transporting 100# propane tank "upright & vertical"

That is because the tanks are configured differently for venting, drawing off liquid, etc.

Sort of like the T&P valve on a water heater, the vent is to be properly oriented and generally extended for safety.

Most welders know not to lay down an acetalene tank. The liquid used to pack the gas in so it is safe to compress will come out with the gas if horizontal. Manufactures tell you not to use the tank if it was moved without waiting one hour and one day of it was horizontal.

............Windy , Thanks , I didn't know that ! I thought all tanks were welded together such that the ends would detach if the propane ignites .

I had a Guy try to get me to haul a 48 Foot trailer of Acetylene Bottles laying down.There is no way in heck I would touch it.

What gets me is I've hauled Ammonia Nitrate Placard watch where I take it and all.Then diliver it,load is broke down into smaller loads,No Placards haul the stuff anywhere they want.

Can't even haul Matches or Hair Spray without a Placard.

big rockpile

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In the 1970s I went to a fire fighting school demonstration put on by an insurance company that was specifically telling how to deal with propane tank fires or fires near them.

For the demonstration a pipe burner several feet long was placed under a 500 gallon tank. The fuel to the burner was turned on and ignited thus heating the tank.

The pressure built within the tank until the safety vent released blowing the high pressure stream of vapor upward and into the air. A demonstrator was standing by and when the vapor didn't ignite because of being too far from the burner he ignited the stream. (Unless the propane can dissipate you don't want the vapor traveling and settling into low areas. Better it is flamed off.)

Flames were shooting about 25 feet into the air and the pressure release was so great that it roared loudly. Traffic on a nearby street came to a screeching halt in order to watch.

Men with two fire hoses using a cone spray used the water to push the under burner flames away from the valve and simply shut the fuel to the burner off. The pressure slowly died down back to near normal and when the safety valve closed the flames shooting upward ceased.

Other than the fire training the point was showing that tanks don't explode from exposure to fire, they vent off to prevent it. HOWEVER if for some reason the safety vent cannot keep up with the demand for pressure release the sound changes to a much higher pitched shrill sound and THEN you want to get as far away as fast as you can as the tank will in all likelihood explode. You are correct in that the welded ends of the tank are the weak point so you want to move in the direction away from the ends, i.e. perpendicular to the sides. Much better that the end joints don't fail and the tank simply vents excess pressure.

Propane companies will generally site their tanks so that the potential from end failure will yield the least damage to other property.

Great school training and I'd like to see it again.

For those not aware, that is _terribly_ dangerous for the acetaline tanks. That person shoulda been turned in, and shoulda lost his job for suggesting that.

Acetaline is very very unstable, so the tank is filled with a different substance. That substance will 'absorb' the acetaline in a safe & stable way.

If the tank is stored any way _other_ than vertical, the substance will be the first to ooze out, and leave the unstable acetaline alone in the tank - very very dangerous.

If a tank is set on it's side, it takes a day for things to get back to settled down to where everything is safe to use again.

To be clear: An acetaline tank should never be anything but vertical, and don't use one for a long time if it has been on it's side. It needs to be vertical & stable. That suff is safe only when handled properly. It needs to be tucked down into the other substance that keeps it neytralized.

This has nothing to do with busting the tank or shooting around like a missle, which is another concern. It is about the way the stuff is stored inside the tank.

That sure was real bad advice your friend got from the state, don't ever follow that. Someone shoulda lost their job for that.

--->Paul

BLEVE
boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion.

The propane dealer might have been fined once for filling a bottle that a customer brought in improperly. They don't have to fill it for you, and you don't have to give them your business. Since you have a pickup, rig up a holder as mentioned.

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Acetylene tanks contain a honeycomb structure and the liquid is Acetone. Acetone is a solvent often used in nail polish remover. This setup allows a use able amount og acetylene to be stored inthe cylinder. Simply compressing acetylene would not trap an economical amount to be useful; I thing the sublimination into Acetone allows the bottle to hold 10 times more.

Acetone is extremly flammable...but so is Acetylene...

BLEVE...I watched the training film in Flammable liquids class where the RR cars BLEVE; the instructor [at the time Bureau Chief of Emergency Response for the NJ DEP] used to tell everyone to keep an eye on the fireman near the end of the tankcar. Something like watch this guy, he's gonna die!

What I was taught in ag class about acetylene bottles was that a material was injected into the bottles making a Honeycomb type structure inside the bottle. This allowed the bottles to be safely filled. The bottles were then weighed at each filling to make sure this material was still inside the bottle. Laying the bottle on the side would destroy the honey comb structure inside the bottle, but it wasn't a safety problem once the bottle was filled. I've used a cutting torch more then once with the bottles laying flat on the tailgate of a pickup.

Storage: Because of acetylene's unstable nature, it must be stored under special conditions. This is accomplished by dissolving the acetylene in liquid acetone. The liquid acetone is then stored in the acetylene cylinder, which in turn, is filled with a porous (sponge-like) cementitious material.

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If you use the tank in a horizontal position, you will be drawing liquid acetone out & burning that - with some acetylene also.

Do that much, and there is less acetone in the tank, and then you have a pretty unstable gas sitting in a tank...... Not good.

Because of the honeycomb porous material, it takes a bit of time for the liquid & gas stuff to settle out & get right again. It's best to wait some time for things to settle out proper.

Actually using the tank laying down leads to some real problems.

--->Paul

Anyone ever used a small trailer for hauling 100# propane tanks?

LOL Those 500 and 1000 gallon tanks WHERE standing upright!

The valves where on top and the feet on the bottom right?

_NO_ way.

That person should be turned in to a higher-up.

It is very wrong to lay an acetine bottle on it's side. The gas is very unstable. Those acetaline tanks are filled with something else first, and then the actual gas is put in, to keep themn stable. They need to be used upright, and stored upright, to keep everything safe.

(You can look it up for the actual, proper terminology....)

Your friend was told wrong, very wrong, and that offical should get re-educated from his higher-ups. Dangerous 'advice' or 'regulation' there.

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The supply truck goes by here on a regular schedule, all the regular top-valved tanks are hauled vertically.

Other tanks, like for a forklift, or the big supply tank bolted on a truck, have different valves and different requirements, of course.

--->Paul

if the dealer closest to you pefers the tank upright can't you just keep it up right until out of his sight then lay the tank down? I have hauled these 100# tanks upright before without any issues at all. Give me 2-3 ratchet straps and an empty corner of the truck bed and we'll be cruising down the road at 70 mph in no time.