Home Again, A Day Earlier than Planned.

Found a nearby neighbor perhaps 50 ft from the campsite:

Its a Yellow-Bellied Marmot according to Google Lens.  

Not much else got done, it was mostly overcast as Noon approached, and enough winds to make things feel chilly.

Wednesday, July 16

Well, I discovered an empty propane tank mid-morning.  I'd been hunting a suspected leak since returning from Europe.

I'd already replace the rubber propane line from the tank to the main manifold tube.  No luck.

Today, I tried (again) spraying all the connections and this time one bubbled when sprayed with soapy water!

It's the flare nut fitting leading to the water heater.  As my propane tank was now empty, I packed up and returned home a day early.  I wanted to run the fridge using shore power you see, while I get the propane leak fixed.

I stopped to refill the propane take in the way home.

Dale B., master plumber and friend came over and he could actually hear the gas leak!  He could also smell it leaking out.

I couldn't hear the leak but had smelled it.  At Dale's prompt, I place my hand near the fitting and yeah, you could "feel" a cold stream coming out, the leaking propane!

Dale B. Is confident he can fix it.  I'm very fortunate that the RV didn't catch fire.

July 17, Update:

Dale B. Came through for me!  We found where the crack was that was leaking the propane out:

The middle piece, the ferrule, was cracked:

So Dale bought an extension version of the fitting on the left so the 3/8" copper pipe leading to the water heater would still reach after cutting off an inch of it.

The copper tube was cut off by about an inch, the new hexagonal cap (right hand item above) and ferrule fitted and flared using special tool.

A little pipe dope, a little propane Teflon for the threads on the new extension fitting and voila....no more hissing noise as propane leaked out, and no smell of propane!