Question about filling a propane tractor

The local propane company is not thrilled about coming out for 25 gallons, and I"m not thrilled about loading the tractor up and hualing it to them either.

I would like to keep it on propane, because it looks so different at the tractor pulls and shows.

Is there a way to fill it from a home propane tank (large 250 gallon tank)? I was told it would only get about half full doing that.

Any advice would be a big help.

Case1950

You should have a small vent screw on the top of your tractor's tank. Open it when you start filling the tank, it will start hissing and letting out propane gas. Don't unscrew it all the way, just enough for the gas to start spewing out the hole in the side. BE SURE there are no sparks or flames in the area, and you'll probably attract flies and bees. When it gets 80% full it will start letting out white fog, that's the liquid propane.

When you hook up the hose from your tank to the tractor, crack the valve open a little to clear the air out of the hose so you won't put air into the tank.

If it's hot, the pressure in the tank might be higher than your big tank, just let that valve in the top keep hissing and eventually the pressure will equalize and it will start filling. You'll be able to feel it in the hose. If you don't want to wait for that little bitty screw hole to vent enough, your propane company can supply you with a fitting you can screw on to the vapor port on the tank to let it vent faster.

Before you do ANY of this, be sure you wear some heavy leather gloves. The propane if VERY cold and will freeze your fingers in just a couple of seconds. Your skin will stick to those connectors even if the freezing vapor doesn't give you frostbite. Back when I was a kid and thought I was immortal, we used to freeze coke cans in about 10 seconds with the propane hose!

Take your time, you'll get the hang of it. If you use propane very much, you'll really like how clean it burns and also you'll notice that the tractor lasts forever because the propane doesn't wash the oil off the cylinder walls.

I'm sure I've forgotten something, but just be careful and you'll figure it out. We started using propane when I was 12, if a 12 yr old punk kid can do it, I'm sure you can too. Just don't do the crazy things we used to do like freezing cokes!

Kerry

I kind of like propane tractors myself, I have always wanted one. Couldn't find one close enough and for the right price until now.

Case1950

We used to fill it with one hose that was good for liquid propane from the same tank that heated the house.

We would hook up the liquid hose and then open the valves on both ends and then we would vent off the vapor from the tractor tank and this would cause a lower pressure in that tank and as a result the liquid would move from the supply tank to the tractor. It would gush liquid propane when it was full.

In later years we used a similiar setup on the liquid but instead of bleeding vapor off into the atmosphere we would instead pump it back into the supply tank through another hose using a special hand pump. This would cause the lower pressure in the tractor and consequently move the liquid across.

Make sure you bleed the fittings before you unhook any hoses.

Jerry

I found some guys not to far from me that have a bunch of propane tractors, and just so happens they own a very large propane company. So I'm going to try and get in touch with them.

I should pick up the tractor next month so I more than likely you will see more propane questions from me.

Thanks,
Travis