Fresh Water Tank Question / Concerns

[imkzrudob]

It has been a while since I posted anything, but as of this day, this second, there is a good chance unless all goes sideways that I am going to be getting a bus tomorrow. With that in mind, it sort of got real real quick. You can imagine I have been going through and getting updated prices on various pieces and parts that I am going to need for the build. I started with the water tanks. Now, like everyone, I am about saving money, but there comes a point that you sacrifice quality / piece of mind / safety for price. I am looking at putting 200 gallons of fresh water in the bus. This means I am going to be connecting 2 - 100 gallon tanks together. Most water tanks I see priced between $300-600 for one 100 gallon tank, until I came across this one

My question is has anybody used or purchased this tank before? And what is the quality?
My second question, it appears that this tank only has 1 inlet. Recommendations for connecting two of these tanks together? Along with installing a water fill / water level meter?
or
Would you recommend that I go with a tank that has multiple threaded inlets installed for the $500-600?

[Drew Bru]

That's the exact tank we got, from the same place. We picked it up in person to save any shipping costs. It's got 3 threaded outlets and one inlet. It's decent quality, though I have nothing else to compare it to. We boxed ours in with lumber to keep it as stable as possible. I think you could tie them together at one of the outlets, or with a common tee on the inlet.
We got a SeeLevel II tank monitor for fresh and grey tanks. The sensor just sticks to the outside of the tank, no problems there.

[JDSquared]

I wanted a 100ga tank but couldn't find one at that price. Looks like a good deal.
You could look into Uniseal? I just discovered it this week. My grey water is a 30 gallon barrel, and I was unsure how to connect a drain to it. Uniseal is meant specifically for that application, but it should work for you maybe also.

[imkzrudob]

@Drew
Thank you for your reply. Sometimes too cheap means loss of quality. I didn't want to end up with a flooded bus.

@JDSquared
Thank you for that info. It is my plans to have 200 gallons fresh water, 100 gallons grey water and 5 gallons to be a urine collector stored under the bus.

On a different topic, the reason I am separating my grey water from the urine is because I am also investigating the practicality of filtering the shower and sink grey water to be re-used for showers, which would mean I would have a 50 gallon treated grey tank just for showers. I'm not sure of the feasibility of that...just something I am investigating.

[Drew Bru]

Originally Posted by imkzrudob

Sometimes too cheap means loss of quality. I didn't want to end up with a flooded bus.

Yeah, I hear ya. That's why we boxed the tank in with 2x12 lumber. The plastic didn't look flimsy, but having 800lbs of water sloshing around made me a little nervous about the strength of the tank itself. Better safe than sorry.

[Jeff2010]

This is probably a newbie question … but ”hooking” the two tanks together is as simple as running a line at the lowest point? They will equalize each other out to the same level??

[Iceni John]

Originally Posted by Jeff2010

This is probably a newbie question … but ”hooking” the two tanks together is as simple as running a line at the lowest point? They will equalize each other out to the same level??

This is exactly what I did. I have two 110-gal rotomolded tanks that hang under the floor on either side of the fuel tank behind the front axle, and they're interconnected with a piece of 3/4" galvanized pipe that also has a drain valve at one end and the feed to the pumps at the other end. Each tank has its own 3/4" ball valve, and each end of the pipe also has a garden hose threaded inlet and a check valve: this means I never need to drag hoses under the bus to fill the tanks. I can easily fill both tanks through either GH inlet, and their levels always equalize.

John

[Iceni John]

Originally Posted by imkzrudob

My question is has anybody used or purchased this tank before? And what is the quality?
My second question, it appears that this tank only has 1 inlet. Recommendations for connecting two of these tanks together? Along with installing a water fill / water level meter?
or
Would you recommend that I go with a tank that has multiple threaded inlets installed for the $500-600?

For only $2.20 per gallon I'm curious how thick the plastic is. I paid $2.50 /gal some years ago to have my four tanks rotomolded by Ronco Plastics in Tustin CA, and I specified that they must be 3/8" thick. If the tank is only 5/16" thick its walls will bulge more when full, but in practice this won't matter much because you should box in the tank with timber or 1/2" plywood to support the walls. Obviously it won't have internal baffles, so it's important to mount the front of the tank(s) against a bulkhead or wall that will absolutely prevent any forward movement and will resist the force of water sloshing forward under hard braking.

I can fill either water tank through the city water connections, and I also used Uniflow connectors in the top of each tank for my gravity-fill inlets. I don't plan on using the gravity fills much, but they could be useful if I were filling the tanks from an unpressurized source that couldn't push in the water against the tanks' head pressure.

John