Ha Haaa!! But where do you put the cooler with the deco beer at?Originally Posted by sskasser
15 tanks? That's it? Here's 14 tanks (four on each side, two in the middle, and two on the floor behind each seat) in my special tank hauler earlier today. The trunk is full of BCD's and regs...and I still have room for a passenger
I've always like the stack them in the back of the truck method myself...
Has anyone ever heard of scuba tanks exploding and/or being turned into a torpedo while in a car accident?
I wonder about this as I too often carry tanks in the back of my Land Rover, and for ease of refilling them I usually put the valves facing out towards the back of the vehicle.
I got to thinking what would happen if someone really plowed into me from behind and one or more of the valves got sheared off...?
However slight the chance for this to actually happen I don't know, but I don't like the mental picture I get from what would happen if it did.
I haven't heard of it, but I have thought of it. I'm fairly certain if I flipped or got tagged hard from behind while carrying a full load...it wouldn't hurt but a second.
And Roger...you're supposed to be bringing the deco beer!!
I
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I've seen a number of people hurt or killed over the years by unsecured items in a collision or rollover, ranging from a bowling ball on the rear window ledge to a load of logs that slid forward when a runaway log truck hit some ledges.
Never seen or heard of any highway mishaps involving scuba tanks.
When I'm driving long distance with scuba tanks, I lay them on the floor with their bottoms up against the front of my pickup truck bed and tie them in with nylon rope. Doubles on the bottom, stages & deco bottles on top.
If carrying AL80 singles I made a floor rack just like Brian Kakuk's out of PVC pipe & rope, cause they want to roll around.
But I happily drive around cave country and New England with sets of doubles just lying in the truck bed unsecured. So much for consistency.
Mike
Unless a tank is corroded, it isn't likely to explode in an accident. The same goes for valves. A sheared off valve won't release gas fast enough to become a "rocket". If the threads are stripped, ... well that is a different story.
Tanks will become torpedos, if they aren't properly secured to the vehicle.
second hand
I use a wooden rack, much like the pvc pipes or noodles, but made of 1x2's nailed to a couple of 2x4's. The 2x4's run from one side of the bed to the other, the 1x2's are nailed to them in rows with just enough room between them to nestle the tanks, which lay down. I got the idea in Bonaire. No picture available but it's so simple you don't really need one. I also tie them down (and the rack) using the tie-downs in the truck bed. With a topper, I don't/can't stand them up.
Although it takes 28 AL80's to reach 1,000 pounds and come under DOT regulations, according to my PSI book, "There have been instances where a driver was cited and the scuba van and its cargo impounded when violations occurred." No other details. Oh, and "...some local governments have broaden its [DOT regulation] scope to include...boats or vehicles carrying any number of cylinders."
I once remarked about my tanks in the back of the truck with valves pointing towards the back of the truck that they may shoot directly into the cab with me if I was rear-ended.... The guy I was talking to said he'd rather have large unpredictable blunt objects flying around than several small metal objects (valves) that would penetrate the cab for sure. Sounds logical and besides it's a pain to load them the other way around and makes it difficult to get fills without unloading them!
-skip
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Think of the laws of physics and how they affect guns. force=mass*acceleration. When a valve is shot out (if threads are stripped, as FW says, for example), an equal force acts on both the tank and the valve. But, the mass of the valves is much less than the mass of the tank, so the acceleration of the valve will be much greater.
You see this in guns as well: the exploding powder puts equal force on the bullet and the gun. However, the bullet goes much further than the gun, because it has much smaller mass, especially when you consider that the mass of the shooter might well be considered to be part of the mass of the gun, as it must also be moved with the gun, the two are like a connected system.
Woosies. This is the correct way to transport tanks. Just get the local motorcycle club to help.
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Most dangerous part of a dive... the drive there and back
The one and only time I ever transported tanks upright in my SUV probably saved my life (come to think of it I really should do that more often but it's a pain in the ass). Anyways while driving to NC I got cut off and ended up flipping the truck on it's side with 5 sets of doubles, 5 O2 bottles, 4 AL 80's and ~ 400 lbs of gear. The truck slid for 300 yards and when it came to a stop I was practically deaf from the sound of escaping gas (a couple of the bottles rolled open thankfully not the O2).
All the big stuff stayed in the cargo area but one of the valves on a set of doubles got ground down from dragging along on the asphalt so 3600 psi was being kept in by ~2mm of brass.
The real saving grace was that I had tied the doubles upright to the back of the rear seat in an effort to save room. Originally everything was just stacked up and I'm reasonably confident that if I had left it that way I would have been dodging torpedoing bottles as opposed to just hanging on for my life.
Probably the best part of the whole experience was keeping the firefighters who were picking through the wreckage of my truck from throwing bottles of O2 around...
Unfortunately the insurance company didn't want to cover the cost of getting 19 bottles hydroed.
Sorry for the blurry pic of the what was left of the truck... 2 hours later and I was still shaking
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