How to get a top-mount cooking burner for 20 lb propane tank?

Question

Currently, I use this cooking setup and it is pretty convenient when the travel space is tight:

However, its BTU potential is understandably modest and I would sometimes like to cook a soup or beans when on a multi day trip. So I was thinking of a regular sized propane tank (20 lb), that people use for deck grills and can be refilled at stores like Home Depot or Lowes:

Unfortunately, I am not having any luck finding a cooktop (similar to the Coleman one on the first picture) for it that is mounted directly on the tank here in the U.S. I have seen exactly that setup in other countries where some people use it for regular cooking outside their homes. Any idea where to get that?

Answer 1

Try at forestry supply stores. The guys that sell pulaskis, fire pumps, etc. They have the entire setup for portable kitchens.

The ones I've seen were a separate stove and bottle, but the stove and pedestal were sized that the stove would stack on the bottle.

We used such a rig on a large canoe expedition, and used a pot that would fit the bottle and stove. We could boil 5 gallons of water in about 20 minutes.

Yes, you will need a regulator.

You could make one of these yourself. You'd need a regulator, a short hose, a stove, then some form of adapter fitting. That you might have to make, or hire made.

Short brackets bolted to the upper flange of the bottle would support the stove. You need room to turn off the stove valve. It's also a good idea to have at least a reflective layer between the stove and the bottle so that the stove doesn't warm up the bottle too much.

Stability is a concern, but is certainly no worse that the first stove pictured. You definitely want an auto-shutoff if tilted.

I think that the height of your proposed unit is actually inconvenient. It's too tall to use sitting down, and not tall enough to use standing up. If you are using while car camping, you almost always have picnic tables. A stove that sat on the table, and connected by a short hose to the propane bottle below would be far easier to use.

The downside is that you need to detach the hose from the bottle each time. This requires a wrench. We had enough experience losing the wrench that we tied it with a 2 foot rope to the ring on the bottle. The wrench applied to the bottle made a good supper bell too.

Answer 2

As mentioned a few places here already, mounting a cooking surface directly to 20lb LPG container is going to be a stability problem.

If you shop for a Turkey Fryer you should find something that will meet all of your needs accept the direct mount to the top of the tank. The entire unit with cooking surface, large pot, and gas regulator can be purchased new starting at around $30 (US).

You can cook soup for a crowd with this.

Image source Wikicommons

Answer 3

Use a propane distribution tree:

For additional table-height stability, clamping a cutting board with a hole in it to a picnic table top might help. Or you could build it into a box stand.