Since Covid Mrs T5R Has Became Sooper Prepper!

It started shortly after the Pandemic or Scamdemic (Which Ever you prefer) became official. The start was when Mrs T5R could not find .45s any place. I knew it was serious when I found her going to through my ammo caches taking inventory and suggesting that we double the number of AR10s and AR15s and "We should probably add another 5-6 1911s!" Oh and double our ammo reserves and reloading supplies. Happy to say that mission has been accomplished and we can now arm a full platoon and have enough ammo to pull of a coup in most 3rd world nations LOL. More important Mrs. T5R is happy and satisfied that we are properly armed now!

At about the same time and shortly after and to present. FOOD became a big concern for Mrs T5R. Since the start of this we have gone from a solid 3 year rotating food reserve and a 2 year reserve of long term shelf stable not so tasty foods, to a solid 8 year rotating reserve and 5 years of not so tasty long term shelf stable crap. A bit of over kill in my mind, but better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. LOL two 12x32 buildings now full of food and both climate controlled. + The Bunker Stocks. LOL she literally came home one day with 600 pounds of vac packed coffee bricks....... Forgot how much I dislike .mil coffee! but should the need ever arise it is better than NO COFFEE.

Yep fuel became a concern and thankfully she had the bulk tanks filled prior to prices going through the roof, with real gas and diesel. 500 gallons of gas and 1500 gallons of diesel. I was content with 250 and 500 but am not going to complain.

Now it is propane!!! MUST HAVE MORE PROPANE!!!! Because 600 Gallons in the 20-100# tanks plus the 800 in the set tank is not enough. I was informed last night as I was ordered to unload the 8 new 100# tanks she bought and had filled from the bed of her truck.... that a new 1000# tank would be arriving next week and that I needed to figure out where I want the 36KW propane powered generator to go and where I want the 1000 pound tank that will feed it to go and OH yeah get the gas line and get it buried and ready! And Oh yeah take out the old propane heater in the cabin and install the two new ones I bought and replace your old 100# tanks and lines with the new tanks and line stuff I got to go with it and when I get home tomorrow night I will have 8 more full 100# tanks...... my truck will only hold 8 at a time! Sigh I have a low rider trailer with a ramp and rails that the 40# and 100# tanks chain to that is so much easier than lifting 200+ pound tanks out of the bed of a truck LOL.

So I have 4 of the new tanks rigged up but none of the right parts to build the manifold for 4 let alone 8 and only 4 adapters for the big thread connections. And of Course she demanded that the new tanks be between the cabin and one of the warehouses and that I build a awning and frame around them with a cage front. LOL I got the 3" rock down and a level ledge for four of them to sit on and a 3/8th line hooked up to one tank that goes to 1 heater, so the cabin has propane heat until I can collect the parts to build a 8 tank quick connect manifold. The system I build actually works very well a filter and a regulator on each tank then connect to the manifold and open all of the tanks up and walla the tanks empty out equally and level each other out. We primarily use the 100# tanks because all but 2 of them get used on the food trailers spring/summer/fall and then go back to supplying the heaters over winter. The other two that remain hooked to the cabin feed the stove and hot water heater. The 500# set tank is behind the commercial kitchen and feed it and a small back up propane generator to power the freezers and enough spare power for some lights and minimal power to cabin. The big diesel Diesel Generator powers everything about 3X over but is a bit on the expensive side to run and only gets fired up during maint cycles and extended power outages. On a bright note I don't have to install the new propane generator, my regular electrician happens to be the Generac Dealer that she bought the unit from, so me and Ed can drink beer and watch his guys do the install


Then there is the MikeCave my errr office..... yeah thats it my office where I work hard! LOL my two front mount tanks, 5 additional 20s and one 40 last me all winter running my stove and big buddy heater. Hey every guy should have a 20' camper to call their private and personal space. The Mikecave has prevented A LOT of arguments over the years!


These adapter are damn hard to find around here now days. I hate the center screws with a passion and the older I get the harder it gets to get the threads started. So I have converted everything to big threads and quick connects. 100# tanks have been in damn short supply here as well.... as in I have not been able to find a single one in a 60 mile radius since September. I am very curious where MRS T5R found 16 of them for $129.99 per tank! And she is being very tight lipped about it.


It is probably overkill putting a regulator and filter on every tank, No filter on the one pictured atm, I figure there can't be much crap in a new tank to filter yet and the regulator acts a bit of a filter itself. I just built this line from stuff from the parts bins to get a heater up and running for tonight and maybe the next couple of days. When I build the manifold it has two lines, a unfiltered and unregulated line on a T infront of the filters and regulators and the feed line going in behind the filters and regulators. The First line is what levels the tanks with each other as it free flows from tank to tank unrestricted. The Regulators and Filters both only allow the propane to move in one direction. If I don't want to draw from one or more tanks its a simple matter of closing the valve on each tanks top. There is some additional tinkering to be done with main valve to allow them to self level but I will not go into that, guessing Sloth and a Couple of others know of what tinkering I speak of.

Mrs T5R is right My older 100# tanks need some internal maint. The floats inside a couple of them are starting to stick pretty regularly and people look at at you kind of funny when yer beating the hell out of yer tank with a mallet when filling it...... to get the float to unstick And Two of them could really stand to just have complete new valves put on top. And speaking of Mrs T5R she is just pulling in and I get to break my back unloading another 1600 pounds of propane and tank LOL.

Not complaining at all that Covid turned her into SOOPER PREPPER.....Just wish it did not = so much work for me

 

Good lord man ,,, that's cool ,,, when things get bad my way ,,, I'll head your way ,, and I'll keep property lines cleared for ya , andbyour fence mended if you'll throw me a soup bone every few days ..

 

Looking good, First thing I'd change would be those sealed regulators, When they go bad that's it !!!

 

Yeah I am probably going to do away with the regulators period. The new heaters have built in regulators and TBH I am not seeing any reason for filters on their lines. Every orifice is big and it would take a pretty good size chunk of tank crud to plug one up. Same with the stove. Learned the hard way on my buddy heaters to USE THE FILTERS but the orifices on them are like 1/8th the size of these bigger units.

Good thing about the sealed regulators is I have collected a box full of them over the years from various salvage jobs. LOL probably have 50 of them floating around in that box. They work until they don't and then I put a different one on. I find a lot of brand new grills and heaters in a dumpster at one of the regular places I set up. It seems people don't read the instructions on how to hook up the gas and fire their new unit up and trip the safety shut off in the regulator and then wonder why their new grill or heater won't light and then toss it in the public dumpster. As a General rule I don't dumpster dive but for a brand new $1200 Oklahoma Joe or a $500 Blackstone I will hop right in....... ALthough fishing a 275 pound Oklahoma Joe out of a dumpster is a real challenge! Figured worst case is the gas was shot and I would rip the gas guts out and make it a wood/charcoal burner. Got it home hooked a tank up and it fired right up been using it ever since. Guy stopped in one day and said man that looks exactly like the one I threw in the dumpster here a few month ago. I said it is probably the same one one since I pulled it out of the dumpster here a few months ago LOL. Told me he would light it and it would go out is it would light at all, changed the tanks, changed the line and never could get it to work and got so pissed off he put it on the truck and dumped it in the public dumpster. Told him to show me how he was doing it, and turned it off and unhooked it. He hooked it up, turned the knob to light, turned the gas on at the tank and got little to nothing. I unhooked it all again and said here is what you are doing wrong. Hooked it up, turned the gas on the tank on, turned the knob to light, pushed sparker button and poof full flame on the burners. Having the knob on grill turned on before turning the gas at the tank on trips the safety crap in the regulator that shuts the gas off or down to a trickle. Told him he was welcome to take is grill back home with him after I was done cooking there for the day. He declined and said it was mine fair and square and thanked me for the lesson on how to light gas stuff properly. Guess that has been 5-6 years ago now.

Here is the dumpster dive in question. I retired it from the food trucks and use it as my personal smoker/grill now days. Wood/Charcoal on the left and Gas on the right. Don't know how many thousands of pounds of beef/pork/chicken I have burned up and sold out of that one but it has been A LOT. The legs were just getting wore out and a little wobbly from traveling around and with getting the big gas charbroiler I really had little use for the gas side of this one in the food trailers. So replaced it with a full size offset Oklahoma Joe wood /charcoal burner. This is my primary kitchen at home most of the year now. Smoker Left, Gas grill Center, and a 2 burner cook top right. Best pic I can find of it LOL and some folks say my pork spare ribs ain't got any meat on them.........