fresh water tank

[bocephus-SKO]

hey guys/gals, I want to thank you all for the info and responce I got from all concerning a topic on power consumption I post a few weks back.. Now here is another ?. I think I saw a topic about using large diameter PVC pipe to "build" a fresh water tank. Which I think is a excellent idea. My question is this: I wondered when I looked at the pipe larger than two inch "pressure" rated pipe why the larger pipe wasnt marked as such. It was considered drain pipe and I understand why but was wondering if the materials it was made of would effect the water quality and such if one was to use it as a fresh water storage. This might seem like a little too much to worry about but was jus a thought. I saw a conversuion chart on this website I thought that would allow one to enter in pipe lenghts and diameters to figure out the amount of water it would hold. If a person was to use such a setup and I am thinking seriously about it, I thinkit would allow great weight transfer thoughout the bus. I have a mini-bird so space is a big factor. I planned to mount this pipe inside the living quarters because of underside space and to keep down the chance of the water freezing. ( I live in alabama and dont think it would ever get that cold here) but in case of travels to other parts of the country. Just a thought and any response is welcome. thanks.

 

[Eric von Kleist]

I used 8" PVC drain pipe for a holding tank. The construction sequence is here http://www.skoolie.net/gallery2/HoldingTankConstruction.

I don't know about using it for freshwater. If I had it to do over again, I'd go with a larger diameter pipe. My tank holds about 25 gallons, but 12" pipe the same size would hold 50 gallons. On the other hand, my tank is graywater only, not blackwater, so I could pretty much dump anywhere in an emergency (no, it wouldn't be legal everywhere, but I did say "emergency").

If you can work a regular tank into your scheme, I think you'd be better off. Net cost would be about the same, plus much less work. One thing you might consider, if you have an odd shaped but high volume area, is a bag tank like they use on boats. Look at boating supply sites.

 

[wmah]

I dumped my old full black water tank in to a dumpster at a rest area from the old travel trailer last summer. I considered it an emergency cause I had a flat and it bottomed out and wore a hole in it at the same time the tie straps had also broke too so it was hanging. I crawled under it and ripped the tank out and was going to bring it inside and dump it in the toilet but since it had a hole in it, and I turned around and saw the dumpster right next to me. It seemed like a good place.

 

[busone]

Unless the PVC pipe has a "NSF DW" or "FDA Potable" stamp on it, it is not safe to use for drinking water. It was either not manfactured in a clean facility or will leach too much vinyl chloride. They do make large diameter potable water safe PVC pipe. The only problem is it is not cheap. You can do a google search to find places that sell it.

 

[bocephus-SKO]

hey, I appreciate the reply and it answered a lot of questions. I hope I can be of help on a few subjects down the road myself. I m sure I will "engineer" my way through my project and will post a few wys of doing it so as to help the future skoolie project for someone else,,,,thanks again...

 

[vonslatt]

These tanks were only about $250 each, I made my own cradles to mount them out off old bed frames:

http://www.vonslatt.com/bus-plumb.shtml

The manufacturer even installed the spin welded fittings to my specs for free.