Thread: Plastic vs. Aluminium vs. Stainless vs. Steel

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Much of the problems you mention at welded joints in these steels are from incorrect welding procedures particularly pre and post, and/or choosing unsuitable grades of steel or filler rod. There are grades that are recommended for welding, 30304, 30305, 30321, 30347. The last two are recommended where heat treatment after welding is not feasible. These are all chromium/nickel alloys. Bloody hell, Shorty, you have made me drag out dusty text books to check my memory of this stuff. I have not been on the tools except for hobbies for years.

Ditto Brian. Some of my books go back to steam engineering of the 1890's. You came up with things I had not heard or used since trade time, nearly 40 yrs ago. Good to get a refresher now and again. Specially good to know we can grin about our failing memory as well.
Seem to remember the origination of the thread was on the merits of different materials for extra tankage. Poly, go for the new Poly tanks. Black steel? Rust. Galv steel? Rust. Ali? Makes water taste funny. Stainless? good, tricky to work, but good. The new Poly gear is good. Check out your local Farmers weekly papers, should have info on the Grey Fuel Poly. Red is used in fire fighting tanks, should be Okay for water storage. Trucking industry fit black Poly tanks in frames under truck trays, these mounts are reversable, should find a place to fit one.

Shorty.

The previous owner of my County had a water tank of 6" white poly plumbing pipe and fittings slung for and aft under the door sills, with a filler pipe inside on the RH rear between the rear seat and the folding seat. Don't know how much it held as he kept it. Vida was talking about a water tank for inside when he started the thread. I like stainless for water, but modern food grade plastics are pretty good. A water tank would take up a good bit of space inside though. Touring needs every bit of inside space for things you need to keep out of the elements or away from inquisitive sticky fingers. I do not like the popular idea of poly pipe reservoirs up on the roof. Too much weight right where it has the maximum ill effect on stability.

Originally Posted by Vida

Bladders are apparently not very good if you use a water pump. I did use bladders before (military version) and the water always had a bad rubber taste.

ive got a 50 litre bladder if you want to borrow it and test it for yourself to see if it llavours the water......
its designed for either water or diesel......ive only used it for water once.....

if you want to try it.....just let me know and i can drop it off to you.......

its a turtle pac......here is the link if you want to have a looksee.......


http://www.turtlepac.com/superdeck.htm





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Originally Posted by shorty943

Ditto Brian. Some of my books go back to steam engineering of the 1890's. You came up with things I had not heard or used since trade time, nearly 40 yrs ago. Good to get a refresher now and again. Specially good to know we can grin about our failing memory as well.
Seem to remember the origination of the thread was on the merits of different materials for extra tankage. Poly, go for the new Poly tanks. Black steel? Rust. Galv steel? Rust. Ali? Makes water taste funny. Stainless? good, tricky to work, but good. The new Poly gear is good. Check out your local Farmers weekly papers, should have info on the Grey Fuel Poly. Red is used in fire fighting tanks, should be Okay for water storage. Trucking industry fit black Poly tanks in frames under truck trays, these mounts are reversable, should find a place to fit one.

Shorty.

I agree that galvanised steel can rust, but we've been using our gal tank for nearly 20 yrs and it's still in as new condition. I reckon that's a fair recommendation. I wouldn't use stainless or aluminium for most of the pre mentioned reasons.

Originally Posted by DEFENDERZOOK

ive got a 50 litre bladder if you want to borrow it and test it for yourself to see if it llavours the water......
its designed for either water or diesel......ive only used it for water once.....

if you want to try it.....just let me know and i can drop it off to you.......

its a turtle pac......here is the link if you want to have a looksee.......


http://www.turtlepac.com/superdeck.htm

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Had a good chat to the guy from 'turtlepac' .... and bought one of their tanks. Will get it next week - looking forward to that. Thanks for your help mate.
Apparently no issues with waterpumps and bad taste.

Cheers,
Daniel

Let us know what you think of the turtlepak Daniel. If the test run and preview are favourable, might even purchase one myself. A bladder type tank only takes up room when full. The reason I suggested looking into them in the first place.
Brian, too right about the roof rack starage of some thing like water, in the maritime industry, that is known as "top hamper" the most stupid and dangerous way to carry anything. I won't even let the cook put her makeup case up there, damn near need a crane to lift it.
numpty, yes, galv tanks for domestic water storage have a twenty five year warranty as a general rule, all soldered joints no welding. So a galv tank for 4wd water should last at least that long as well.
Did I forget any body?

Shorty.

Designing my own Diesel Tanks now. Will use Aluminium coated steel.

How do you calculate how many buffers you need for the tank in order to have extra strength and limit the sloshing of the diesel?

Cheers,
Daniel

I usually go for 3/4 height baffles with each baffle section (if extented to top of tank) having a capacity of not more than 10l. But I also put in lateral baffles and on any tank over 40cms high a horizontal baffle of fine mesh. the holes at the bottom are rarely more than 1/2 inch arcs cut where the baffle plates meet.