There’s no denying that gas is a camping cooking staple.
When you first start camping, it’s not uncommon to begin with small Butane or Propane canisters, often found stocked on the shelf alongside the camp stoves.
However, as many find out, they don’t last long, and don’t perform well in cold climates. Perhaps most importantly, they can’t be easily reused, creating a lot of waste.
For these reasons, LPG, or Liquified Petroleum Gas, has remained the most popular fuel for camping over the last few decades. It’s excellent for cooking, as it burns cleanly and performs reliably. It can often be used for other camping needs, like hot water, lanterns, and heaters. LPG bottles come in various sizes, are generally well made, and, better still, have a service life of ten years. Most of all, if you are conscious of your footprint, they are incredibly easy to refill, meaning that one container will serve you for a decade. Compared to the small disposable canisters, they’re a no-brainer.
But where you may struggle with LPG is working out where to store it on your trips. It’s universally accepted that transporting ‘Dangerous Goods’, such as gas, inside your car is not advised. Roof rack mounts are available, but these can be a hassle to access, or maybe you don’t have a roof rack. That doesn’t leave many options.
That’s why we created the Out-Back Gas Bottle Mount. Securing to rear-mounted spare tyres, it provides a secure attachment point that ticks both boxes: outside the vehicle and within easy reach.
The Out-Back Mount is unique, and as with all new and innovative solutions, we often receive customer questions. Their concerns regarding carrying gas on a rear spare tyre usually fall into two categories: 1. Is it legal? And 2. Is it safe?
While we’ve designed our mount to be safe and secure, we thought it best to collate all the information you need to assess the suitability of the Out-Back mount for your setup and situation.
So, let's get straight to the point:
In Australia, is it illegal to mount LPG bottles on the rear of a vehicle?
The simple answer is: No, it is not illegal.
However, there are requirements and recommendations for mounting an LPG bottle in this location.
In this guide, we’ll dive deeper and explain how to ensure you follow safety and compliance guidelines, and how to position your Gas Bottle to minimise risk.
Firstly, for transparency, let’s lay out the codes, guidelines, and regulatory bodies consulted to create this guide. Each Australian State and Territory has specific regulations for transporting Dangerous Goods (LPG) for personal use.
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8 Quick Risk Assessment Steps to Do Before Mounting an LPG Bottle
As the vehicle operator, we recommend doing a quick risk assessment if you’re concerned about storing gas on your rear spare tyre. Regardless of your jurisdiction, the common themes for storing Dangerous Goods include ensuring the container is adequately restrained, not obstructing vehicle lighting or number plates, and minimising impact risk.
To make it simple, we’ve outlined the steps to ensure safety and compliance with Dangerous Goods (DG) regulations across all Australian jurisdictions.
1. Manufacturing Standards
Ensure the container and mount/holder are manufactured to recognised standards and purchased from reputable industry leaders.
The standard 1.25kg and 2kg Gas Bottles compatible with our mount are available from leading retailers such as Bunnings, Snowys, Tentworld, Anaconda, and BCF. Gas bottle canisters should mention being manufactured in accordance with Australian Standards.
Our Out-Back Mounts are designed to withstand loads of 4G in all directions, which exceeds the requirements of the National Load Restraint guide for light vehicles.
2. Check Visibility
Ensure that vehicle lighting and the number plate are not obstructed.
ADR13/00 uses the term “geometric visibility” to describe the reference angles that your lights must be visible. To keep this risk assessment brief, we’ve opted not to include all the figures and angles, but these can be found in the ADR under clauses 6.5, 6.7 and 6.9.
Instead, let’s summarise it: ensure your lights are unobstructed and visible. You want to ensure all of your driving lights, brake lights, reverse lights, and indicators are visible from behind and beside the rear of your vehicle and from vehicles that are lower or more elevated than yours.
According to Club 4x4, vehicle registration plates should be visible from 20 metres, at an arc of 45 degrees in both the horizontal and vertical planes.
In short, be smart and don’t block your signals, or your number plate.
3. Legal Compliance
Confirm that the container is within the legal bounds of the vehicle.
Items must not protrude dangerously from the vehicle. As the Gas Bottle Mount is designed to sit flush with your rear spare tyre, you can rest assured it is within legal projections.
However, if you’re curious, the Load Restraint Guide for Light Vehicles (2018) contains the maximum lengths for projections from a vehicle. They can be summarised as follows:
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4. Load Restraint
Ensure the load is adequately restrained to withstand forces during normal driving conditions, including heavy braking, cornering, acceleration, and minor collisions.
Restraint systems must withstand specific forces in different directions. The Out-Back Spare Tyre Mount secures to the tyre using a 450kg rated ratchet strap, while the Out-Back Gas Bottle Mount attaches using M8 bolts and nyloc nuts. The Gas Bottle is then secured using clamps and screw-In knobs, with a cam lock strap as additional security.
This configuration is designed to work in on or off-road environments, and our team has extensively tested it over thousands of kilometres in different types of terrain. Still, on long trips, we recommend routinely checking your mount is secure, as part of your vehicle maintenance.
5. Impact Risk Minimisation
Position the container to be as far from potential impact zones as possible.
While we can't easily predict every impact, the most common potential impact is from a typical bonnet or bull bar height of another vehicle.
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6. Upright Mounting
Mount the container in an upright position to ensure the release valve works as intended.
The gas bottle must be stored in the correct orientation to ensure safe and proper operation of the tank on your rear spare wheel. To store in the correct orientation, the valve of the gas bottle must always be higher than the level of the liquid inside the bottle. This ensures that when the valve is open only gas is released, rather than liquid, which can adversely affect the operation of appliances connected to it.
Another tip is to ensure the valve outlet protective cap is securely fitted when transporting gas. In fact, if you head to your local camping store, they may refuse to fill your bottle without one. Never remove any valve protection device during transport.
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7. Insurance Verification
For extra assurance, check with the vehicle insurer to ensure coverage for mounting the container in the chosen position in the event of a collision.
Most insurers require that your vehicle's modifications comply with the laws and guidelines of your jurisdiction, as per those laid out in this guide. If you are still concerned, we recommend contacting your insurer.
8. Risk Elimination and Minimisation
7. Conduct a thorough risk assessment to eliminate or minimise risks associated with mounting the LPG bottle.
The steps to risk minimisation and elimination are simple: Assess any risks associated with your chosen mounting location. Eliminate the risk where possible. If elimination is not feasible, minimise the risk to the greatest extent practicable.
Following these steps, you can ensure your vehicle complies with the safety and regulatory standards for transporting LPG bottles across all Australian jurisdictions.
As always, if you’ve got more questions or would like additional information, we’re here to help.
For further reading, we recommend:
ADR49/00, ADR13/00, National Load Restraint Guide, ADR 61/03, Club 4X4.
Found yourself off-track? Our team is on hand to help you get unstuck.
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