By Chris Dougherty
Chris Dougherty is a certified RV technician. Here is a letter he received from a reader while he was serving as RVtravel.com’s technical editor.
Dear Chris,
I have purchased a Class A motorhome that has an LP accessory, which is also low pressure. Therefore, I cannot use my existing grill as the flame control and regulator is one piece. I was told I need a grill that has a separate flame control and no regulator. I have checked all over Phoenix and Las Vegas and no one has that type of grill or any type of conversion product. Why would Winnebago put this accessory on a coach if there is limited product availability? Can you give me any suggestions to solve this issue? —Jerry
Dear Jerry,
The grill that you are looking for is a common RV accessory. Many RVs come “grill prepped” with the low pressure quick connect fitting, and a mounting rail for a wall mounted grill, or in the case of some units, either an outdoor kitchen or rear bumper swing away grill. The grills you are looking for include Camco’s Olympian 5500 or other mounted grills.
The reason they install this fitting is so an RVer can have a safe, remote connection to the on-board LP supply. While a high pressure connection can be used right at the tank(s), NFPA 5.3.11.2 states that “Propane system pressure shall be regulated to a pressure of 30 psi or less within 60 in. of the container outlet.” Since most grills are designed to work off bottle pressure, if one is to have a grill or appliance connection away from the LP containers, it must be low pressure.
Now, another way to get around this is to install an Extend-a Stay type connection at the propane source. Available at your favorite RV retailer or online (Amazon carries these parts), these add a “tee” to the high pressure connection right at the tank or bottle, to which you can attach high pressure hoses with the disposable cylinder type connections. What this means is that any LP appliance that you can run with a small Coleman bottle you can run on your RV’s LP system. View some low pressure quick connect fittings at Amazon.
##RVDT1323
well duh! I never gave it a thought until now. We have a low pressure quick connect and i just hooked our Weber 1200 up to it, regulator and all. it works fine.
Now that i think about it, getting low from the camper input into the regulator which maintains the same pressure . You’re just going from a low pressure system, through a regulator and producing low pressure to cook with. Just redundant. the good thing is that i can take off the adapter fitting and use a bottle anytime i want.
A Weber Q grill only needs the regulator removed from the grill ( I suspect most grills are similar) . Not the temp control !
A pipe nipple & quick connection hose ( male one end female on other ) another male quick coupler to put on temp control . You also need the fitting to fit the nipple to the separate male quick couple.
Remove grill regulator then >Temp control >nipple > connecter > male quick couple >female quick couple end of hose > other end of hose male quick connector to your trailers female quick couple.
Actually any gas grill I ever owned could be hooked up this way.
If you want to use your grill as you did before the conversion you will need to put the original regulator back on
I prefer to use those wimpy little gas bottles so I can move the table I put the grill on, depending on which way the wind is blowing. I REALLY prefer charcoal but more and more places won’t allow the use of it. Carrying two grills is space and weight wasting so I’ve resigned myself to “cooking with gas”. Grrrr.
Ive used high pressure hoses and low pressure conversions and circled back to 1# tanks so I can move the grill anywhere I want. I do pay 27 cents per 1# though…
Chris
I have a Q20 Weber BBQ. I removed the regulator on the BBQ and plumbed right to the BBQ orifice with a low-pressure gas hose from the Motorhome LP quick connect which is after the MH LP regulator. I have grilled this way for 9 years.
I have had a couple of those “RV” grills and they are pieces of junk. I went with the Weber Q1200 portable grill and just set it up on the picnic table and all is good. I have had problems, in the past with mounting those RV grills on the attached rail of one of my rigs, the heat from the BBQ burner made the trailer side wall material too warm and it started to de-laminate, not to mention the smoke gets inside when you have the windows open.