Drop Tanks

[Fytnfire]

Looking into the new inflatable drop tanks,
Was wondering if anyone had used these, and how did they perform compared to an fold up frame tank.
Lets here what you like or didn't like about this product.
Thanks

[Dave404]

good as long as your not on a slope, or have a strong wind. We have the steel frame, and its fun watching the inflatables roll away!

[Engine76KS]

Use the steel frame ones. They are easier to set up and take down, and quite a bit more durable.

[grains]

When you say "inflatable" I take this to mean a frameless, circular, portable tank. If that's the case, we used these for many years.

The biggest drawback you will find is that they can roll (slide) if they are set up on any slope. This will effectively empty the entire contents in quick order. This happens more often on paved surfaces.

Since they are frameless they can be a little bulky to move around. However, it was easy to just roll the thing off the top of the tender onto the ground to deploy it without worrying about bending any metal. Restoring the tank is a snap. Without the metal frame it rolls up similar to a sleeping bag.

There is a foam collar that keeps the water from spilling out from the top. If you need to draft out of the top you'll have to make sure that your drafting hose does not press down on this collar, otherwise you'll dump some of your water. We usually got around this by connecting our 2.5" suction directly to one of the built-in 2.5" ports on the base of the tank. These ports also allowed us to connect two pumpkins together allowing us to fill into one and draft out of the other.

We have now moved on to more conventional portable water tanks which are supported by frames.

[BirkenVogt]

We have one and I think it is a PITA, floating collar type. However it fits in a lot smaller space than a steel frame one. And for the amount of times that we (don't) use it, having it be smaller is a better trade of for having it be more convenient.

Birken

[N2DFire]

We haven't used ours yet, but we have one of the Rol-La-Tank from Fold-a-tank on order.
It's sort of a hybrid between frame & frameless.
It is basically a framed tank that has removed the frame except for folding corner supports.
It folds down and fit's in a carry bag and is easier to deploy than a framed tank.

http://www.foldatank.com/newproducts.lasso

[hwoods]

And...............

Well, Here's my Professional Opinion: Go with the Conventional Square Tank with a Tubular Metal Frame.


And, Here's my Personal Opinion: Go with the Conventional Square Tank with a Tubular Metal Frame.


I've used both over a long span of time, at least thirty five years, and I have no use for the Frameless type. There are several reasons, such as when you need to set up several in series, to supply a high Fire flow. Framed Tanks can be set up against each other in a line as long as you want, (I've worked a job with EIGHT Tanks) then interconnected with Jet syphons. And, there's the whole Hard Suction Hose thing. We use Six Inch Suction Hose, and that will collapse the side of an inflatable Tank. Also, the Dump Chutes on some models of Tankers are set up in a way that makes it hard to get water over the top of the inflatable tank, in particular, the ones where the bottom is at least twice as wide as the top.

[tfpd109]

I've not used the inflatable ones, only the steel framed ones, and just by looking at the inflatable ones it seems like your pretty limited to what you can do. As HWOODS has said, if you need to drop more than one, it seems like it could be a problem. I've not had eight down at once, but several and they work just fine for us. (I kinda thought the inflatable ones were for the back yard )

[Fytnfire]

Thank you all for you input it was very helpful!

[Diesel2011]

portable water tanks

I am a member of a small rural department and looking for 2 portable water metalframed water tanks. Don't need to be perfect just something that can hold some water even if in need of a patch or two any info would be great

[fireemt19]

metal frame dump tanks

I agree with what hwoods said. we use the metal frame dump tanks a lot and in many cases we use multiple dump tanks at the dump site. the other thing is the durability of the tank and its frame, the metal frame tanks are very durable and are easy to deploy and retract and if needed can be cleaned out easier than the round self deploying tanks. i would go with a metal frame dump tank over a self inflating dump tank. you can find dump tanks for sale on edarley.com

[confire]

I seem to remember a topic very similar to this one a few years back.

[rm1524]

I seem to remember a topic very similar to this one a few years back.

By the looks of the first post I would say 09/12/06.