Custom Black and Gray water tank combo

[teamtexas]

A little while back 1 Duck came by and planted a little seed in my head about my black water tank. Thanks alot Mike

So one thing lead to another and here I am welding up a custom tank that will fit both beside and behind the fuel tank. I will use this for both my grey and black water.
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I've had some scrap sheet steel laying around forever and this seemed to be just what I needed to do to get rid of it and complete the tank.
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It is welded both inside and out on every weld except the top. The top is only welded on the outside.
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Before welding on the last top piece, I filled the tank with water to check for leaks. You might be able to see the paint marker arrows I used to mark the leaks before rewelding.
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Just need to lay out and cut the holes in for the plumbing and drain. I want to paint the inside with some type of sealer/coating but I'm not sure what to use. I was thinking of an epoxy paint The outside will be coated with truck bed linner before it is installed. I plan to use some galvanized strapping to attach the tank to the frame of the van.

Dan

[Oldfartt]

Dan,

There is a Por 15 product which is specifically designed for lining the inside of fuel tanks. All you do is pour it in and swish the tank around to cover all sides. If I can I will see if I can find more info for you. Check out this site.
http://www.por15.com/US-STANDARD-TAN...oductinfo/TSG/

Cheers

Ross

[teamtexas]

I pulled out the temporary plumbing pipes and did a dry fit this morning to see how the tank was going to work. All in all it went well. The back side hung down about 4" from the side of the van (a little lower than I planned, by about an inch). I was able to mark the spots for the straps and pipe outlets. The only bad thing was I forgot to measure how long the pipe drop from the toilet needed to be. I will have to do another dry fit (and that was no easy task).

I looked all over for the weld on tank fittings I needed but had to order them from McMasterCarr. I did a bit of searching and found a gate valve for $13 plus shipping and spent another $25 for fittings to attach it.

Dan

[david klair]

Dan,

I like your new tank How may gallons is it? What will the inputs be... Sink, Tiolet, Shower? How do you plan to empty it? Macerator? Gravity? I am in the process of finishing up my dump system, and will post the final product soon. I would be interested to know more details of your planned system.

Thanks

[teamtexas]

Thanks David, I kinda like it too. It is a 25 Gal. total capacity with an inlet from the toilet on top, shower on the end of the long skinny side and sink/vent on top from the end of the fat side. The tank is slightly angled to assist in gravity feed for the 3" gate valve that will be installed on the rear bottom corner to empty.

I will get some additonal pictures as soon as the weld on inlets are in.

Dan

[teamtexas]

Wow! I got some really fast shipping on the valve and valve ends I puchased yesterday morning. Already here! I took a couple of pics showing the soon to be hole locations and where the new valve will be placed.
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Dan

[teamtexas]

Boy am I glad I went ahead and ordered the weld on hubs from McMasterCarr. They came in today and they were a breeze to put on and welded up great. Plus they were alot cheaper than using coupling (as suggested by one of our local plumbing supply house).
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hubs and mount support welded in place.
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I checked out alot of tank liner products for the inside of the tank but most of what I found was designed for fuel tanks and very expensive. Since this tank was new bare metal I decide to use a good oil based paint for the inside. I poured in a quart and then spent about 30 minuted turning the tank to move it around and cover all the sides.
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Dan

[teamtexas]

Welding is all done so time for a heavy coat of spray on bed linner.
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I put the gate valve and male thread adapter in to check the fit and placement.
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Dan

[teamtexas]

I spent today under the van installing my combo tank. Here is a pic of the tank on the ground under the van. I've installed one end of the straps that will support it. I had to install the 3" toilet inlet and the 1-1/4" T after the tank was slid under the van due to their height.
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After the tank was pryed, jacked, lifted, shoved and jiggled into place I spent several hours trying to bend and secure the galvainzed straps.
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Here are a few shots of the tank from under the passangers side of the van.
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The Vent line (black flex hose) will connect to the side of the 1 1/4" T. The sink will come into the other side. This is going to cause a slow drain on the sink do to the offset needed to pipe around the frame of the van. I needed to increase the height of the sink line because it was rubbing the drive shaft when I had the van fully loaded.
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I got the sink tied in and gave it a try....not too bad. It has two traps in it now. I could remove the one under the sink and that may increase the flow some. The only tie in left to do is the shower (just needed one more fitting....of course). I installed the drain valve but did not get a picture of it yet..maybe tomorrow.

Dan

[teamtexas]

I completed the install this morning with the addition of one more pvc fitting to the shower drain.HPIM2839_2968.jpg

The drain valve is faced in due to the height of the inlet and to protect the valve.
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This picture shows the trap I built into the sink drain line and the connecton to the vent through the black rubber hose.
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Another picture of the finished tank from the outside.
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Took it for a test ride to check for noise and NO....NO....NO LHM. What the

Dan