The Tank Farm

[torker]

Hey guys..this is what I've been up to...building a bunch (10) of these 90 gallon auxillary fuel tanks for a fleet of 5100 Gradalls here in town.
Shows the bent up sections as sent in the from the tin basher

I talked them into letting me put this baffle/divider in the tank to stop it from flexing and cracking.

Heres the prep on these...holes for bungs and the "hidden" holes for the plug welds that hold the divider

Here...welding the bungs on the inside...a good way if you can..they never leak..

[torker]

Here's the finished product..all primed and painted ready for delivery in the morning. This is the second load...

Russ

[boslab]

nice job, we have a couple of gradals in work to clean the mouth of the furnace, blood big claw on the end of them.
last tank i made was for hydraulic fluid, the baffles inside were perforated sheet to knock the bubbles out and stop the sloshing
mark

[hardtail]

That is a nice job, learned a tip about plug welding the baffle,,,,,,,did you weld the fittings from the outside also??? What guage was the metal?

Nice crewcab, buddy just bought a Vega on the weekend to start cutting it up for the drags and the guy has a nice crew dually sitting there, remember they used to be standard for the fuel teams of the 70/80's, hard to find them nowadays...........

Funny the Vega appears in the worse car thread numerous times and we're looking for them, it was his first car that he put a 350 in and my first was a 73 Pinto that I shoehorned a tunnel ram 289 into.........must be a reliving your wasted youth thing. Sorry to get off topic.

[Weston Bye]

Back in the late '40s - early 50's my grandad hit upon building oil tanks in-place in the coal bunkers when commercial buildings were changing over from coal to fuel oil. All was going well until a city inspector got the notion that the tanks should be pressure leak tested. Grandpa attempted to discourage the notion but the inspector was adament. Knowing what would happen to the tank, Grandpa blocked the sides and top of the tank against the walls and ceiling of the coal bunker and fed the air per the inspector's instructions....

Realization finally dawned on the inspector when hairline cracks started appearing in the terrazzo floor in the lobby above the tank.

The air was quickly released and no more tests were required, and the inspector was pretty scarce.

[bhjones]

Nice truck Torker. Is it yours? I have an '86 GMC ton dually 4x4. It's a standard cab (wish it was a crew). I don't use it much these days. A few lumber/landscape material runs in the summer months and plowing duty in the winter. It's due for a paint job and I'm thinking about building a dumping flatbed for it. I'm a big fan of these trucks.

[torker]

Hardtail...the steel is 11 guage (almost 1/8"). Yes...I weld the bungs on the outside also.
Wes...Yup..testing tanks can be a bit hard on the nerves.
I run these up to about 7 pounds...then they start to snap and crackle. A square tank like these can't take a lot of pressure.
bh...Ya..that's my ol "toughie"...1978 Chevy ine ton dually with TH400 and stump puller 454. I built the motor a few years ago. It's got a custom ground cam in it that a cam grinder used to grind just for towing. I also have an older Offy intake manifold on it. Lots of power but really frikkin hard on gas. Gets about 8 MPG.
I love this old truck...used to travel down the road at 75MPH pulling my race car...for hours and hours. Some trips were 16 hours one way.
It drives like a Cadillac.
I had the body ready for paint about 4 years ago. Was coming home from a race in Alberta and smoked a huge buck at about 70 mph. Needless to say..it wasn't ready for paint anymore. I was so disgusted I've never got back after it. Bought all the replacement panels etc.
I'm afraid the old thing is a dinosaur now.
Russ

[hardtail]

Rebuilt a 396 out of a 66 Chevelle and put it in my 80 with a TH400, got 8 mpg idling or to the pin so............13 gal tank and I couldn't crack 100 miles before a refill. You got me thinkin maybe I should go have a look at that truck, would make a great RV puller...........


Shouldn't have sold it and others......