Don't try this at home.

I do some fairly dangerous things sometimes, contrary to what my wife thinks they aren't always on purpose. Recently I was mowing a vacant lot with my antique 8N Ford tractor pictured here.

I love old tractors, this one is kind of rare it has the standard 4 speed gear box however it has a Hi - Low range lever on the left side of the transmission which means it will run about 45 mph on the road, trust me quite a "white knuckle" ride for a old tractor with almost no brakes and worn out steering. Anyway back to my story, I was mowing a vacant lot which can be an adventure not knowing what is lurking in the tall weeds when the mower hit a large metal object and threw it about 50 feet behind the bush hog mower. Turned out it was a old 20 lb propane cylinder partially buried in the ground.

You can tell it got quite beat up it bent the valve and in the picture to the left you can see a large long crease where the mower blade hit it and propelled it out the back of the mower. The top is also quite damaged. Anyway I left it lay on the ground and after my work was done I went to retieve it and to my shock the cylinder is FULL....of propane. this rusty old tank got run over by a tractor, chewed up by a mower, thrown out the back without exploding. I guess the lesson here is these old tanks are pretty tough even though I would not try this again. I can open the valve and gas comes out but the threads are out of round so I can't use the cylinder. I would have gotten a kick out of using it on my grill and explaining to people why I have kept the cylinder so long and telling them of the trouble I have getting it filled anymore. Of course I still am trying to figure a way to use it, maybe I will try and swap it out at the store. Duke.