How to thrive on a non 240v site!

It's not snap on but it can be fitted with a kit to allow connection to the external filler. Disconnect this, connect it to a pigtail, and you can then use it as free standing.

Best to contact Gas Low direct as I had this conversation with a Gas Low rep and he assured me the R65 cylinder was designed with this flexibility in mind.

If I go back to a MH I think I will go for a fixed underbody tank and also use my Safefill / spare Calor as the second supply source. There is a company called Autogas 2000 (no connection excuse the pun). that would certainly be able to fabricate a connection system without great difficulty.

With a Caravan, a Safefill and a spare empty Calor (hoping you never need to have it re filled)covers a lot of bases.

I haven't come across this gel stuff yet, Pippah45, so can't comment. And now it's really tempting to spend lots of time researching that, but I have loads of music which needs to be practised today!

Somebody, somewhere on that monster thread about CC name change, when I very briefly dipped into it a few days back, predicted caravans were going to be history soon: we shouldn't be towing boxes around behind gas guzzling diesel vehicles. (Somehow motorhomes were going to be OK in his view, but that's dangerously close to going OT here!) Either way,  we do need to work on reducing fossil fuel use. Solar panels are one great way, I was just wondering about the future of portable gas. Holiday users are far from the only people needing such stuff, and bio fuels are being developed - good as long as they're not the by-product of the appalling trade in palm oil.

The gel is Bio Ethanol Gel Fuel "the Bio Friendly energy solution" it says on the tin. I have a very neat package for emergencies that came from Go Outdoors.  It keeps my Fondue Set going and is also used for lighting the Lotus Grill enabling it, along with the built in fan, to be ready to cook in 10 mins.  The gel seems to replace Methylated Spirit for those who remember some of those gadgets - actually I have a small smoker that would probably run on gel instead of Meths that I normally use.  I still remember a picnic thing my father had that ran on Meths - and always seemed a fire hazzard but that could have been the way my father treated it!  He was somewhat dangerous around fire!. 

I heat my house with LPG which runs the Rayburn for cooking and heating. 

I can remember a toothpaste like product that you used instead of meths to light petrol stoves.

That was back in the 70's

Nothing new then Fysherman - but I hadn't seen it till a couple of years ago. 

Wow, how much useful information can you get into one thread.

Only just starting off down the caravan route but I would very much like to be as off EHU as possible. The caravan comes with a 100w So that's a start and I'll be fitting the biggest leisure battery I can get.

I'd like to fit a second battery and inverter but space seems to be the biggest issue. In order to keep cable losses to a minimum (especially on the DC input side to the inverter where currents are highest) I assume everything has to be as close together as possible. Having already looked there is next to no room inside the caravan adjacent to the external battery box, certainly not enough to fit both. So my first question is where does everyone fit all the extra kit?

Also I'd like to connect it all so that if I was on EHU the mains sockets were powered from there (as standard) but when I was "off grid" the inverter (when switched on) powered all the sockets instead, the switch over being automatic. I know this is practically possible, but, and this is the second question. Am I legally allowed to modify and adapt the mains wiring within the caravan?

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

Watch out for compromising your Warranty.  I have done a fair bit off grid but with only one battery  SP and inverter - weight issues have so far kept me from going to two batteries.  But I haven't run out of juice yet.  It all depends of course how much you need to draw. 

Never thought of the warranty side of things, thanks for that Pippah. Weight shouldn't be a problem, I'm having the plate upgraded so will have a payload of 250Kg ish. It'll be a single battery with SP to start with and see how that goes, pretty sure I can cover everything on 12v so the inverter side would be a "just in case" option, probably just for OH hairdryer.

On a "need" like a hairdryer that is not life-critical, I would not dream of having a big inverter as it would require on standby. Its quiescent load will be a significant drain we can't cope with on our modest recreation vehicle solar systems. It needs to be on a switched on only when required basis.

250 kgs payload might seem a lot but two 25 kg 110 Ahr batteries will wipe 20% off at a stroke even before you look into integrating them safely into the van.

lol, I'll let you tell the OH that a hairdryer is not life critical.

If/when I go down the inverter route it'll only be "on" when in use, as you say it's own internal losses/inefficiency preclude having it on all the time.