “do you have any rubbing alcohol”. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to use specific terms, we often have to dumb down our requests.
LP gas is actually not a specific term, unlike isopropyl. Propane is the specific term, so we don’t make ourselves look smarter by asking for LP gas.
With the increase in residential refrigerators and camping turning into glamping I am sure LP gas use has declined quite a bit. Also, many RV parks have workers that don’t live in an RV so it may be uncommon to them. Now days you don’t hear LP you hear “Honey did you get the grill tank filled?” Most people don’t take the tank to a refill station they take it to a tank exchange.
To be a stickler for accuracy, LP gas is a term that compromises propane, butane, isobutane, and a number of other gases in the liquified petroleum gas family. If you want propane, ask for propane.
OR, just ask for fuel for the water heater, stove-top and refrigerator when we’re traveling or not connected to electricity… like you did.
If you would have said the same thing, but used different words to describe it. for example you could have asked for Propane gas.
I agree – if he had said propane I doubt there would be a problem. Rarely do I ever hear anyone refer to it as LP gas anymore.
Propane instead of :LP
Almost inconceivable they wouldn’t know something like thaT. If you had asked where you could get your BBQ tank refilled they would have known where to send you.
Why didn’t you simply ask for propane?
Here is a 2sec. Google search result for Propane Tank Refill in Needles, CA:
AmeriGas Propane. Propane & Natural GasGas-Liquefied Petroleum-Bottled & Bulk. Website. (760) 326-3851. …
Southern California Gas Company. Gas CompaniesPropane & Natural Gas. Website. …
Blue Rhino. Propane & Natural Gas. Website. …
Laughlin 76.
Learn the magic word: Propane
In my many years (I’m in my 80s) of camping, RVing, living in homes with big white tanks outside to fuel kitchen ranges (cook stoves), water heaters, and even furnaces, using gas grills, etc., etc. I have never asked anyone for LP gas. It has always been “propane.” And I do know what LP is. I think this letter says more about the buyer than the campground personnel. Doesn’t the letter writer know what propane is? Doesn’t he know that propane is by far the more commonly used term?
I think you covered the “propane” definition with ‘fuel for the water heater, stove-top and refrigerator when we’re traveling or not connected to electricity.” It sounds like it must take a Rocket Scientist to know what the “P” in “LP” means…
If you think that’s bad, try throwing “toad/towed” into the conversation. Or maybe even “dump.” I think some places just grab someone wandering on the street and say, “Hey, I’ve got an easy job for you,. Just sit there and smile.” Or not.
Here in the South East “LP Sold here” signs are everywhere they sell “LP”
I had that discussion at a gas station one time, until I changed from using the term “LP” to “propane” – then they understood…
Did you go in there just to cause confusion and create a story?
Why didnt they just ask for propane?
LP= Propane or Butane or a mix. Better use the name of propane as this is what is sold in North America.
In Europe is butane
The LP gas letter? Propane? I would not refer to my tanks as LP tanks. It would be propane tanks.
LP stands for liquid propane, not liquid petroleum. No wonder the RV park people were confused.
Actually LP does stand for liquid petroleum not liquid propane. Google it.
Ah, I’ve run into this a number of times!
Had you asked for “Propane” they would have gladly filled your tank.
When you enter someone else’s territory it’s you who has trouble communicating, not them.
I have found after being in all 50 states that people in this country call things by different names in different places. For a example once in Tennessee I mentioned to a person I was going to get a pop out of the machine. He said what? He had no idea what a pop was, If I had said soda or coke he would have known. Said he never heard it called pop.
If you work in an RV park, you at least need to understand the basic terminology
Most know this as Propane. But not all parks have a filling station.