propane distribution question.

[lostissues]

I just got a little buddy heater for my trailer. the trailer is the bed of a truck turned trailer with a cap on top. I want to get the adapter to be able to run the heater off of a 20lb bottle. if you buy a kit from Mr. heater they have 2 options, a black hose and a green hose. the black hose suggests that you run their fuel filter so contaminants don't damage the heater and replace the filter once a year ($11 @amazon.com). the green hose kit (http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Heater-F273704-Plasticizer-Free-Portable/dp/B001CFWF5U) does not leak oils into the fuel so that would be the route that I'm looking to go.
now the thing is that I want to mount the propane bottle on the tongue of the trailer and pipe it into the bed for easy hook up. but I cannot find anyone else selling the oil free hoses so I cannot make a patch hose into the bed. rigid pipe will make it hard to connect/disconnect the bottle for refilling/exchange.
does anyone have any suggestions for getting the gas from the tank to the inside of the trailer? would a stainless steel braided line work? or is it just black rubber wrapped in a stainless steel braid?

also I'm not sure how good of an idea it is to pipe into the area where I would be sleeping, I assume it would be fine because the heater will be in there anyway so the gas has to get in somehow. and to use the heater I would have to have a window open a little to allow for oxygen to come in.

If I cannot figure out a way to pipe it in I will probably just run it through a drainage grommet in the front of the bed.

Thanks,
Jonathan

 

[ntsqd]

Some of your questions may be answered here:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37733

On the oil issue, this is the first that I've heard of such a thing. When propane is used as a motor fuel it is considered to be a "dry" fuel and engine built specifically to run on propane have suitable mods made to them to deal with this. I haven't run a heater (though I'm about to), but I have run lanterns and stoves directly off of a std. bbq bottle for years. No issues what so ever.

 

[robert]

Visit your local propane dealer- they can usually make hoses in any configuration you want.

If I'm camping for a few days and take my propane setup, I use a pole on the tank with a lantern on the top of it, a short hose run to the Coleman stove propane adapter and the longer hose goes into the bus to the heater. Both of my extension hoses are black and I haven't had any issues with them. Just my experiences.

 

[lostissues]

if you look on Mr. heaters site they suggest using the filter when using the black hoses and their warranty depend on changing the filter once a year. I guess that the hoses themselves leach oil into the propane that can possible gum up the heaters internals. I don't know how true that is but I figured I would be better safe then sorry.

I was thinking of using something similar to this http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Heater-F271239-Universal-Gas-Appliance/dp/B000AM8T38/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_2 to use to go from the tank into the trailer but I'm not sure if it is just the standard black hose wrapped in a metal sleeve.