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Digital Boy · 03-17-2007, 03:44 PM

We're heading to Long Island for a 6 to 7 month stay at a campground. Recently I've been taking note of the many external, additional LP bottles connected to coaches, 5th wheels and TTs. I want to add such a connection and external bottle to avoid moving the coach when I need propane.

At RV dealers I find Extend-A-Stay Kits for $109 and up. Camping World sells Stay-A-While for $48 (President's Club). My gut feeling is that so much cheaper may translate to low quality.

Does anyone have any experience with either?

Digital Boy · 03-17-2007, 03:44 PM

We're heading to Long Island for a 6 to 7 month stay at a campground. Recently I've been taking note of the many external, additional LP bottles connected to coaches, 5th wheels and TTs. I want to add such a connection and external bottle to avoid moving the coach when I need propane.

At RV dealers I find Extend-A-Stay Kits for $109 and up. Camping World sells Stay-A-While for $48 (President's Club). My gut feeling is that so much cheaper may translate to low quality.

Does anyone have any experience with either?

GaryKD · 03-17-2007, 05:09 PM

Hi Lew,
I have had the CW version for as long as I can remember (20+ years). I take it from coach to coach. I've never had a problem. I purchased extra long high pressure propane hoses from my local supplier of propane parts store (this store is the Home Depot of parts for propane). This allows me to run the high pressure line from by the door, where I have the external tank, to the extend-a-stay fitting that is next to the coach mounted tank (driver's side). CW does not sell hoses long enough for my needs. The propane parts stores can be found by calling a local propane dealer and asking for a local propane fitting/hose store. Propane dealers may not sell the hoses.

Lorna · 03-17-2007, 06:22 PM

We "built" our own with parts from the LP gas company, hardware store and parts we had. In our case we needed to have the gas hose connect to a "T" (a 28 yo home built set up, parts from LP company) we have had for years that connected to our 20lb BBQ tank. It has a "hand wheel" (from Lowes) so we can change our LP tanks without using any tools (good in the cold or rain) and a gas guage/leak detector (Lowes). One side of the "T" connects to a gas shutoff valve (local hardware store) and the extension hose (old Coleman from Wal-Mart) for our little gas grill (we replace a gas grill once a year). The other end of the "T" connects to another gas shut off and an LP quick connect (from LP company), extension hose (RV parts store), LP quick connect then to a gas shutoff valve into a "T" tied into the line from the horizontal permanent LP tank. We like the little 20lb BBQ tanks (we currently have 3 that we are rotating out) because we can either refill them OR trade in at a tank exchange (which ever is more convenient or cheaper... right now exchange is $5 cheaper than a refill at our current location). We like our set up because it gives us a flexibility that the Extend-a-stay didn't and we also had alot of the parts already. The gas shutoffs allow us to remove the hoses from the grill or the RV and not worry about any leaks. I think you should be able to "build" an extend a stay clone for the same price or cheaper. And you could build one with a longer hose that the Extend-A-stay has (big problem for us as we wanted a longer hose than we could find on the Extend-A-stays we looked at).