KevO
Well-Known Member
My NTM Hustler 30 has a plastimo 2500 cooker that is currently fed from a gas bottle housed in a jury-rigged, unsealed box in the front starboard cockpit locker. The bottle regulator is connected directly to the cooker through the starboard bulkhead using a flexible rubber hose only although this is protected by a short length of clear plastic pipe where the hose actually passes through the bulkhead.
It's really not very secure, any gas that leaks would obviously end up in the bilge, and I'm really not comfortable with it. I also want to install a propex gas-fired heater so now is the ideal time to sort this problem out properly and fit a 'gas safe' system.
So what to do? The diesel tank and spare fuel is stored in the portside cockpit lockers so I want to avoid that little lot and anyway, the cooker is on the starboard side so the starboard front locker would seem a sensible place to put the propex heater. I could then run a copper pipe through to the cooker (with an appropriate armoured flexy hose for the gimbal) and take a 'T' off to the heater. A gas tight locker that drains from the bottom out through a new skin fitting on the transom is apparently the modern way to do it but where to obtain one suitable and where best to install it? I saw some pics of the cylindrical top-opening gaslow lockers that could be mounted flush in the cockpit that looked the dogs proverbials but I cannot seem to find anywhere to actually buy one! I suspect I would want at least 4.5kg bottle capacity so that I could have one in use and another stored elsewhere as a spare.
Further back beyond the aft locker is a manual bilge pump which I could move to the port side I assume. Then I could flush mount a proper gas locker in that space but it's a bit tight there I suspect. S'pose I could bolt some kind of external locker to the pushpit and then connect to the copper pipe run through a deck fitting but it's already quite cramped back there with a horshoe, windvane mountings, OB bracket etc and the stern end is pretty narrow on the Hustler anyway. It would prob look a bit pants too.
Any advice? What kind of installation do you have? Pros and cons? I need some genuine inspiration.... :?
Regards...
Kev
It's really not very secure, any gas that leaks would obviously end up in the bilge, and I'm really not comfortable with it. I also want to install a propex gas-fired heater so now is the ideal time to sort this problem out properly and fit a 'gas safe' system.
So what to do? The diesel tank and spare fuel is stored in the portside cockpit lockers so I want to avoid that little lot and anyway, the cooker is on the starboard side so the starboard front locker would seem a sensible place to put the propex heater. I could then run a copper pipe through to the cooker (with an appropriate armoured flexy hose for the gimbal) and take a 'T' off to the heater. A gas tight locker that drains from the bottom out through a new skin fitting on the transom is apparently the modern way to do it but where to obtain one suitable and where best to install it? I saw some pics of the cylindrical top-opening gaslow lockers that could be mounted flush in the cockpit that looked the dogs proverbials but I cannot seem to find anywhere to actually buy one! I suspect I would want at least 4.5kg bottle capacity so that I could have one in use and another stored elsewhere as a spare.
Further back beyond the aft locker is a manual bilge pump which I could move to the port side I assume. Then I could flush mount a proper gas locker in that space but it's a bit tight there I suspect. S'pose I could bolt some kind of external locker to the pushpit and then connect to the copper pipe run through a deck fitting but it's already quite cramped back there with a horshoe, windvane mountings, OB bracket etc and the stern end is pretty narrow on the Hustler anyway. It would prob look a bit pants too.
Any advice? What kind of installation do you have? Pros and cons? I need some genuine inspiration.... :?
Regards...
Kev
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