Material for Poly Tank for Fire Truck

[htishop]

I want to build a 1250 gallon poly tank for my local VFD. I need some advice on proper materials and construction techniques. The basic dimentions are H=3ft X L=11ft X W= 5ft. Any help,especially on the type of material,would be great.

[ViperTX]

Have you looked at the bladder tanks that you see for custom car builds. At 1250 gallons you are going to need internal baffles to minimize the fuel from sloshing around. Oops....is this a tank for water? If so then look at the tanks used for farms....try Northern Tool, Tractor Supply, etc.

[aaron540]

I have designed several 750 gallon - 1000 gallon poly tank assy's for my companies railroad ballast cleaners. There are so many suppliers of poly tanks you should be able to find a tank that works. Some have partial internal baffles, usually they are short enough where you do not need major baffles. Custom building a tank this size is usually not practical due to the huge molds that are required.

Google Poly Processing, or Pro Tanks, these are the companies I have worked with.

Also be careful with how you mount the tank, usually the skids are usually not designed for the high accelerations if you are mounting on a truck.

Aaron Foster
Mechanical Engineer
Loram, Maintenance of Way

[plastixplus]

Fire truck tanks require special baffle requirements per NFPA. You might check into that. When building tanks, it's not a molding process. You put it together as if you were constructing a box out of wood. What you do need is an extrusion welder. A good one costs around 10K!!!
I build tanks. www.plastixplustx.com