Propane: Propane Tank Float Valve Fitting Modification

If any of you have an older propane tank, if you have not had this happen, your time is coming. When the aluminum 80% float valve fitting goes bad it will not allow any filling of the tank. The aluminum 80% float valve fitting is no longer made. I have had this problem and came up with a remedy for me that does not include changing the tank. In trying to find retrofit parts Manchester tank states there are no retrofit parts and only recommends the replacement of the tank and fittings. That can be well over $500.00.

I am only soliciting the opinions of my Foretravel Owner’s Forum friends of a possible re-modification that does not mean changing the whole tank and is less than $75.00. I have a 1989 Foretravel Grandvilla Unihome. I removed the brass fill fitting out of the aluminum 80% float valve fitting. Next, I removed the four mounting bolts. I used extreme care in removing the aluminum 80% float valve fitting to prevent any debris might fall in the tank. The first picture is of what my fitting looked like once removed.

The second picture shows how I re-modified the aluminum 80% float valve. I cut off everything that went into the tank, save no more than 1/2″ stub. If the “stub” was more than 1/2″ the new Manchester 80% float fill assembly would have not worked properly. In the third picture, one can see the new Manchester and aluminum fitting modification assembled. I made sure that both “top” stamps aligned with each other, so when installed it would work properly. I installed this over three months ago and it has so far tested “warmly” plan on doing this to another similar (125 gallons) spare tank I can’t use because of the same problem.

I purchased my new Manchester 80% fill valve from Dyers RV. Their part number was 66-8691. The Manchester number on the new part was V13414.

The new float valve simply screws into the old flange and passes through the old aluminum flange. In the old flange, there is a threaded center hole that is the same as the new fitting. To let you know how tight the tolerances are. With the old modified aluminum flange, the new 80% float and fill valve had a sticker on the bulb from Dyer’s RV. When I slid it through the modified aluminum flange it was a little tight when I first tested it. I took the sticker off and it all slides in with a “slide fit.” Of course, one does want to remove the sticker permanently. Those that have an engineering background (mine is a manufacturing engineer) will think it was made on purpose for this. It is simply a perfect fit. Two-thousandths of an inch larger and the new part would have not fit into the modified aluminum plate. Did I mention it might be best to not tell Manchester Tank? Tank sales may dip.