Building a tank rack

[grouchyturtle]

The horizontals are 6"

 

[TechnoMage]

First of all I want to give big thanks to Grunzster whose idea I built on.

I loved the PVC tank rank idea but I needed something narrower. Luckily I found a PVC fitting store online that had exactly what I needed to slim it down a little bit. I've posted some pictures here.

http://www.cybercatt.com/images/tankrack01.jpg
http://www.cybercatt.com/images/tankrack02.jpg

The biggest changes are the eight corners and the four corner middle fittings.

For the eight corners I used some 3 way fittings instead of a elbow and T fitting.

For the four corner middle fittings I used some 4 way fittings instead of two T's. This let me slim the rack down by almost 6 inches so now it will fit between our two dive boxes in the back of the SUV.

Here's a total list of parts that I used. All pipe and fittings are Schedule 40, 1 inch.

Long Spans: 9, 24 inches long
Short Spans:12, 6 inches long
Vertical Spans: 8 12 inches long
T fittings: 6
3 Way fittings: 8
4 Way fittings: 4

Here's a link to where I purchased the 3 and 4 way fittings http://www.savko.com/partlist.asp?pgid=3&ptid=13 .

If I did it again I'd make a few changes.
1. I would probably make the vertical spans 10 inches instead of 12 inches.
2. I would use 4 way fittings on the bottom corners to keep the rack 1 inch off the ground.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Thanks for the inspiration grunzter.

-Ron

 

[grouchyturtle]

That's actually what I really wanted to do with mine, but couldn't find those damn 3 way and 4 way connectors you used.

I could have done it by adding a few connectors and adaptors together for each corner, but it would have been a lot more $$$ for parts.

I think even if I made it narrower, though, it still wouldn't be able to fit between the boxes we have, but I'm saving that link, and next time, I'm going to make a little variation between both of our designs.

 

[domino22]

I used 1 inch tube. Measure twice cut once. Dry fit it all together before you glue-that stuff sets up quick. I used foam insulation for pipes where the tank will ride and a few bungees and I was good to go.

 

[Lamar Jr]

If I did it again I'd make a few changes.
1. I would probably make the vertical spans 10 inches instead of 12 inches.
2. I would use 4 way fittings on the bottom corners to keep the rack 1 inch off the ground.

Since you didn't glue this together, it should be easy enough to disassemble and shorten the verticle pieces. You can also easily swap out the bottom corner pieces anytime you choose.

Thanks to both grunzster and TechnoMag for posting pics of the finished product. Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.

 

[CBulla]

damn! My wife saw this and now I have another project to do (or help her with hopefully). Thanks a lot!

 

[grouchyturtle]

Just a little update. I just got new tanks. My design is too small for wider tanks. I had to extend the height to fit my E8s in it. With the boots off, I may have been able to squeeze them in, but it is still a little to narrow to fit 2 tanks side by side.

If I extend the width it will be too big. I'd think that using TechnoMage's design, though, you should be able to make it wide enough for the bigger tanks, without making it too big to fit any other gear next to it.

Also as far as strength, I've done a few 1hr - 2 hr trips with my tank all rigged up sitting on the very top, and it didn't budge, although I did get a little nervous on a few sharp turns and some pot holes!

 

[Allen42]

It looks from the pic that the tanks can still roll a bit side to side, thus "bang" into each other. Is this true?

 

[grouchyturtle]

80s will a little anything wider and it's a little too tight. Actually we'll often put other thing such as camping chairs on the bottom and use the middle and top for tanks.

That way they don't roll at all.

 

[milkathecow]

I can't load any of the images that both grunzster and TechnoMage did, any idea ?? gunzster, your tanks.jpg is a 404 page not found, and the others just don't want to load... want to make them smaller ? maybe ?


ok solved the issue... save link as.. did the trick.. but why don't you do something like this : http://kopka.at/english.htm
in simple projects and tank fixing... it's quite interesting, and a lot less space consuming imho.

thanks..