Source: KellyDrums.com
IBC Totes, 275 gallon totes, 300 gallon totes, carboys or whatever you want to call them. These things.
They’re big, they hold a lot of water, and they’re difficult to hook up to garden hoses. Why? Fittings for them are hard to find at the local hardware store.
Fire up your creativity, we’re going to show you how to hook up an IBC tote to a garden hose.
IBC Tote
275 gallon IBC totes are the most popular option for hauling recycled water. They’re solid plastic tanks with a steel cage around them, can be easily strapped down to a truck bed or trailer and have large openings for filling and draining.
Sometimes called plastic totes, carboys, 275 gallon tanks, water totes, 275 gallon plastic water tanks, truck bed water tanks, you get the idea. They come in 275 gallon, 300 gallon and 325 gallon varieties.
But what do the tanks weigh when empty?
Two 55 gallon barrels in a Tacoma.
If the headlines are true, “It will take years of wet weather before California recovers from drought, study finds“, then residential recycled water fill stations are here to stay, for a while longer. This is great news for recycled water haulers everywhere. Many have already setup up their irrigation systems and their solution works for them. We can all learn from their mechanical ingenuity.
Take for instance one hauler who lives in Oakley, California, he hauls 1700-1800 gallons of recycled water a month via two 55 gallon drums in the back of his Toyota Tacoma. This is his story.
Single barrel strapped down.
For every recycled water hauler, there comes a time of uncertainty, especially when it comes to figuring out how to strap down a 55 gallon barrel in a truck. When full of water, the barrel will weigh over 450 pounds.
I had the same reservations when I hauled my first load with a 55 gallon barrel. I thought that by strapping the side of the barrel, the strap would be too low and the barrel would tip over. Honestly, there is so much weight when the barrel is full, it won’t tip – unless you drive like an idiot.
So how do you strap down a water barrel?
Facebook.com/RecycledH2O
There are plenty of articles lately about new fill stations opening in Southern California (more importantly – the 4S Ranch area of San Diego County), and even more people on Twitter arguing that recycled water is not the answer (sigh). This brings up a perfect opportunity to share what recycled water haulers have learned about the containers they use.
Lets compare a 275 Gallon Tote to a Water Bladder to a 55 gallon barrel
In the last post, the safety hazards associated with driving with a half full IBC Tote were looked at. A full tote, weighs 2600 pounds and has very little to no sloshing, except when taking corners, the mass of the water will work to pull your vehicle over. This was experienced by a passenger in an F350 carrying 275 gallons of water.
When a tote is half full, there is about 1250 pounds of water that moves, so when you turn left, that water moves with considerable momentum to the right. If physics calculations were performed we could figure out how much force is being applied to a vehicle at any given speed if we knew the mass.
Lets call this mass of water moving in a tank as slosh. How can you minimize slosh in an IBC tote?
The most common tank to use when transporting recycled water is a 275 or 300 gallon IBC tote. When full it weighs ~ 2500+ pounds, if we include the weight of the tote, its more like 2600 pounds. That weight in the back of most half tons trucks is too much and thus begins safety hazards associated with transporting recycled water.
Honda Ridgeline filled above capacity
Lets cue up a recent photo of a Honda Ridgeline filling up a 275 gallon tote. Please note that a Ridgeline is only rated at 1500 pounds payload capacity. A Ridgeline should only haul ~ 165 gallons if we include the weight of the tote. Direct your attention to the significant drop in the back end of the vehicle (and the wear and tear on the struts/read end) and the significant rise in the front end of the vehicle. This makes steering difficult and travel is rather unsafe.
All recycled water fill stations have stressed to not take more water than your vehicle can hold, but yet people still do it. This article has been designed to show you through a Youtube video what happens to water in a tote full and half full.
This question has plagued me for a months and something I always wondered. Why is there a 300 gallon limit at a Free Recycled Water Fill Station?
Is it because most IBC totes are 275-300 gallons? Not quite.
Is it because its written in Title 22 of the Recycled Water regulation? Good luck reading 86 pages, you won’t find it there.
Is it because any volume more and you should get a water meter for the truck hydrant fill program? Nope!
The Free Recycled Water Fill Station at the CCCSD Household Hazardous Waste facility in Martinez has extended their hours and added more hose bibs.
Due to increased demand from residential users, hours were changed to 8:00AM to 6:00PM – Monday through Saturday, for the summer.
I am very impressed at how much activity this blog has received. From starting as a way to tell the world what I do to the guest writers and some very in depth articles, I like where things are going. There is a Facebook page with status updates and photos from the road and I’m trying to get a Twitter handle going as well.
Lots of interest from the community – its a good thing Recycled Water is a hot topic, especially during this California Drought.
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