February 7, 2023 – Sooner or later it had to happen, and in the last couple of days it has. Obviously at the wrong time possible, but that’s my fault: the last two attempts to refuel LPG in my mobile tank failed. The first on the Milan-Venice motorway, at the San Giacomo Sud service area in the direction of Venice, just before the Brescia Est exit; the second at the Riva del Garda/San Tomaso IP service station, the only one in the area. My fault, I said, because I left on Sunday evening with the tank only 40% full: out of laziness I didn’t move the van on Saturday to refuel at my usual petrol station. Too bad I had four nights in front of me in an area where the evening goes below zero. So, inevitably, after the second night Truma said stop.
Having a normal cylinder next to the mobile tank didn’t help, because after the last refueling I had set the Duo Control wrong and instead of consuming the gas in the tank first, I had consumed the cylinder... and – again out of laziness – I hadn’t moved the van to change it! When I say it’s my fault, it’s my fault… The cylinder, although empty, was however with me and so for the next two nights I solved it with an expensive (€35) cylinder change, waiting to return to an area where refueling is not a problem.
A rejection for the wrong reasons
I was ready for any refusal to refuel, as I wrote in the past. Since my system was not transcribed in the vehicle registration, I knew it could have happened… What amazed me however is the operators’ ignorance of the rules. The refusal took place initially on the basis that they can supply LPG only for traction use (something denied by the specific circular of the ministry of 2018) and then “because the excise duties are for automotive”. Which is true but irrelevant, because these are lower than those for the home use of gas and therefore the crime of evasion cannot be configured.
When I tried to explain to him that they were right not to charge me with LPG, but for the wrong reasons, I only got pre-packaged answers, without the slightest desire to listen to what I wanted to explain to him. In any case, both concluded by saying that “if the system were indicated in the vehicle registration, there would be no problem”. And who cares if in that case the gas is not for automotive…
Moral: I will do everything to regularize my system just for the sake of being able to deal with any wrong reasons in the face of another refusal. In any case, my intuition proved to be correct: instead of one or two mobile tanks, it is better to always have the traditional tank option.
We talked about our mobile tank Prakto, distributed by GES International, here.
