Tanks In Cars....

[tep]

I wouldn't think that driving around with tanks in the closed trunk of a car in Miami would be a great idea. It the gas pressure in the tank goes up the hotter the tank and subjecting the tank to those higher temps constantly does not seem like a good idea. I have never seen it happen, but I know down south people get pretty enthusiastic with filling tanks and an overfilled tank in the back of a hot car could put a damper on your day. Besides, how are your going to get a good fill on a tank if you need to wear oven mitts to get them out. Personally, in the summer I avoid leaving tanks in the car as much as possible and put a blanket over them to insulate them from the hot air of the trunk. Just the having the burst disk failing while driving would probably be pretty bad.

Even a big swing in temp, say from 80F to 140F would only net about a 10% pressure increase. That's really worst case as it ignores the thermal mass of a steel or aluminum tank. In other words you'd have to have a tank in a trunk for a loooong time for the air inside to reach 140F in a 140F trunk. I'd have to dig out the thermodynamics text books that I dont have any longer to figure that out.

 

[CT-Rich]

That is why I usually toss a blanket over tanks store in the car. Getting a good fill in hot tank is difficult because the ga is heated in a hot cylinder. Personally, I am not crazy about driving around in a car loaded with stuff of high potential energy when it’s not necessary. I don’t drive around with a gas can in the trunk either.

 

[60plus]

Further to my post12. The passenger compartment of a car is where an unrestrained item in that compartment could hit the occupants if the car if it crashed or rolled over. For example a dog in the load area of an estate car (station wagon). If it can jump into where the passengers are it would be regarded as being in the passenger compartment. If there is a grill / cage between the load area and the seats the dog would be regarded as not in the passenger compartment. In the UK there is criminal and civil law and also a lot of other stuff that comes under titles such as guidelines, regulations, codes of practice etc. Breaching this other stuff does not mean you will be prosecuted and most of the time the police would have no interest. However if you fail to follow these guidelines and something goes wrong / someone gets injured then adherence to guidelines will be a major factor in assessing liability. In the UK there is a criminal offence of "Criminal damage due to recklessness" that carries I think a fine of up to £5,000 and 6 months in prison. It is rarely used but the term reckless does not mean you have to be a complete idiot, it means that if you fail to follow manufacturers guidelines and an incident (which may not be your fault) is made worse by your omissions you will be guilty.

 

[Diver0001]

I usually have a tank or two in my car as well as my frequent trips to the fill station. i tend to not think to much about them and apart from one or two time where the tank rolled and turned the valve by accident causing a hissy mess nothing really bad ever happen.

Every now and then however, at a stop light i look at the tanks a few feet away from me and think to myself..... "i wonder what would happen if i get T boned or something with these 3000psi suckers right next to me"

Anyone ever had or herd of a bad accidents transporting tanks? From my experience heat is not that big a deal, i live in Miami and never had a burst disk pop or anything. But i would imagine collisions are a whole different story....

I got rammed once with a car full of gear. I was coming back from a dive with a buddy and there were 7 tanks in the back (two double sets, two stages and a stage full of O2).

The situation was that an unexpected traffic jam had formed and I stopped and for a moment was the last car standing still. The guy behind me stopped too but the guy behind him didn't only not stop, he didn't even make any effort to slow down. I suspect he was probably texting, although he had another excuse. He rammed the guy behind me at about 100km/h which launched him into the back of my car so hard that the hatch back was folded in about 1/2 way to the back seat. (my car is a fiat doblo). It pushed some of the gear around but surprisingly nothing was damaged (except, of course, the car).

I wouldn't want to repeat that too many times but the car seemed to offer sufficient protection for the tanks in the back that I'm no longer concerned about an explosion. An accident bad enough to cause a tank to explode would probably kill me anyway.

R..

 

[_Ralph]

Last winter I walked away from a bad accident involving me being sandwiched between two very big semi trucks on the highway, with a $h1t load of tanks and gear in my compact SUV

I strap everything into the back seat (whether it is laying down on the seat, or usually, vertically along the back rest) using the child seat anchor points and head rests.

Only one valve rolled on 1 of 3 sets of doubles, and the contents alls shifted forward considerably (some items from the trunk landed in the middle seat, and some items in the middle seat ended up in the passenger seat ... luckily I had no passengers).

2 sets of doubles in the trunk along with 2 AL80, 1 AL40, 1 DPV and drysuit/regs/lights/dive gear.
1 set of doubles and 1 AL80 in the back seat with tool boxes and camera rigs.

As for damages/costs (dive gear .. vehicle was an automatic write off and replaced by insurance)
DPV was quoted at $3000 via manufacturer for them to hammer it back into shape (one afternoon of cursing with an anvil and hammer took care of that)
One manifold (of 3) bent
1 mangled valve (of 4)
Hydro's and O2 cleaning/VIP & fills

I took that opportunity to change many valves to a different brand (went from 4 brand/styles to 3) to cut down on service kit costs, cleaned and sold a bunch of the good ones, and scrapped the rest for parts. In all it cost "me" ~$500 all said and done (yay insurance!)


Nothing 'blew up', but as I said in the first line, I walked away with a sore nose from the airbag and a bruise from the seatbelt across the abdomen. I'm sure one of those tanks from the middle seat would have done me some good damage if it really came loose quickly and there wasn't seats deflecting it away.


_R

 

[padoink]

I think I would be most afraid of what could happen after a very bad crash. If a car rolls over and catches fire there's a huge issue with the car alone. If you can walk away from a crash like that - great.
I'm wondering what kind of surprise are your tanks could be leaving for the fire crew that comes to the scene though.

 

[ermaclob]

I think I would be most afraid of what could happen after a very bad crash. If a car rolls over and catches fire there's a huge issue with the car alone. If you can walk away from a crash like that - great.
I'm wondering what kind of surprise are your tanks could be leaving for the fire crew that comes to the scene though.

i always think about this when it comes to caring deco bottles particularly 80% and 100% O2

 

[TMHeimer]

I think I would be most afraid of what could happen after a very bad crash. If a car rolls over and catches fire there's a huge issue with the car alone. If you can walk away from a crash like that - great.
I'm wondering what kind of surprise are your tanks could be leaving for the fire crew that comes to the scene though.

Yeah, that's the point. Doesn't make sense to tie down tanks like there's no tomorrow. I'm assuming my car won't roll over or that I'll get in a very serious accident. Not likely where I live, and I only spend 7 weeks around NYC in the summer--and know my exact routes and what lane to be in and where the nasty drivers will appear. Admittedly, that's almost everywhere.

 

[lerpy]

when travelling long distance I make sure my tanks are secured. The biggest issue I have had is a few dents in the box of my truck, and a valve rolling open, which gave people at a light beside concern over the loud hissing. Once thing to think about however, a friend of mine that is a firefighter made a comment about my 100% O2 in my basement. "Do us a favour, if there is a fire in your house, let us know you have tanks of O2 in the house, better yet, think about keeping them in the shed."

 

[60plus]

My car runs on LPG and the tank can contain up to 72 litres of LPG at about 18 Bar. These LPG tanks are much thinner than dive tanks yet they stand up to collisions very well. I have never heard of one splitting in a crash. On the other hand I have seen a front seat passenger knocked senseless by a beer can from the back parcel shelf flying forward in a 30 to 35 mph crash into the back of a stationary car.