Which gas bottle size fits which van: locker cells against every base van's garage, arch and rear corner
· 9 min read
No panel van has a factory gas locker; the question is which of the four places you can build one takes the bottle you want. An 11 kg propane bottle needs a 370 × 370 × 730 mm cell. It stands on the floor under a sit-up bed in every H3/H4 large van and only just in an H2 Ducato, Sprinter or Master RWD; on top of the wheel arch under that bed only in a Ducato H3, Sprinter H3 or FWD Crafter H4; in the rear corner behind the arch box only on L4/L5 bodies (plus Sprinter and Daily L3); under a 90 cm kitchen worktop in any van; and under a 46 cm bench seat nowhere, because the regulator needs 150 mm above the bottle. Mid-size H1 vans take a 5–6 kg bottle under the worktop, or a Campingaz 907. That is the answer. The tables below are the bottle cells from the planner’s gas-locker tool against the wheel-arch, garage and axle geometry of every base van in the database.
The gas-locker rules post is about the box — sealed, vented through the floor, 100 cm² minimum. This one is about where the box goes in your van, before you buy a bottle the space cannot take: the 11 kg bottle is the default because it is what the exchange network sells, and it is 73 cm tall with its regulator, which is more than most people think.
Table 1: the bottles and the cell each one needs
From the planner’s gas-locker tool: cell = diameter + 30 mm clearance each side; height = bottle + 150 mm for regulator and pigtail. Two bottles side by side double the width. The drop-out vent is 100 cm² (a 113 mm hole) for every cell here — 2 % of the floor only overtakes the minimum above 0.5 m², which no two-bottle locker reaches.
| Bottle | Ø × height | Full | Cell, one bottle (W × D × H) | Cell, two |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campingaz 907 (2.75 kg butane) | 250 × 400 mm | 6.5 kg | 310 × 310 × 550 | 620 × 310 × 550 |
| Propane 5 kg | 245 × 490 mm | 12 kg | 305 × 305 × 640 | 610 × 305 × 640 |
| Butane 6 kg | 300 × 500 mm | 16 kg | 360 × 360 × 650 | 720 × 360 × 650 |
| Propane 11 kg | 310 × 580 mm | 26 kg | 370 × 370 × 730 | 740 × 370 × 730 |
| Propane 13 kg | 320 × 610 mm | 30 kg | 380 × 380 × 760 | 760 × 380 × 760 |
The envelopes, and where they come from
- Floor under the bed: clear height = interior height − 1.195 m for a bed you sit up in, − 0.96 m for a lie-only bed (7 cm floor and ceiling, 12 cm mattress, 93.5 or 70 cm over it, 7 cm frame — the bed-height post’s defaults). Width is never the limit: the lane between the arch boxes is 1.27–1.56 m in every van.
- On top of the arch box: the garage height minus the arch box height the planner draws — 0.22–0.24 m on FWD large vans, 0.27–0.32 m on RWD ones and the mid-size vans. The gap between the arch box and the wall (0.15–0.27 m) is too narrow for any bottle.
- Rear corner behind the arch box: floor length from the back of the arch box to the rear panel = rear overhang in the planner’s axle model (front axle 1.0 m ahead of the bulkhead, rear axle a wheelbase behind, minimum 0.5 m from the panel) minus half the arch length. This is a model figure, not a manufacturer one, and the one column here you should measure before you cut.
- Under the worktop: the catalog kitchen counter is 0.90 m high; with a 4 cm top and a 2 cm locker floor, 0.84 m is clear — every bottle, every van. Under a bench seat: the lounge template’s 0.46 m seat leaves 0.44 m; nothing fits with the regulator headroom, a 907 needs a 0.60 m seat box.
Table 2: every base van, the largest bottle that fits in each place
Roof heights are the floor-to-headliner figures in the database; where a platform carries FWD and RWD variants the arch box differs and both are given. Rear-corner bodies name the variants that have any floor behind the arch at all.
| Van | Floor under a sit-up bed, by roof | Same, lie-only bed | On the arch box, sit-up bed | Rear corner behind the arch, by body |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ducato (= Boxer, Relay, ProMaster) | H3 0.98 m → 13 kg · H2 0.74 → 11 kg · H1 0.47 → none | H2 0.97 → 13 · H1 0.70 → 6 kg | H3 0.76 → 11 kg · H2 0.52 → none | L1–L3: 0.07 m, none · L4: 0.44 m → one 13 kg |
| Sprinter | H3 1.05 → 13 · H2 0.81–0.88 → 13 kg · H1 0.59 → 907 | H2 1.05–1.12 → 13 · H1 0.83 → 13 | H3 RWD 0.77 → 13 kg · H2 0.53–0.66 → none / 6 kg (FWD) | L1–L2: none · L3: 0.31 m → 907 or 5 kg · L4: 0.71 m → 13 kg, or two 907 |
| Transit | H3 0.93 → 13 · H2 0.69 → 6 kg | H2 0.93 → 13 | H3 0.69 FWD / 0.66 RWD → 6 kg | L2–L3: 0.09 m, none · L4: 0.82 m → two 13 kg |
| Crafter (= MAN TGE) | H4 0.97 → 13 · H3 0.77 → 13 kg · H2 0.53 → none | H3 1.00 → 13 · H2 0.77 → 13 | H4 0.74 FWD → 11 kg / 0.69 RWD → 6 kg · H3 0.49–0.54 → none | L3–L4: 0.16 m, none · L5: 0.72 m → 13 kg, or two 6 kg |
| Master (= Movano, NV400) | H3 0.94–1.00 → 13 · H2 FWD 0.69 → 6 kg · H2 RWD 0.74 → 11 kg · H1 0.50 → none | H2 0.92–0.98 → 13 · H1 0.73 → 11 | H3 0.68–0.70 → 6 kg | L1–L3: none · L4: 0.43 m → one 13 kg |
| Daily | H3 0.91 → 13 · H2 0.71 → 6 kg · H1 0.36 → none | H2 0.94 → 13 · H1 0.60 → 907 | H3 0.59 → 907 | L1–L2: none · L3: 0.43 m → 13 kg · L4: 0.95 m, L5: 1.35 m → two 13 kg |
| Trafic (= Vivaro, NV300, Talento), Transporter | H2 0.71 → 6 kg · H1: no sit-up bed | H2 0.94–0.95 → 13 · H1 0.42–0.46 → none | H2 0.41 → none | none |
| Transit Custom | H2 0.51 → none · H1: no sit-up bed | H2 0.74 → 11 kg · H1 0.45 → none | none | none |
| Vito, Expert (= ProAce, Scudo), HiAce LWB | no sit-up bed | 0.38–0.48 → none | none | none |
| HiAce SLWB | 0.44 → none | 0.67 → 6 kg | none | none |
| Caddy, Berlingo, Connect | no bed above a bottle | ≤ 0.32 → none | none | none |
| Any van, under the 0.90 m worktop | 13 kg (0.84 m clear) — the universal answer, at the cost of a kitchen cupboard 0.38 × 0.38 m and a hole in the floor | |||
How to read it
- Height is the whole problem, and the regulator is a fifth of it. An 11 kg bottle is 58 cm; with the 15 cm the pigtail and regulator need it is 73 cm, and that is the number that turns “fits under the H2 bed” into “fits under the H2 bed in a Ducato, not in a Transit”. A bulkhead-mounted regulator with a longer pigtail can buy back some of the 15 cm — check what your inspector accepts before you count on it.
- The high-roof garage takes anything, anywhere on the floor. 0.91–1.05 m under a sit-up bed in the Ducato H3, Sprinter H3, Transit H3, Crafter H4, Master H3 and Daily H3 is two 13 kg bottles standing side by side with room over them. In those vans the locker decision is axle load, not fit: 52–60 kg full, best over the axle, next to the tank, which the garage post lays out.
- The H2 vans split by 5 cm. Ducato H2 (0.74), Master H2 RWD (0.74–0.75) and Crafter H3 (0.77) take the 11 kg bottle on the floor under a sit-up bed; Transit H2, Master H2 FWD, Daily H2, Trafic H2 and Transporter H2 (0.69–0.71) take a 6 kg. The way out is the same as for the e-bike in the garage post: a thinner mattress or a bed you only lie in, at which point every H2 van takes 13 kg.
- On the arch, the drive matters. A RWD or AWD arch box is 5–8 cm taller in the planner than a FWD one, and that is exactly the margin between an 11 kg and a 6 kg bottle on top of it (Crafter H4: 0.74 FWD vs 0.69 RWD). The Sprinter H3 gets away with it because it is the tallest roof in the table.
- The rear corner is an L4 feature. The classic through-the-floor locker in the back corner, door in the side panel, needs floor behind the arch box, and on L1–L3 Ducato, Transit, Crafter and Master bodies the arch box runs to within 0.07–0.16 m of the rear doors in the planner’s model. It exists on Ducato L4, Master L4, Daily L3+ (one bottle) and Sprinter L4, Crafter L5, Transit L4, Daily L4/L5 (two). Measure it — the real arch flare ends where the body-builder drawing says, not where a model says.
- Mid-size H1 vans: worktop or 907. No sit-up bed, no arch top, no rear corner; the bottle goes under the kitchen counter, vented through the floor, and the honest size there is 5–6 kg so the cupboard next to it is still a cupboard. A 907 under the hob is the weekender’s answer and 6.5 kg full.
- Keep 60 cm from anything with a flame or a hot surface. The planner warns when a gas bottle sits within 0.6 m of the heater, hob or oven — a kitchen locker next to a diesel heater is the layout it exists to catch.
Before you buy the bottle
Pick the place first, then the bottle that fits it, then run the cell through the gas locker calculator for the vent and the weight. In the planner the gas bottle is a catalog item with its full weight; drop it where the table says it fits and read the axle split and the heat-proximity check together — that is the whole locker decision on one screen, before a hole is drilled in the floor.
FAQ
Does an 11 kg propane bottle fit under a campervan bed?
Standing on the floor under a bed you can sit up in, yes in every high-roof large van (0.93–1.05 m clear against the 0.73 m the bottle needs with its regulator headroom) and only just in an H2 Ducato (0.74), a Master H2 RWD (0.74–0.75), an H2 Sprinter (0.81–0.88) and an H3 Crafter (0.77). Under an H2 Transit, Master FWD, Daily, Trafic or Transporter bed the sit-up garage is 0.69–0.71 m, which is a 5 or 6 kg bottle; a lie-only bed in those vans takes the 11 kg again.
Can the gas locker go on top of the wheel arch?
Under a sit-up bed, only for the small bottles in most vans. The arch box takes 0.22–0.32 m off the garage height, leaving 0.59–0.77 m: an 11 kg bottle (0.73 m with headroom) fits on the arch in a Ducato H3 (0.76), a FWD Crafter H4 (0.74) and a Sprinter H3 (0.77); a Transit H3, Master H3 and RWD Crafter leave 0.66–0.70 m for a 6 kg bottle, a Daily H3 0.59 m for a Campingaz 907.
Which vans have floor space behind the wheel arch for a rear-corner locker?
Only the long bodies. In the planner's axle model the arch box runs almost to the rear panel on L1–L3 Ducato, Transit, Crafter and Master bodies and on L1–L2 Sprinter and Daily (0–0.16 m left, less than any bottle's 0.31–0.38 m cell). Behind the arch you get 0.31 m in a Sprinter L3 (a 907 or 5 kg), 0.43–0.44 m in a Ducato L4, Master L4 and Daily L3 (one 13 kg), 0.71–0.82 m in a Sprinter L4, Crafter L5 and Transit L4 (one 13 kg or two small), 0.95–1.35 m in a Daily L4/L5 (two 13 kg).
What is the smallest locker for two 11 kg bottles?
740 × 370 mm on the floor and 730 mm tall: each bottle's 310 mm diameter plus 30 mm clearance all round, side by side, plus 150 mm above the shoulder for the regulator and pigtail. The drop-out vent in the floor is the 100 cm² minimum — 2 % of a 0.27 m² floor is only 55 cm², so the minimum rules. Full, the pair is 52 kg on whichever axle you put them.
