# A Good Use For The Outdoor Propane Stove And Sink?



## meritage98 (Jun 24, 2007)

Maybe it's because we haven't started dry camping yet, but I'm struggling to find a good use for the fold-out propane stove on the side of my 28RSDS. What I really want it to be...is a small grill. Has anyone done this as a mod? Is that a possible hazard on the side of the trailer? Anyone who can shed some light on this subject, I'm all ears. Thx.


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## mmblantz (Jul 1, 2007)

I think quite a bit of us like to cook our breakfast out there while the lazy ones are still asleep. Also very good for stinky foods like fish that you don't want smelling up the inside. I personally think a portable grill is best and leave the outdoor kitchen the way it is. ---Mike


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## daslobo777 (Mar 24, 2007)

I do most of my cooking outside on that stove because I have found I am inside cooking while everyone else is outside enjoying the great weather etc. DH looked into adding an attachment and putting a grill next to the stove as we had one on our popup and liked the grill that way. The grill on our pop up was included and we found these grills that attach on the side are not very cheap. Basically, we scratched the idea since we could do something so much cheaper. We decided to go with the coleman trip BBQ which folds down and easy to store. Sports Authority usually has them on sale with an additional coupon to use. We purchased ours for about 120.00 where they are 189.00 in REI. DH is planning on tapping into the same gas line as the stove so we won't have to bring small portable gas tanks with, but for now we like the set up. Another plus is it doesn't heat up or smell up the inside of your camper when cooking on the outdoor one. Having the extra burners has come in very handy for me when using a big pot and not much else can fit on the stove. 
Cristy


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## H2oSprayer (Aug 5, 2006)

mmblantz said:


> I think quite a bit of us like to cook our breakfast out there while the lazy ones are still asleep.


This is our cook top of choice when it comes to boiling liquids and making breakfast. We usually put our coffee pot on top of the sliding cover for the sink. When we are done using it for the time being, we fold it up an put it away so that the boys don't bump their heads on it. As far as a grill, isn't that what a fire is for??


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## meritage98 (Jun 24, 2007)

These are all great points. Can anyone tell I'm a rookie? (haha, no need to answer that question). Sounds like adding a line adapter to my coleman fold away stove would be best. Then I could hook it up from the propane line behind the wheel well, and not have to buy those little screw top cans. Has anyone done that successfully? Special grill model for that?


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## skippershe (May 22, 2006)

We love to cook on our outdoor stove. Like others have said, bacon, sausage...anything stinky or greasy is a good reason to cook it outside and leave the indoor stove for eggs, pancakes or just boiling water.

When not in use, our fold down stove doubles as a great place for our Bose ipod speaker system and a shelf for adult beverage storage









There are tons of previous threads inquiring about using the built in propane hookup. I seem to recall that the reason for not doing this is that the LP flow is regulated and therefore the gas pressure is not adequate to run a gas bbq. Many here just purchase an adapter and hook up directly to one of the propane tanks instead. Then again, your Coleman may not require the higher BTU's of a grill









I'm sure others will offer advise based on their experience


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## Lady Di (Oct 28, 2005)

DH LOVES







the outside burners. So do I by now, 'cause he does the cooking outside.

No odors inside too.

As for an outside grill, we were fortunate to find a George Foreman tabletop griss at a yard sale, and later found a 4 pound propane bottle at 
Cabella's. The 4 pounder is refillable, so no small bottles to discard.


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## Bama Eye Guy (Mar 27, 2007)

We love our outdoor cooktop. Like everyone said keeps the smell out to the camper. And lets the "chef" be a part of the fun outside.

Also the outside sink is a great place to wash pots and pans - it keeps the chunky stuff from getting in your sink and when you don't have full hookups you can throw your dishwater out and not fill up the grey tank so fast.


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## gerrym (Oct 23, 2006)

I don;t think we've ever cooked inside, except when the power went out at the cottage so we hopped into the trailer to cook a tray of lasagna we had started, and of course blueberry pie for dessert.

We use the outside one all the time. I have a hose runinng from one of my bottles on the front of the outback to my foldup "masterchef" BBQ

Don't think I'd want a BBQ attached to the Outback where the stove is now, especially when you get flareups from the venison sausage etc. Poor Bambi. But tastes so damn good.

Gotta go I'm getting hungry now.


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## watervalleykampers (Jan 16, 2007)

Like everyone else, we love our outside stove & sink. It was one of the many features that we loved about the Outback. We've never used the stove inside and do all our cooking outside either on the stove or the bbq. The tent trailer we upgraded from had an outside stove also, and we never used the inside stove in it either.

As far as a grill goes, we have a small Weber bbq that we love. We did find that it took up too much room on our outside table, but DH bought the stand for it earlier this year, so that should solve that problem.

Also, like others have said, we do all of our dishes outside too. We do mostly dry camping and don't want to fill up the grey tanks too quickly. And whenever the outside stove is not in use it makes a great "bar"!


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## Northern Wind (Nov 21, 2006)

Almost every day breakfast is cooked outside, the down side is the neighbours also smell the Canadian Bacon cooking and Tim Horton's Coffee brewing.
Its a rough life spending time in the great out of doors, in the wilds of North America, sleeping under the stars in our mobile condo!


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## TennesseeOutback1 (Feb 1, 2008)

I've got a small stove and grill that I use outside. As for the fold down sink/stove on the side of the camper I'm using it to set the TV on to watch outside!


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## bradnjess (Mar 25, 2007)

We use our outside stove mainly for things that need to simmer awhile so someone doesn't have to keep going inside to check on it. Like others have said its great for steaming shrimp, crabs, clams, all that stinky stuff that tastes so good. I have done bacon on it but it tends to make a mess, we started using our electric skillet, we just put it on the picnic table or the folding table from the pass through. We have found though it's nearly impossible to boil water on the outside kitchen if there is any wind at all. As far as grilling I know several people w/ the RVQ grill attachment on the side of their tt and they don't use it due to the heat it produces so close to their camper. We switched to the Weber Smoky Joe charcoal grill this year ($30.00 @ Bass Pro Shop). I just wasn't getting even heat w/ our propane stove and didn't want to spend $100 + on a good propane grill. Gotta love that charcoal flavor. Leftover coals make an instant coal bed for campfires. DW and I do not like to promote TV watching while camping but sometimes those darn NASCAR races take place on Saturday night while we're camping. I taped off the cable/antenna jack inside and put a cable outlet inside the camp kitchen, so now the stove top w/ the lid closed doubles as a great TV stand. We've had a couple of great impromptu potlucks w/ fellow campers already this year. So to sum it your outside camp kitchen has as many uses as you can dream up. Have fun.

Brad


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## aplvlykat (Jan 25, 2004)

Like everyone else has said we use ours all the time for all the above reasons. If you have a BBQ that requires a small propane bottle to work you can not use it on regulated low presure gas supply. You have two options one is to buy an adaptor at the RV store which allows you to connect to high presure gas at the bottles. The other is to buy a BBQ that works on low presure propane and connect it to the on/off quick connect valve, this is the way I went. The male part of the quick connect is hard to find so I had to buy another more common style male/ female quick connect and make an adaptor. Also I only use one unit at a time but this works out because the wife is inside fixing everything else while I am outside grilling and having a cold one. Kirk


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## tlasseig (Feb 7, 2008)

outside cook top was at top of our list when we bought our outie--our local fire chief bought another brand TT with grill on the side and on maiden voyage proceeded to put on meat high in fat on grill and set the awning on fire or melted however you want to look at it--we bought a fold up table with extendable legs as i am 5'7" and hate to bend over a table with a bad back...we set it next to the cook top/sink with an electric griddle on it and i use the griddle and cooktop at same time--nothin' beats the smell of bacon frying and coffee perkin' in the great out doors!


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## mike elliott (Dec 17, 2007)

meritage98 said:


> These are all great points. Can anyone tell I'm a rookie? (haha, no need to answer that question). Sounds like adding a line adapter to my coleman fold away stove would be best. Then I could hook it up from the propane line behind the wheel well, and not have to buy those little screw top cans. Has anyone done that successfully? Special grill model for that?


The propane is regulated at the tanks so if you want to use your bbq you just take off the regulator of the bbq and use a hose with a quick disconnect and hook it up where your outside stove hooks up.i made up a splitter with one male end and 2 female ends and use both bbq and outside stove I have been doing this for the past 2 seansons everything works perfect.


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## Beaner242 (Jun 25, 2007)

We dont hardley use ours, we always seem to need to boil water and the outside stove has yet to get hot enough to get it to boil. It seem all my replies are on stuff that arent working?


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## GarethsDad (Apr 4, 2007)

I added a RVQ next to the outside cook center. I added a tee to the lp line at the quick connect for the outside cooktop. I was using the grill and cooktop outside along with the oven inside and had to get out the old coleman stove to keep up with the tailgating. James


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## GarethsDad (Apr 4, 2007)

Beaner242 said:


> We dont hardley use ours, we always seem to need to boil water and the outside stove has yet to get hot enough to get it to boil. It seem all my replies are on stuff that arent working?


How much water are you tring to boil? It takes about 7 minutes to boil 1.5 gallons on our outside cooktop. I only use one burner while boiling water.James


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## skippershe (May 22, 2006)

GarethsDad said:


> We dont hardley use ours, we always seem to need to boil water and the outside stove has yet to get hot enough to get it to boil. It seem all my replies are on stuff that arent working?


How much water are you tring to boil? It takes about 7 minutes to boil 1.5 gallons on our outside cooktop. I only use one burner while boiling water.James
[/quote]
Same here...I have used the outside cooktop to boil a large pot of water for pasta and it really takes no longer than my stovetop at home.


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## Beaner242 (Jun 25, 2007)

Just a pot full to make mac and cheese. Is there a way to change the line pressure?


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## GarethsDad (Apr 4, 2007)

Beaner242 said:


> Just a pot full to make mac and cheese. Is there a way to change the line pressure?


No the line pressure is set at the main regulator at the tanks. I would check the orifice for dirt and/or spiderwebs. How long is the flame? Is the output the same as the inside cooktop? Your OB is an 08 have your dealer fix it under warrenty. James


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## Camping Fan (Dec 18, 2005)

Like everyone else, I love to cook breakfast on the outside stove. You just can't beat being in the great outdoors, cup of coffee in hand, and cooking bacon/sausage/eggs on the outside stove. The pop-up and hybrid trailers I had previously both had the outdoor stove and I loved it, so much so that when I started shopping for a totally hard sided trailer with no canvas, an outside stove was at the top of my list of "must have" features.


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## skippershe (May 22, 2006)

It's even better when SOB's walk by and take notice, wishing they had one too


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## raynardo (Jun 8, 2007)

meritage98 said:


> Maybe it's because we haven't started dry camping yet, but I'm struggling to find a good use for the fold-out propane stove on the side of my 28RSDS. What I really want it to be...is a small grill. Has anyone done this as a mod? Is that a possible hazard on the side of the trailer? Anyone who can shed some light on this subject, I'm all ears. Thx.


My wife purchased what she calls a "grill pan". It looks like a frying pan with multiple ridges on the cooking area. We use this to "barbeque" or burgers and steaks on our outdoor grill. It works great and the food tastes just like it was cooked on the grill. And I imagine that clean-up would be much easier than any conversion.


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## matty1 (Mar 7, 2005)

skippershe said:


> We dont hardley use ours, we always seem to need to boil water and the outside stove has yet to get hot enough to get it to boil. It seem all my replies are on stuff that arent working?


How much water are you tring to boil? It takes about 7 minutes to boil 1.5 gallons on our outside cooktop. I only use one burner while boiling water.James
[/quote]
Same here...I have used the outside cooktop to boil a large pot of water for pasta and it really takes no longer than my stovetop at home.
[/quote]

You guys must be lucky, or good at boiling water...it takes FOREVER on my outside stove...i sometimes get it started inside, which takes about the same as at home.


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## Beaner242 (Jun 25, 2007)

Im just wondering if its the type of pan Im using.


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## n2striper (Jul 21, 2007)

Great idea Brad putting the TV(racing of coarse) in the stove cover.Heck I may figure out a way to split the cable and put a cable hookup in the stove enclosure. Mods are cool.


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## jdpm (Apr 12, 2007)

The propane is regulated at the tanks so if you want to use your bbq you just take off the regulator of the bbq and use a hose with a quick disconnect and hook it up where your outside stove hooks up.i made up a splitter with one male end and 2 female ends and use both bbq and outside stove I have been doing this for the past 2 seansons everything works perfect. (quote from above post)

Sounds like a great idea. However, I'm wondering how your are regulating the flame on the grill while using the stove at the same time? Thanks. PCM


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## bradnjess (Mar 25, 2007)

n2striper said:


> Great idea Brad putting the TV(racing of coarse) in the stove cover.Heck I may figure out a way to split the cable and put a cable hookup in the stove enclosure. Mods are cool.


The way I did it was pretty simple, took about 15 minutes. I put an new cable outlet on the existing wall plate by the inside TV stand. Then I placed another cable outlet inside the camp kitchen, top left on the side. Then I just rand a short cable between the back of the wall plate and the outlet on the camp stove. So when I want to watch the race outside I just plug a cable into the original jack and right back into the new jack on the wall plate and then the outside one is powered. I didn't want to mess with a whole new wall plate outside with the board on the back and have to worry about splicing into the right cable. If you want I can snap a few pics if it helps.

Brad


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## evansfamilyfive (Aug 12, 2007)

I took mine out. Had the trailer for two years and used it once. I just removed the appliance portion of the assembly and left the sink/dish. Now makes a great place for storing things.


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## mike elliott (Dec 17, 2007)

jdpm said:


> The propane is regulated at the tanks so if you want to use your bbq you just take off the regulator of the bbq and use a hose with a quick disconnect and hook it up where your outside stove hooks up.i made up a splitter with one male end and 2 female ends and use both bbq and outside stove I have been doing this for the past 2 seansons everything works perfect. (quote from above post)
> 
> Sounds like a great idea. However, I'm wondering how your are regulating the flame on the grill while using the stove at the same time? Thanks. PCM


You still use the control valve that comes with the bbq you just remove the hose and regulator off the bbq.


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