This weekend I noticed a high pitched whine coming from the front of my fifth wheel when the furnace was running. The furnace is in the middle of the coach. Inspecting the propane bottles, I realized that the single regulator on the far side was vibrating slightly and the whine was coming from there - the switchover regulator on the door side of the coach seemed ok. Has anyone had a regulator go bad? When they go bad, do they whistle/hum/vibrate?

I also had some trouble with the switchover regulator (pointer indicates which tank is active and gives a green or red indicator if there is, or is not gas available). I think this is because the far side regulator was not properly distributing gas.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Hi Ed.
Most regulators use a rubber diaphragm to control the amount of propane. The diaphragm creates a humming noise when it vibrates. This can be due to a propane tank being overfilled/ or it was a hot day outside. Propane tanks should only be filled to 80 per cent capacity.
If the humming noise continues and your tank is not overfilled, you may want to change out the 'pigtail' hose lines with a different brand.

Thanks B. Kidd. I had a freshly filled tank (I don't think it was overfilled, but can't be sure). I'll hook it to the BBQ and see if I can 'bleed' some gas out that way to make sure it's not overfull. I switched the bottles to see if that made a difference and I still got the noise. It was not a hot day that day, about 65 F. Noise happened all night, any time the furnace kicked in, so even if it had been heat during the day - it was in the low 50s, high 40s over night.

Ed,

This item come to light in a write up in Good Sam I think around the first part of this year. The noise is not a problem and you will have no problems due to this. It was due to a change over in the way the gas is pulled from the two tanks. I cannot remember all the details. The Good People at Good Sam will have this information on file under House Doctor.

Thanks John,
I did find the following items at Good Sam (not sure why I didn't look there in the first place, thanks for the tip):
http://forums.goodsamclub.com/Index.cfm/fu.../print/true.cfm - pigtail hose may be the problem - there's a ball in there that gets jammed against the regulator (see last post)
http://forums.goodsamclub.com/index.cfm/fu...id/25436082.cfm - Replace the pigtail and/or regulator
http://forums.goodsamclub.com/Index.cfm/fu.../print/true.cfm - quite a few folks suggesting replacement of the pigtails.

New pigtails are $12 - $18 (depending on length) at Campingworld.

One of the members of the Cedar Creek Club had a chirping sound. I don't know if yours sounded like that, but his problem was one of the hoses went bad. After he replaced the regulator he found that out.

I think my fix may have been an overreaction - I traded in the 5er on a newer one. There was of course alot more to it than just the noisy regulator - we wanted bigger bunks for the kids, an outdoor kitchen and a built in bike rack - but getting rid of the bad regulator was a nice bonus!

Stay away from RV Shows - they're dangerous!

Expensive fix, but good luck and happy camping with the new camper. We are going to a show this coming weekend. Check book is staying home. No problems with propane on the one we have.. lol

A little over kill every once in a while is okay!

I was at an RV show a couple of weeks ago and noticed that Outdoor Kitchens (complete with big screen TVs) are becoming common. I love the idea.

Well done. Enjoy!

Ours doesn't have the TV, but we put a TV in the passthrough and watch movies by the campfire, so a TV in the outdoor kitchen would just be silly (Yes, I'm trying for irony here). I am chomping at the bit to get out there, but nothing's open in NJ until March 30th, and alot don't open until April 15th!

I'm hoping we get some use out of the outdoor kitchen - of course now there's even more LP connections to worry about!

Yargh... Here I traded in one Keystone on another, and have almost the exact same problem. The tank opposite the regulator is full - but when I switch over to that tank, the indicator goes to red, as in - empty tank. It's not making the gawd awful noise this time (though it did briefly), but I've got no LP coming out of one tank. I bled some out to make sure it wasn't pressure. I'll try replacing the pig tail this weekend.