Unless I am mistaken, I believe it is a violation of federal law to refill and transport the small LP gas cylinders that we use for portable stoves. The issue here is if the cylider is overfilled, you risk a BLEVE (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion) of the cylinder. If you overfill the cylinder and place it near a heat source (hot automobile in the summer for example) the liquid expands to the point where the steel cylinder fails and explodes. I would strongly recommend researching the law before refilling the cylinders. The use of the 20 lb. backyard gas grille cylinders for static or drive up camping is ok but I much prefer liquid fuel for backpacking. Our council bans liquid fuels at our local facilites except for backpacking training. As our troop does a lot of backpacking and regularly sends contingents to Philmont, Double H, Northern Tier, etc. we always camp with liquid fuel stoves in order to teach the youth (and adults) how to safely use these stoves. Any fuel and equipment used according to the directions and in a safe manner is safe. Any fuel or equipment used inappropriately or in an unsafe manner is potentially dangerous. It makes no sense to me to force our scouts to use LP equipment locally and then require them to use liquid fuel equipment at one of the high adventure bases with little or no training and/or practice.
