Camco 50512 Double 30 lb Propane Tank Cover, Black

If you tow a travel trailer or fifth wheel, you know those two propane tanks up on the A-frame take a beating. Road grit, gravel kicked up by the truck ahead, months of UV baking the valves. The Camco 50512 double propane tank cover is the simple fix. It's a black polymer shell that drops over a pair of mounted 30 lb steel tanks and keeps the weather and the road off them.

Here's the thing about exposed propane tanks. It isn't the tank body that gives you trouble first. It's the regulator, the changeover valve, and the pigtails up top. Sun cracks the rubber, road spray corrodes the fittings, and a stray rock can ding a valve you'd rather not have to replace on the side of the highway. This cover takes the hit so those parts don't have to.

Installation is about as easy as it gets. You don't remove the tanks. You don't drill anything in the standard setup. The cover slips down over both tanks while they're mounted, and it sits there covering the whole assembly. It measures 29-1/2 inches wide, 26-1/4 inches tall, and 15-1/2 inches deep, which is sized for the common dual 30 lb steel tank arrangement you'll find on most travel trailers. It'll also cover a pair of 20 lb steel tanks if that's what you're running, though it's built around the 30 lb footprint.

The feature that earns its keep is the hinged access panel. Anyone who's owned a solid one-piece tank cover knows the annoyance. Every time you need to switch tanks or shut off the gas, you're wrestling the cover up and off. Not here. Flip open the hinged panel and you've got your hand right on the gas valve and the changeover valve. Switch from an empty tank to a full one without moving the cover at all. Little thing, but you'll appreciate it the first cold morning you need heat and don't want to fight your gear.

The polymer construction does two jobs. First, it blocks flying road debris, the gravel and grit that gets thrown up at highway speed and slowly chews on your fittings. Second, it shields the tanks and valves from UV, which is the quiet killer of rubber pigtails and painted tank surfaces. Black won't show road film the way a white cover does, so it tends to look tidy longer between washes.

One more practical point on the two-tank layout. The whole reason RVs run a pair of bottles with a changeover valve is so you never run dry mid-trip. When one tank empties, you switch to the full one and swap the empty at your convenience. That access panel is what keeps that system usable day to day, because you can work the changeover without ever exposing the tanks to the weather you just covered them from. Cover on, valves reachable. That's the balance this design is going for.

Who's this for? RV owners with the standard two-tank propane setup on the trailer tongue. Travel trailers, fifth wheels, toy haulers, most anything with dual vertical 30 lb bottles mounted up front. If you camp in the sun a lot, or you rack up highway miles, the cover pays for itself the first time it saves a valve or a set of pigtails.

A couple of honest notes. This is the cover only, not the tanks and not the mounting hardware. Your tanks stay on your existing rack or holder, and the cover goes over them. It's built for vertical, upright steel tanks in the dual configuration, not horizontal tanks or single-bottle setups. And because it's sized to the 30 lb footprint, give your specific tanks a quick measure against the 29-1/2 by 26-1/4 by 15-1/2 dimensions if you're running anything unusual.

Camco has been building RV and outdoor gear since 1966, and this cover is a good example of what they do well. A straightforward part that solves a real problem without overcomplicating it. Get your propane tanks covered, keep the debris and the sun off your valves, and get back to the trip.