Good post NW Explorer.
I have never had a gas cooker in the cab since after helping the CZ police in 1983, in a parking area south of Prague identify a British driver from Stoke who had died in his cab after leaving the cooker on to keep warm it was -25c.
I had to ring his employer for them, i,ll never forget that.
Klunk
bigvern1:
Always leave your window open, either cooking, or with the night heater on. This simple measure could save your bacon.
Hiya…if you leave your window open thats good…BUT…if you lie down on the bunk be carefull.
the gas buns the oxygen from the grownd up wards so you can have breathable oxygen in the top half of the cab
and the oxygen where your lieing is now poisoned. thats the stuff that’ll kill you.
my motor home has a hole at floor level so the burned gas will fall to the ground.
the pal of mine who died had a shed of a ford with holes around the gearstick and pedels the gas fell,
when he had the merc(new) there was nowhere for the gas to fall. he was lieing down on the bunk.
enough said.
John
nw explorer:
I was really ill,near death expierience the lot,no tunnel of light for me,but oddly a naked black man sat on the end of my bed…
Are we talking about the small gas stoves like this?
or the bigger ones like this with a hob fitting?
I’ve always had one of the small ones without issue but I have heard countless stories of things going wrong with the big ones.
Iv’'e used a twin burner and grill with half size gas bottle for severl years on euro work, without issues,always after cooking /using it ,i made sure that i switched it off at the regulator, reduces the chance of leaks, since the tube started to leak one time, due to it working loose from the regulator over time,Thing is with butane gas it stinks due to the chemical they add to it,so if your sense of smell isnt impaired the smell should be quite obvious, as long as your awake
It’s not the gas cookers that are dangerous, it’s how people use them that creates the risks ,If cooking in the cab make sure at least one window is open, or better still the sunroof open ,
robinhood_1984:
Are we talking about the small gas stoves like this?
or the bigger ones like this with a hob fitting?
I’ve always had one of the small ones without issue but I have heard countless stories of things going wrong with the big ones.
I wouldn’t want one of those big bottles in the cab,lol nor would i want it on the loose in the trailer ect, not unless i was away for months at a time anyway
tommy t:
I wouldn’t want one of those big bottles in the cab,lol nor would i want it on the loose in the trailer ect, not unless i was away for months at a time anyway
The big ones used to be quite common in trucks years ago (perhaps they still are?) I know my dad had them for many years. I’ve always had the small ones and although they can sometimes leak when supposedly turned off, you always smell it straight away and re-adjust it or remove the little gas can.
I smoke so any gas leaks will soon become apparent
I used to have a twin burner Tilly stove, most of the time it lived in the trailer box, but after hearing how Papa Numpty got the scar on his forehead after the gas bottle came off the top bunk of his very recently overturned F89 and hit him smack on the canister, it always went in a side locker or under the bottom bunk if it did stay in the cab.
I launched the complete cooker and gas bottle in a skip anyway, a pan of red hot camion stew went over and most of it went between the engine cover and driver’s seat of my F12, to clean it up the seat had to come out, it was not one of the happiest days of my driving career I have to say 
I do have one of those little box ones now for emergencies, breaking down in -30c would be a bit more bearable with a bowl of soup and a cuppa, so far it’s stayed in its case, hopefully it stays that way.
Sympathies to the OP, glad to hear that you’re on the mend 
It was one of the small flat types that live in a plastic box.The night it happened I was cooking and changed the cartridge so I know it was full,when my mate picked up my gear the cartridge was totally empty.I can only think I knocked the gas on moving about,if only I had used the little disconnection lever.Blood tests came back full of toxins.
Contraflow:
nw explorer:
I was really ill,near death expierience the lot,no tunnel of light for me,but oddly a naked black man sat on the end of my bed…
I know it shocked me if thats the afterlife I think I will leave it to the Jehova Witnesses etc 
But honestly that is what I imagined.
I use one those but every time i finish using it. I take the gas cannister out and turn it round it still fits in the compartment. At night put on one of the cab steps till morning. When i had a motorhome i had a sealed box with drop out holes in the bottom had a gas fridge so was on all the time had a good gas detector in it.
tommy t:
Iv’'e used a twin burner and grill with half size gas bottle for severl years on euro work, without issues,always after cooking /using it ,i made sure that i switched it off at the regulator, reduces the chance of leaks, since the tube started to leak one time, due to it working loose from the regulator over time,Thing is with butane gas it stinks due to the chemical they add to it,so if your sense of smell isnt impaired the smell should be quite obvious, as long as your awake
It’s not the gas cookers that are dangerous, it’s how people use them that creates the risks ,If cooking in the cab make sure at least one window is open, or better still the sunroof open ,
Hopefully then you would wake from the stencning agent applied to the Butane as opposed to being killed by the carbon monoxide.
I may be wrong here, but it was either in a Merc or a MAN, there was what appeated to be a standard fitment CO sensor.
Lusk:
tommy t:
Iv’'e used a twin burner and grill with half size gas bottle for severl years on euro work, without issues,always after cooking /using it ,i made sure that i switched it off at the regulator, reduces the chance of leaks, since the tube started to leak one time, due to it working loose from the regulator over time,Thing is with butane gas it stinks due to the chemical they add to it,so if your sense of smell isnt impaired the smell should be quite obvious, as long as your awake
It’s not the gas cookers that are dangerous, it’s how people use them that creates the risks ,If cooking in the cab make sure at least one window is open, or better still the sunroof open ,Hopefully then you would wake from the stencning agent applied to the Butane as opposed to being killed by the carbon monoxide.
I may be wrong here, but it was either in a Merc or a MAN, there was what appeated to be a standard fitment CO sensor.
its in the merc which reminds i need a new battery in mine
newmercman:
I smoke so any gas leaks will soon become apparent
Bear in mind that the “silent killer” with gas stoves etc is not usually the gas from the cylinder (which can be detected even at very low levels by the Mk1 human nose because of the Mercaptan that is added to it for this very purpose), but carbon monoxide. CO is odourless, colourless and almost the same density as air so tends not to sink to the floor like CO2 or propane/butane etc.
CO will kill you even at relatively low levels. Unlike CO2, which effectively suffocates you by displacing the air you breathe, carbon monoxide stops the red blood cells which carry the oxygen in your blood from working. So even if you give the casualty fresh air or oxygen, they still die.
the flying foden:
Lusk:
tommy t:
Iv’'e used a twin burner and grill with half size gas bottle for severl years on euro work, without issues,always after cooking /using it ,i made sure that i switched it off at the regulator, reduces the chance of leaks, since the tube started to leak one time, due to it working loose from the regulator over time,Thing is with butane gas it stinks due to the chemical they add to it,so if your sense of smell isnt impaired the smell should be quite obvious, as long as your awake
It’s not the gas cookers that are dangerous, it’s how people use them that creates the risks ,If cooking in the cab make sure at least one window is open, or better still the sunroof open ,Hopefully then you would wake from the stencning agent applied to the Butane as opposed to being killed by the carbon monoxide.
I may be wrong here, but it was either in a Merc or a MAN, there was what appeated to be a standard fitment CO sensor.
its in the merc which reminds i need a new battery in mine
That is standard fitment its’nt it?
I use 1 of the small flat stoves but alway make sure it is turned off canister removed & placed back in its box keep behind passenger seat
Have heard many stories about these ( backdraft ) from a member on here & they have a small gas canister where you sit you kettle /pan on top
In another life I am a Gas Safe Engineer with LPG. Butane as a gas is not usually considered to be that poisonous (It will kill you in high concentrations, which you would usually smell first) the real killer is carbon monoxide (which is lethal in relatively small doses) and odourless.
How can you be safe? Cook outside, or have adequate ventilation ie open window. Store you gas canister in a locker which is completely seperate and has no cross ventilation from you living area, but make sure the locker has a drain at the bottom (19mm internal) it will also need a similar size high level vent. LPG is heavier than air and needs to be able to disperse safely to the atmosphere if the canister is leaking. DO NOT Store a cylinder near a night heater exhaust!
Get a CO detector,ideally a digital one which will give you a readout so you can see what the levels are while you are cooking.
Get a combustible gas detector, you won’t need this if you store your canister away from where you sleep.
Best wishes to you nw explorer, too many people are injured and killed in this country by gas, hopefully you having shared your story will help educate and save lives.
Lusk:
the flying foden:
Lusk:
tommy t:
Iv’'e used a twin burner and grill with half size gas bottle for severl years on euro work, without issues,always after cooking /using it ,i made sure that i switched it off at the regulator, reduces the chance of leaks, since the tube started to leak one time, due to it working loose from the regulator over time,Thing is with butane gas it stinks due to the chemical they add to it,so if your sense of smell isnt impaired the smell should be quite obvious, as long as your awake
It’s not the gas cookers that are dangerous, it’s how people use them that creates the risks ,If cooking in the cab make sure at least one window is open, or better still the sunroof open ,Hopefully then you would wake from the stencning agent applied to the Butane as opposed to being killed by the carbon monoxide.
I may be wrong here, but it was either in a Merc or a MAN, there was what appeated to be a standard fitment CO sensor.
its in the merc which reminds i need a new battery in mine
That is standard fitment its’nt it?
i think it is a standard fitting
Thanks very much, nw explorer, for posting this. I’m very sorry about your suffering and struggle to get back into the great world of the gainfully employed, but I really feel that you’ve done all who use portable cooking appliances a very major service, wether it’s trucks or boats, caravans or whatever, it just shows that these things have to be used properly and treated with respect. I had a bad experience with a butane cooker on a boat, years ago. I was working on my boat, winter time, so decided to have the cooker on to keep things a bit warmer, I learn’t, nearly to my ultimate cost, that butane doesn’t burn well when the temperatures are very low. I ended up with a blinding headache, went home nearly seeing stars, slept three hours straight, and woke up fine and a bit wiser.