Travelander camper gas bottle upgrade

For those who have a travelander camper or with a similar camper gas bottle issue.

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We have a Travelander slide on camper and have found it to be fantastic. I have over the two years made some minor improvements. The camper has a 3 burner gas stove and a gas hot water system but only has carrying capacity for one 3.7litre gas bottle.

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As the camper is mainly a fibreglass construction and behind the gas storage there was ample space I set about creating more space for another gas bottle. I could have put the extra bottle inside the battery storage compartment but it is difficult to access and I don’t think gas and electrical wiring are a good pair.

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First I marked the rear section of wall to cut out and move backwards. I used a small angle grinder with one of those really thin blades. Also wear proper breathing mask and safety glasses.
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Next a quick fit with the two bottles to make sure they will fit as designed. I would hate to do all the work only to find they don’t fit.
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To make the new fibre glass panel to fill in the gap where the rear section has been pushed back I started with a piece of white melamine shelving. Sanded smooth with a random orbital sander. Then polished with car polish to all release of the white flow coat of fibreglass.
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After letting a layer of white flow coat and then 2 layers of fibreglass matting dry for a couple of hours the separate easily with a knife. A quick cut to size with some tin snips and ready for fitting.
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Just put the panels in place and fibreglass the edges together with a few layers and then paint white flow coat over the joints – all done inside and outside.
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Final stage is to put the gas bottles back in with tie down straps. I now have the two gas bottles in a neat storage compartment. I have found with 4 adults we can go about 2 weeks on one bottle so two should be great. The other big concern would be if we where out only a couple of days and left the gas on or had a leak – if we ran out of gas on one bottle at least there is now a back up.

David