Converting an IBC tote

[OKRuss]

Curious if anyone has converted one of those IBC totes so it could be used for fire prevention/protection. My idea is to use when we are doing a prescribed burn on our property end of this year. It would give me some peace of mind knowing 300 gallons of water is available to be pulled on a trailer where needed. FULLY UNDERSTAND that 300 gallons will not put out a big fire that's out of control. My intent is to have it pulled along the roads by the fire edges only for a standby or possibly to go back and put out hot spots. There will be a group of experienced prescribed burn folks assisting. I joined the Twin Rivers Burn Association in Okfuskee County so I could contribute to help others and then get some help in return for ours.

The sloshing of the water on a trailer could be a problem. I've read you can put 100' of 4" plastic drain hose into the tank before filling and it will act as a baffle. Any input on that would be appreciated also. Likely pulling the trailer with a tractor instead of ATV.

This link on YouTube is what I'm considering.

 

[SoonerP226]

300 gallons of water is going to be roughly 2400lbs, IIRC, so it’ll probably need to be a tractor doing the pulling. I don’t think my 200 gallon Wylie sprayer has any internal baffling, but I haven’t looked really closely lately. I wouldn’t worry all that much about sloshing unless you’ve cut the tops off the totes; just use some ratchet straps to tie it down if you’re worried about it wandering.

If you’re pulling with a tractor, you could use a PTO-driven pump, and you could even put multiple totes on a trailer to give better water capacity.

 

[Johnny]

You can use PVC pipe cut to length and stood up inside the tote as baffling. But it would cost A fortune to do it. Fill it with 3” or 4” pipe cut to three foot lengths stood up in end.

They baffle some race car fuel cells that way.

 

[cowadle]

i can attest to the harbor freight 2 inch semi trash pump..... it is as good as any honda i ever had. and harbor freight has a fire hose kit also. get on the banjo website cause they have a whole line of ibc fittings and valves for totes.

 

[rc508pir]

You can use PVC pipe cut to length and stood up inside the tote as baffling. But it would cost A fortune to do it. Fill it with 3” or 4” pipe cut to three foot lengths stood up in end.

They baffle some race car fuel cells that way.

Whats the baffling for and why is it needed?

 

[Johnny]

Whats the baffling for and why is it needed?

Because liquid is a dynamic load. It wants to slosh around which if the load is in the bed of a truck high center of gravity it slosh around and unload tires or create excessive loads. The baffles will prevent some of the sloshing. Your still hauling a dynamic load but it does not get as much momentum built up inside the tank.

If you are pulling that 2400 lbs of water behind a an 7000 lb truck it is not too bad. But if you have it behind a 1200 lb side by side or behind a little 2800 lb tractor you are going to have to be pretty delicate with how you drive.

Also it isn’t near as bad when it is completely full but you have the container half full and it has lots of free room
To move around inside the container.

 

[Snattlerake]

Suggestion to make water wetter. I have talked to a lot of hose apes and they all say use a water enhancer to make the water wetter. It reduces the surface tension of water and unlike spray adjuvants for herbicides and pesticides is non flammable.

It cuts your water usage for fire down to 30% compared to 100% for the same fire.

----
Wetter Water is very concentrated. The dilution ratio may be varied for each fire situation.

1. To start, add one gallon of Wetter Water to 8,000 (1:8,000) gallons of water to control most dense fires including grass and bale fires.

2. Add one gallon of Wetter Water to 10,000 (1:10,000) gallons of water to control all other fires.

 

[cowadle]

Whats the baffling for and why is it needed?

me too???? this has me baffled..... winks with eye

 

[CHenry]

I have hauled 2-300 gal. IBC totes full of used vegi oil from Tulsa to OKC but I was driving a 1 ton dually. And yes I could still feel the sloshing at times but with a dually, it wasnt scary.

 

[Bocephus123]

we load 16-18 on our box van for pump off deliveries no problems our tankers have 5 holes so that is like being Baffled... where you get the surge problems is in single hole tankers with no baffling.