Question:
How many baffles should a 3,600-gallon tank have? The shell length of the tank is 16 feet and the diameter is 72 inches. I just bought a new unit and I’m getting a lot more movement due to the slosh factor. I opened the manway and found there is only one baffle.
Rodney Springer
Atlanta, Ga.
Answer:
We recommend three baffles on a tank this size. And here are the reasons:
It’s a weighty issue
Let’s assume you’ve got your tank half full of liquid and we’ll say there’s some sand and miscellaneous stuff in there. So let’s assume a weight of 10 pounds per gallon. With the tank at half capacity, you’ve got 18,000 pounds of liquid moving forward and back, and sideways on the turns.
That’s a lot of weight for one baffle to control. In traffic and coming up to a light and slowly stopping, you’ll have 9,000 pounds on each side of the baffle pushing you forward. That is hard on the truck and hard on the brakes. It is no fun to feel the weight of the liquid pushing you back and forth and wondering if you are going to be able to control the vehicle.
More baffles equals less blunt force
With three baffles, you now have four sections inside the tank. When you are half full you have each section holding only 4,500 pounds of liquid. With seal-welded baffles this is much more manageable for the tank and the truck to handle. Control of the truck is much easier with more baffles.
Just a note: It might seem like no one in the market would build a truck like this with only one tank baffle. But it’s more common than you think. Before you buy, know how many baffles are in the tank. And even later, or now that you have trucks, make sure you know how many baffles are inside each of your tanks. Baffles can help determine the effective life, efficiency and safe handling of your vacuum truck.
Reduce pressure on the hose connection
Question:
I built my own septic truck and installed the suction on the back of the truck. The suction comes straight out of the rear head, pretty much horizontal to the ground. For some reason, I have a tendency to break the hose right at the valve connection. What am I doing wrong and what can you recommend to help?
Hank Redmond
Grand Rapids, Mich.
Answer:
Take a look at the following sketch:
With this design, the weight of the product as it is being pumped actually breaks the hose at the camlock. There is a simple way to correct this problem as shown in the sketch.
By angling the 3-inch suction downward, you eliminate the excess weight on the hose created by the waste being pumped. Consequently, you save yourself the broken and damaged hoses. Again, it’s a simple idea, but there are lots of trucks with the horizontal suction pipe.
It’s common sense
Most of these ideas are nothing more than common sense, but even to this day, people are still inventing and re-inventing the wheel, and sometimes those wheels just aren’t round.
