Propane forklift bottle

David J. · May 17, 2019

We have a older Clark propane powered lift. It has the bottle mounted
in the "horizontal" or laid down position. Random bottles will sometimes
only run the truck till they get to about 25% maybe 30% full...dies like it's
out of gas. Stick a new bottle on and everything is good.
Most of the time the bottles will run till they feel completely empty.
Not really much of a problem, just weird..........
Anybody else have this happen? Know why?
Thanks
David

Dieseldoc · May 17, 2019

A. Bottle not indexed properly.
B. Dip tube inside bottle broken off.

DDoug · May 17, 2019

"Liquid Tap"
"Vapor Tap"

Rob F. · May 17, 2019

Does the bottle holder have the little tab to locate the bottle correctly? Like dieseldoc said above. There should be a round peg that a corresponding hole it the bottle locates on to get it in the right orientation. Sometimes these get bent and/or fall off.

andrewmawson · May 17, 2019

All my FLT propane bottles have had an arrow printed on the bottom that you have to point 'down' before clamping the cylinder.

DDoug · May 17, 2019

andrewmawson said:
All my FLT propane bottles have had an arrow printed on the bottom that you have to point 'down' before clamping the cylinder.

Me thinks that propane cylinders are not the same across the pond....a pix would be nice.

David J. · May 17, 2019

Yup bottles are/were indexed correctly. The ones from our supplier will either
have a hole or a slot to correctly position the bottle.
My thought is the bottle itself will occasionally have a pickup tube
damaged or screwed up in some way.
Like mentioned earlier was mostly wondering if others see this sometimes.
We're not a big user, maybe 20-25 bottles a year.
David

Ries · May 17, 2019

my forklift bottles have an indexing hole in the flange that makes it impossible to tighten em down if they are not oriented right.

I have this problem sometimes, as well, and I trade my bottles in for full ones, so its not always the same bottle.

I have been told that sometimes there is air in the propane tank, and also, the regulator on the vaporizer on the engine may be getting weak. In my case, I suspect the regulator, not the tanks.

larryr · May 17, 2019

you may be mounting the tank in the wrong horizontal position. the pickup tube inside the bottle is curved to one side. if its not pointing straight down when the bottle is mounted it won't drain the tank. there is a hole in the sheet metal guard of the tank that is supposed to engage with a pin on the bottle clamp on the forklift. this is how you know the tank is mounted properly. if the pin is missing just locate the hole pointing straight down before you clamp the bottle.

m16ty · May 17, 2019

On a big lift, running it hard in cooler weather, you will sometimes loose pressure in the tank before it’s empty. There will be fuel in there but not enough pressure to push it out. This usually don’t happen on smaller lifts though, as the draw isn’t as high as a big v-8 engine.

We fill our own bottles out of a big stationary tank. I’ve had the tube come off before, it’s usually indicated by something rattling around in the tank when you shake it. I’ll just pull the valve and solder the tube back on.

David J. · May 18, 2019

Thanks,
Next time we get one that won't empty I'll try clocking it off a bit and
or see if it rattles. I've never looked inside a bottle, our supplier just
swaps em out.
David

andrewmawson · May 18, 2019

digger doug said:
Me thinks that propane cylinders are not the same across the pond....a pix would be nice.

Actually arrow points UP !

It's a Hyster 2.5 XL and one cylinder lasts pretty well exactly 7.5 hours so I mark cylinders with clock hours when I fit them. Saves the embarrassment of running out in the middle of a difficult manoeuvre

m-lud · May 19, 2019

If it's your tank that you have refilled you could try clocking it different until you hit the right position as David suggested. The arrow is up on mine. That may not be a standard. Picture the workers installing the valves and the arrow stickers.. Do they care if everything is correct. I bought a new tank and a kid at the hardware store didn't get the air out. On the third refill asked the worker to treat it as new. My forklift kept dying. He released the remaining gas and filled it and bled out more gas. I'm not sure if he did it correctly but it works better. Cold does drop pressure. The valves do ice up on mine.

Dieseldoc · May 19, 2019

If you are tapping into the vapor side of the tank and having valves freeze up, you need to run it from the liquid side and use a vaporizer. This is probably the cause of your forklift dying. It is burning the gas faster than the liquid can gas off especially in a cold climate. You can run a large propane engine on a 5 gallon bottle using a vaporizer.

m16ty · May 20, 2019

Also, make sure your valve is tapped into the liquid port, and not the vapor port, most tanks are clearly marked. Most forklifts will run on vapor, it just won’t have very much power. An old trick in cold weather is to run your bottle upside down until the lift warms up, this will allow it to burn vapor and not freeze your vaporizer up.

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