I included this note at the end of my last trip report, but realize you might not have seen that.
This little story presents the problem and the solution. Maybe it will help you sometime.
As cold as it was Monday morning I thought it prudent to check the level in my active propane tank as I knew it was getting very low (FWC Fleet campers have two 10# bottles.) My technique is to turn off the valve, lift the bottle out of the compartment, feel the weight, and if it seems light to slosh it around to feel the weight shift. The bottle was almost out, so I connected the hose from the camper to the other bottle and buttoned things up. Wouldn't want to run out in the middle of the night. I don't run the furnace very much, but the interior can get mighty cold without it.
So of course in the middle of said night, 2am to be exact, I heard the furnace try to come on and fail. It tries three times then gives up. It was cold and I didn't want to get out of bed, but I also knew it would only get colder. To make a long, cold and dark procedure short, though the full bottle was connected properly and the valve was open, no propane was coming out. I reconnected the nearly empty bottle. The furnace was able to light and I even had enough left in the tank to be able to brew coffee the next morning. Whew!
When I got home I took the bottle to my propane supplier and told the fellow who fills the bottles my story. "You have it with you?" he asked. "Yes." We walked over to my camper and I pulled the full, nonfunctioning bottle out. He attached a big brass connector with a flow restrictor and opened the valve... nothing. He unscrewed the connector, reattached, and tried again... nothing. He then closed the valve, picked up the bottle and dropped it down onto the asphalt parking lot from about 6" up. Yikes! He tried the valve again and now you could hear propane coming out. What a relief, no expensive repair needed! "There is a weight attached to the valve to measure the level and sometimes it gets stuck," he told me. "If it happens again, do this again. Don't slam it down multiple times, just one quick bump." (He might have been referring to the OPD, Overfill Prevention Device. Though from what I read later that shouldn't prevent the gas from coming out, so I don't know the exact mechanism, just what worked to fix my bottle.)
So now you know, should this happen to you. Good luck.
