Home Propane Tank Mount/Base?

[Parks 788]

More questions for the newbie country livin' guy.

We have a 1000 gallon propane tank I bought refurbished that will feed our new 24kw standby generator getting installed next week. We will, over time, convert a lot of our home appliances over from electric to propane. Currently whole house is electric and don't care for that. So, I see tanks of all sizes just sitting in yards with the tank's feet sitting on concrete blocks, paver stones or whatever flat hard surface the homeowner had laying around. Rarely see them actually bolted down to a concrete pad or whatnot. My original plan was to forum up two 12"W x 12H "x 4'L concrete "beam" with anchor bolts stubbed up to bolt the feet down. My thought is this will keep the tank off the dirt/grass and give it a bit more sturdy footing andkeeping it in place. With time and energy being so valuable at this time I'm looking to do something else. My next thought was to go buy two best condition railroad ties I could find. Cut them to about 5' long and drill two holes in each one to match the tank's feet down. Would be a one day project rather than take 5 times as long to do the concrete beams.

Do you all think this is a reliable way to keep the tank secure on the ground, etc? I would think the railroad ties would give me 10-15 years of serviceable life before they would need to be replaced. What do you think and what have you all done with your tanks?

 

[dennishoddy]

More questions for the newbie country livin' guy.

We have a 1000 gallon propane tank I bought refurbished that will feed our new 24kw standby generator getting installed next week. We will, over time, convert a lot of our home appliances over from electric to propane. Currently whole house is electric and don't care for that. So, I see tanks of all sizes just sitting in yards with the tank's feet sitting on concrete blocks, paver stones or whatever flat hard surface the homeowner had laying around. Rarely see them actually bolted down to a concrete pad or whatnot. My original plan was to forum up two 12"W x 12H "x 4'L concrete "beam" with anchor bolts stubbed up to bolt the feet down. My thought is this will keep the tank off the dirt/grass and give it a bit more sturdy footing andkeeping it in place. With time and energy being so valuable at this time I'm looking to do something else. My next thought was to go buy two best condition railroad ties I could find. Cut them to about 5' long and drill two holes in each one to match the tank's feet down. Would be a one day project rather than take 5 times as long to do the concrete beams.

Do you all think this is a reliable way to keep the tank secure on the ground, etc? I would think the railroad ties would give me 10-15 years of serviceable life before they would need to be replaced. What do you think and what have you all done with your tanks?

I'm total electric and like it, but I do use propane to heat the shop/barn.
Never heard of any regulations about foundations although if there were, any propane dealer would know them.
What I do know is there have been some tanks, (smaller than yours) stolen. Mostly the 100 to 400 gallon tanks. They drag them off and use a winch to load on a trailer or gin pole truck to just lift up and leave with.
When propane is cheap, it's rarely heard of but when it gets expensive, the thefts start.
Either of your suggestions would work fine. Whatever is easiest for you.

 

[undeg01]

I grew up in the country in a house on propane. Our tank sat on 4 flat concrete blocks the entire time. My parents passed and we finally sold the place this past year. Same tank sat on the same 4 blocks for 50 years and was still in use when we sold the place.

My suggestion is, don’t over engineer it. Level the spot where you want the tank to sit, set some solid concrete blocks in the ground and level them, then place your tank and don’t worry about it.

 

[rickm]

Same as above family lived on the same piece of land since 63 and had the same propane tank sitting on concrete blocks and went thru 2 tornados without bothering it. And the tank was there in the same spot when we bought the place have no idea how old the tank was and how long it had sat in that same location before we moved there.

 

[Mr.Glock]

We have several 1000gal tanks on the farm. Has been for many years sitting on concrete blocks. Here and there I have had to do a reset on them as the ground over time settled and the belly would touch soil, which is a no no. Raise em up, toss a couple more blocks and let em be. We don’t use a lot of propane anymore, went all diesel on the equipment we use.

 

[OK Corgi Rancher]

Concrete blocks are fine. Just level them up and place them to match the feet of the tank. The only regs you need to worry about are distance from an occupied structure (25 feet) and keeping it off the ground to avoid rust and corrosion. That's how the propane company would install it.

 

[Firpo]

I have mine set on a concrete pad I had poured but that’s just me, a subdivision yuppie. Don’t see a darn thing wrong with concrete blocks. I’m running a 22KW Generac with a 400A ATS and have a 250 gallon tank. Good news is I get about 15% more power with propane over natural gas and use less than half the gas to get there. Don’t have much that runs on gas, only the cook top in the kitchen and two fireplaces. There are lots of variables but I think with running things as if I were on utility power I can go about 3.5 days nonstop. Watching things a little I can go maybe a week and if I really start getting creative I can go a couple weeks+.

 

[p238shooter]

My tank at the lake house has been on 4" thick cap blocks for many many years. Something else to consider is getting the "Nurse Tank" option on the tank you get. It has a pipe inside to the bottom and gives you the ability to easily re-fill your own BBQ bottles.

 

[adamsredlines]

I'm thinking anybody that has the equipment to steal a tank of that size would not be deterred if it was attached to a couple pieces of cinder block or railroad tie. I'm thinking at that point neither of those would stop it if that is your concern.

 

[dennishoddy]

I'm thinking anybody that has the equipment to steal a tank of that size would not be deterred if it was attached to a couple pieces of cinder block or railroad tie. I'm thinking at that point neither of those would stop it if that is your concern.

Your correct. One of the guys I worked with that had a 500 gallon tank stolen had his boat chained to the tank. (It's all mostly isolated rural thefts of those tanks.)
They dragged the boat with the tank about half way down his road before loading it on something.
He was a shift worker so someone probably had been casing the joint and knew his schedule.