Propane Tanks IF you have pulled one, Ups, Downs r just good Advice? Thanks

yep. thats what i been doing in the winter months. its a good gig. i enjoy pulling propane. as a owner op i make good money and stay busy.....

 

Learn how to use specific Gravity tables.. learn how to do the job safely and correctly.. use the resources that give the best informations.. the company I worked for. the training was practically useless.. I learned from bothering the old hands from other companies and from the refinery workers.. learn how propane works.. that may sound silly.. but Propane is weird stuff. Lots of people (like most other things) can haul propane.. doing it correctly and BETTER than the next guy will keep you and other people a lot safer. I loved hauling propane. (northern California way back when) but we got sold out to our competition and they paid drivers "farm hand wages" so they could have it...

 

always open your valves slowly, keep extra o-rings. double check everything! lol.....you would be suprised how many guys forget to open or close a valve. keep an eye out at your pressues and percentages when loading or unloading. always make sure your trailer is empty when you go into the rack to load. have aseen a few guys that THOUGHT they were empty and load 9500 gallon on a 10500 tank and overfill it or pressure up and set off the pop off valves on the trailer. lots to learn, but once you get it, its one of the best trucking gigs there is in my opinion.

also remember, you always need to take in consideration how warm it is outside when it gets warmer towards the spring and summer. easy to pressure up on a hot day. as propane boils at 60 degrees f.

 

I'm sure some of the guys doing this more recently will correct me BUT..

This is due to the fact that the warmer propane gets, the more vapor pressure it releases.. The "pop offs" (If I remember correctly) are set at 225 - 250 PSI.. the way that you unload propane is that you drive up to the bulkead of a tank or tank farm.. check which tank you are loading into (if more that one in the place) and get the valves set up to direct the propane to the proper tank. Again its been years but if memory serves, you hook up your vapor line (smaller that product line but still has "ACME" fittings) and make sure that their vapor line is clear) Once that is established you compare the pressure in your tank to the tank you are delivering into. If the customer tank pressure are higher that yours, you will have to pull vapor off of their tank to to put into your tank so that the pressure will push the liquid out of your tank and into theirs. Obviously the larger liquid pipe / inlet to the tank is on the bottom and the vapor lines are on the top of the tanks. You have to make sure that you clear the vapor lines because if they have liquid in them and you suck liquid into your pump... BAD things can happen!!! Once you get more pressure in your tank than the customer tank, your tank will begin to unload.. once you get the tank empty you then want to (again if memory serves) and pump the vapors down out of your tank back into the LIQUID side of the tank.. When you get your liquid gone and the vapor pressure down to around 60psi (If memory serves ..know you tired of hearing this..) you are done, shut off the valves BLEED ALL PRESSURE FROM THE LINES!!!!!!!!!!!! then unhookm stow your hoses and you are off to the races..

Be aware also that these trucks are HEAVY even when empty.. my truck and trailer weighed empty around 44k

 

The pressures are mainly a problem when it is HOT outside.. like 100 degrees plus.. you can come up to a tank with close to 200 PSI in it and you are only at 175 in your tank... by the time you pull enough pressure to get the load moving.. your popoffs are starting to make noises like they are not too happy... and unloading a propane tank can take a couple of hours!

Up in Northern California one place I delivered, I didnt need a vapor line... there was one 20,000 gallon tank that fed an entire town.. so the tank never had any vapor pressure in it.. there was a slab of ice on the outide of the tank that was about a foot thick I pulled the liquid line out and hooked it up and slowly cracked the valves open and entire tank would shudder and the liquid would HAUL ##### into the customer tank.. as soon as your gauge read zero you had to watch your tank pressure and shut it off before it pulled all your vapor pressure out. Most refineries get rather irritated if you come into load with no vapor pressure for some reason.

 

Thats good advice fozzy.......

just remember this doc, there is a RIGHT way and a WRONG way to unload and load propane, but also rememebr this...everyone has there own way and system of unloading. not everyone does the same, and the reason i say this, is because its so much to learn at first, until you find your own way of unloading, some guys will confuse you with" no, you gotta do it this way" or " i been doing this for 100 years, this is the order in which you have to do this".

as fozzy said, just keep in mind the pressures of the tanks. with that being said, I unload a little different than fozzy....
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i unload accordingly, pull up to the bulkhead, go ahead and hook up my liquid, hook up my vapor, turn THEIR {the customer} valves on first. both of the them vapor and liquid. if my tank pressure is within 20 to 30 psi of the customers tank, i slowly open my liquid. let it flow. go to the truck, kick my pto pump on, go back out and slowly open my vapor. you will do your most efficient unload when pressure in your tank is equal with theres believe it or not.

if your tank pressure is lower thank theirs, hook everything up like i told you, and go ahead and slowly open liquid and then vapor,{always open the customer valves first} kick your pto pump on, and let it unload. theres not much you can do if there tank is higher than yours, and 9 times outta 10, it wont be higher than yours.

 

I was hoping someone would come in and fill in some of the blanks... I'm getting old and this was in the early 90's! lol