Holding tanks

[crazycal]

Has anyone used 55 gallon poly drums for holding tanks. They are cheap and super strong. If they get nasty, just throw them out and get new ones.

[GoneCamping]

Why not just use RV holding tanks, cost ya about $45 plus shipping...

[the_experience03]

I use a 55 gallon plastic tank for my freshwater holding tank inside, but if I were to do it a second time I would probably go with RV tanks. They are just so much simpler. However, I had the plastic barrel and the time so it worked out ok.

[lapeer20m]

i keep 2 drums of jacuzzi water inside the bus in plastic 55 gal drums.

in my old skoolie i used a pair of 30 gallon plastic drums underneath for wvo. The 30 gallon containers fit under the bus almost perfectly. The 55's are too big to fit nice under my bus.

i find the plastic to be easy to drill and tap for NPT fittings

[crazycal]

While looking at pictures, I saw this one. It is what I had guessed might happen with a rv holding tank if it got hit or something. My bus came with one holding tank and it seems pretty flimsy. Try hitting a poly drum with a hammer and see what happens. Nothing. The plastic is thicker by at least 2-3 times. I am probably going to use the drums for my bus. I just wanted to know if anyone had a negative experience. The picture was used without permission. I hope thats ok Richard.

http://www.skoolie.net/gallery2/v/Skooli ... 2.JPG.html

[GoneCamping]

That thing doesn't look like it was mounted real well. I used a pair of THESE for mine, plus a regular 60 gal fresh tank that came out of a donor 4th wheel...

I'm not sure how things work in your corner of the world, but have this nagging feeling that if I don't use approved parts & pieces on this thing, I may find myself either in trouble with some law type individual, or just being fforced to re-do it all again later....niether thought strikes me as particularly appealing so I'm using as many approved parts & pieces as I can. This thing has to be inspected by DMV before they will convert title to MH....

[Elliot Naess]

Boy howdy -- not to pick on Richard, but everything takes learning. Here we learned
that one support under that tank was inadequate. WAY inadequate. I'm getting ready
to make four similar installations, and I have stocked up with ten or 15 pieces of
angle steel and two sheets of plywood.

[captainkf]

I am glad to hear people are learning from my "learning curve" . I rushed putting in the tanks. They have 4 peices of angle iron they are resting on, well actually more like sandwiched in between. I used 16 pieces at 8 per tank. However, I did not put a peice at the end like I should have as it would have interfeared with the massive battery bank inside the bus. I did learn a horrible lesson. I am not going into it, however I will never, NEVER buy used waste tanks (read: delicate and brittle) again.


GoneCamping are you happy with the tanks you bought? I am going to buy some in the next couple of weeks and would like somthing with a bigger holding capacity, fittings already installed including the sensors. Does anyone else have any other vendors they have had good prices and products from?

Spend the money and buy commercial tanks, support them well and you will never have to mess around with them again. Well, at least that's what I'm hoping. Because removing a half full, broken 48 gallon black tank is much worse than you can possibly imagine. BLAHHHHH!!!!

-Richard

[Elliot Naess]

In that picture, I don't see any support under the left half of the tank. I do see the support
at the right end now (at the "step" in the tank), but that left side seems doomed to "fall down".

Glad you are not offended that we are picking on you, Richard! Like I said, everything
takes learning. I've made a blunder or two myself over the years!

And you are right about used plastic. The black ABS isn't so bad, but that white plastic must
be considered "consumable". Ever leave a milk jug out in the weather for a while?

I'm buying my tanks from a local RV dealer. They belong to some RV dealer organization
that has a huge catalog and prints a batch with each store's name on the cover. Anything in
that catalog can be ordered and arrives in a few days. In addition, they have some other
catalogs behind the counter. So you can get darn near any kind of tank to fit the available
space, even if they don't have it in stock.

[the_experience03]

One thing about using the drums...if you use the standard openings on them, one was pipe thread and the other was some goofy thread on mine. Also, the 3/4 inch NPT knockout in the cap was USELESS. Those threads will not seal. Plan on either making the tank removable or putting fittings somewhere other than the NPT fitting at the top. Otherwise you will end up with stagnant water in the bottom. My tank is under my bed and VERY easily removed by design so I can flush it after every trip. Make sure you get food grade barrels. I honestly don't know if mine are or not. I've never looked for an NSF logo on them. When I first installed them they added a distinct plastic taste to the water. It may well have been my plumbing as well. A flush of bleach and freshwater tank treatment pretty much cured that though.

[crazycal]

I only used the picture as an example as to how flimsy I thought the rv style tanks were. I thought of using the cradles or straps that are used to hold the round fuel tanks to truck frames. Those are more than strong enough to hold the poly drums.

As for using wood under the bus, I don't think that is a good idea. I have seen pictures of many buses that have used wood. Unless it is being used as something temporary or an emergency fix, I think metal would be the way to go. Whether it's steel or aluminum, you are better off. The amount of time that you spend on a particular task might be tens of hours or more. Why repeat it because your wood has decayed.

[Elliot Naess]

Good point about plywood decaying. But I want something a bit soft that won't damage
the plastic tanks. I'm talking about using the plywood between the tank and the angle
steel, to spread the load and isolate from hard edges. Some decay wouldn't do
much harm -- I might want to tighten the bolts every few years. And with the tanks
having a limited life span....
But you are sure right about wood. I'm planning a barn and a house, and neither
will have an ounce of wood.

[crazycal]

As for the drums that you used for your drinking water, I would definetly make sure they were food grade. Those drums are used for everything from very dangerous chemicals to some that I have that held some very yummy smelling vanilla. I don't drink the water where I live. I'm on a well and the water sucks. The tap water in town sucks too, just more ground water with more chemicals in it. We have these wind mill kiosks that have puified water. Yes they start with tap water, but it goes through a water softener, charcoal filter, uv light and about 4 or 5 other things. Some of the best water I've ever tasted. That's what I drink at home and I'm sure that's what I will drink on the road. It only costs a quarter a gallon. I use 3 gallon water jugs with a handle that come full from Smart and Final for about 3 bucks. After they are empty, I rinse them with water and a couple caps of bleach. I put the cap on them until I refill them.

I think I will use three drums for holding tanks on the bus. One for fresh water, one for grey and one for black.

[crazycal]

ICF's and concrete baby. Only way to go. That's what I'll build my house out of. Warning! Warning! Possible thread drift!

[crazycal]

If you want to spread the load out, use angle iron with expanded metal.

[the_experience03]

In know my tanks are flushed if they had held something dangerous. They were the barrels that supported our diving platform raft thinger on the lake for years and years. The wood finally rotted and we kept the plastic barrels. They were partially full of lake water (most likely from those damn leaky plugs).

Ah the good old days of wandering around the lake for where that raft drifted to after a big storm. That all ended when we decided to use a cracked 350 chevy block as an anchor instead of all the old steel giblets we have been using.

[captainkf]

Instead of regular lumber look into plastic lumber. I have used plastic 2 by 4's and they are quite easy to use. Bonus with this material is that water has no negative effect. So you could build a frame out of metal, then support the tanks with the plastic lumber. It is available from home stores. It's twice as much as wood lumber.


Elliot Naess

"In that picture, I don't see any support under the left half of the tank. I do see the support at the right end now (at the "step" in the tank), but that left side seems doomed to "fall down".

Elliot, the picture is misleading as the tanks were over 8' long. The broken peice was under two feet long. It was supported evenly, just needed one more. If I had supported it perfectly though, I still think it may have broken. After a week long trip, the plastic was very soft.


-Richard

[Elliot Naess]

Richard:
I see. Then it sounds like we all have learned quite a bit from your misfortune.
Are you sending me a bill for the lesson?
I hope your replacement tanks and even more supports work out all right!

[GoneCamping]

I am very satisfied with those tanks. The price was right, and the way they are built made installing them easy to do, and they will hold up very well. I did have to install them twice, my first attempt I did not like the way the came out, so I re-did them,

I used a plywood underlayment under the bus. This is basically not going to see much weather unless I'm rolling in the rain, something I don't plan on doing a lot of. Be that as it may, a solid paint job should seal the wood fairly well, and it's exterior grade plywood at that. So it should hold up for several years. I may have to replace it someday, but for now it's working just fine. It also made the tank install much easier to mount it to the bottom of some plywood, I did use galvanazied steel channel for the mounting bracket...

Oh, and drilling out the holes for the piping through the wood is a lot easier too!

[captainkf]

Hey gone camping, do you have pics?

-Richard