• Thank you for visiting HeavyEquipmentForums.com! Our objective is to provide industry professionals a place to gather to exchange questions, answers and ideas. We welcome you to register using the "Register" icon at the top of the page. We'd appreciate any help you can offer in spreading the word of our new site. The more members that join, the bigger resource for all to enjoy. Thank you!

5000Gal. Water tank rodeo!

hammertime

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2014
Messages
123
Location
Rio Verde Arizona
Hey all, I love this job post section. thought i would share pics of my recent water tank unearth and move project.
No city water where i live. wells are crap. Hauled water is the best option in these parts. Original builder placed it next to a failed well right behind the house. total pain to drive around and it looked ugly!

Time to move! rented me a 2007 case 580 extendahoe 4WD 4 way bucket. 36" bucket and pilot controls to boot on the 12k hour hoe
made this job super easy....to a point


First pic. It was completely underground. it took some doing to get that boom to lift it. Would not budge with extendahoe out full. I should have gotten a little closer to it. The stick was the champ. lifted it no prob. yes I emptied the tank completely to lighten load

12466298_1098479653495371_6554442031803850943_o.jpg

In order for the boom to get me the hight I had to lean the tank on the edge of the whole to take some of the weight off. worked like a charm

1292967_1098479623495374_1037100428267882187_o.jpg

Success! shes a beauty

1496462_1098479793495357_7868801591538859276_o.jpg


Getting this sucker to the front of the house was a chore! had to fill loader with dirt to keep it from tipping over as i backed it into the spot

886271_1099164333426903_8265672322057751832_o.jpg

12466206_1099164730093530_2149429888067529320_o.jpg

Fun Project ..with that 36" bucket made it a breeze
 

CM1995

Administrator
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
13,248
Location
Alabama
Occupation
Running what I brung and taking what I win
Impressive job, that's a big bulky tank to move with a rubber tire hoe.

The idea of having to haul water in is so foreign to me but we get almost 5' of rain a year.:D
 

hammertime

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2014
Messages
123
Location
Rio Verde Arizona
Hey CM1995, thank you for responding. I put these photos up for an idea on how all you pros would handle the job and i have not seen any pics of doing a move like this. I was extremely fortunate i think to have accomplished this on uneven ground with an underweight machine. many lessons learned. I had a limited $$$ otherwise trackhoe for sure. Would love to hear the opinions and such.

Water is the new oil for us in the southwest. the 6000gal. trucks fillup at a hydrant about 6 miles away and haul it to our place. funny thing is this area is a premier equestrian area with very nice expensive homes. and some have no water except hauled.
right now hauled water prices are around .33cents a gallon. in the next five years im thinking its going to be .66cents a gallon. booming new business.
 

kshansen

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
11,128
Location
Central New York, USA
Occupation
Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
Impressive job, that's a big bulky tank to move with a rubber tire hoe.

The idea of having to haul water in is so foreign to me but we get almost 5' of rain a year.:D

CM1995,

We are a bit drier here in Central NY only about 40 inches a year, I'm assuming they are taking the snow and melting it to convert that to rain also! Like you, I'm sure, getting rid of the water is a bigger problem many days! Well water for me is good but a bit on the hard side, seems like that could be expected when you drill a 150 foot hole through solid limestone to get it! To off set that we have the down spouts on the house connected to a cistern in the basement that we use for hot water as the hard water plays heck with the hot water heater elements. That supplies us with 95% of the hot water for the year. Probably should think about solar heat to help with the heating of the free water.
 

Delmer

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2013
Messages
8,864
Location
WI
right now hauled water prices are around .33cents a gallon. in the next five years im thinking its going to be .66cents a gallon. booming new business.

Interesting economics, $20 for a 6,000 gallon tank, hauled 6 miles doesn't seem that bad at all. I didn't compute the decimal point at first and that seemed pretty high. The comparison around here is holding tanks, they cost a lot more than that to haul away per gallon.
 

CM1995

Administrator
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
13,248
Location
Alabama
Occupation
Running what I brung and taking what I win
Hey CM1995, thank you for responding. I put these photos up for an idea on how all you pros would handle the job and i have not seen any pics of doing a move like this. I was extremely fortunate i think to have accomplished this on uneven ground with an underweight machine. many lessons learned.

I think you did a great job especially with a 12K hour backhoe. My motto is "Take what you win, run what you brung". You did that.:thumbsup


BTW that machine looks great for having 12K hours.
 

CM1995

Administrator
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
13,248
Location
Alabama
Occupation
Running what I brung and taking what I win
CM1995,

We are a bit drier here in Central NY only about 40 inches a year, I'm assuming they are taking the snow and melting it to convert that to rain also! Like you, I'm sure, getting rid of the water is a bigger problem many days! Well water for me is good but a bit on the hard side, seems like that could be expected when you drill a 150 foot hole through solid limestone to get it! To off set that we have the down spouts on the house connected to a cistern in the basement that we use for hot water as the hard water plays heck with the hot water heater elements. That supplies us with 95% of the hot water for the year. Probably should think about solar heat to help with the heating of the free water.

Same here with well water, as we have an abundance of limestone. We had a well while growing up with an electric water heater and my father was always changing the elements.

Even the city water has a lot of calcium as it's a mixture of wells and lake drawn water. The little suburb of Birmingham I live in gets it's water from wells drilled in limestone, not as hard as well water but still has some complications with the plumbing.
 

hammertime

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2014
Messages
123
Location
Rio Verde Arizona
I think you did a great job especially with a 12K hour backhoe. My motto is "Take what you win, run what you brung". You did that.:thumbsup
BTW that machine looks great for having 12K hours.

I told the guys at titan rentals they really hit my G-spot on this rental. I was blown away with how nice this machine felt to operate. no fatigue after all those hours out here in the desert digging. Pilot controls were an added treat...
way impressed
 

RobVG

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2009
Messages
1,028
Location
Seattle WA
Occupation
17 excavators and a stewpot of other stuff
Probably could have sold it to one of the moonshiners for a mash barrel.
 

hammertime

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2014
Messages
123
Location
Rio Verde Arizona
Yair . . .

hammertime Nice job with that machine.

Is there a requirement to bury water tanks or was it aesthetic and to save a bit of space?

Cheers.

thanks scrub! no requirement to bury. most metal tanks are buried out here for aesthetics and....you get cold water in the summer! no joke really that's one of the reasons. lots of these builders throw a 3000 gal black plastic tank you see at tractor supply on the side of the house as well but the temp. never lets the water get cool in the summer. the only bummer is you have to make sure nobody drives over it. where it is now is perfectly out of the way. ( i should add more pics ).

storytime.... these cowboys out here sometimes just throw these tanks in the dumbest places. The garbage man shows up at a property and goes around a parked vehicle and ends up driving over the water tank like this one. tank collapsed under the weight of the rear axle doing some serious damage. Garbage company said it was not marked properly and they were not liable. which i agree with if that's the case.
 

Scrub Puller

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Messages
3,481
Location
Gladstone Queensland Australia
Yair . . .

Gotcha fellers.

As I say its interesting how different places/cultures do things different.

Every rural property over here has watertanks but folks would never dream of using steel.

The standard tank is a five thousand gallon polly and can be transported easily and put in place by hand onto compacted gravel . . . city folks moving to the country often put them on a concrete slab.

You folks obviously would have the same thing but here they are ubiquitous on almost every house. some folks have half a dozen.

All sorts of different styles but ours look a bit like this . . . .images2K4WQWFH.jpg


Cheers.
 

hammertime

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2014
Messages
123
Location
Rio Verde Arizona
yeah those are pretty big tanks! that looks nice too. very well placed and painted. My delivery guy just installed a wireless laser tank measure. lets him know online how much water is in the tank. when it get low it alarms my address and he drops off a load. before it was a 10ft stick dunking like a dipstick to see the level is. he says it allows him to operate more efficient with everybody on his screen as opposed to frantic out of water calls and scrambling a truck out of order. seems like a solid idea
 

hammertime

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2014
Messages
123
Location
Rio Verde Arizona
Nice work hammertime !

Sounds like you are relocating the holding tank & possibly do away with old the dry well station ?

Would love to go visit that area someday . My only fear is I might like it and stay :D.

http://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/

Here ya go Scrub .... Over 55 years old you could buy a house & play a round of golf mate :);)

http://www.rioverdearizona.com/


yes golf is popular here. that link for rio verde is for the retirement area 10 miles east of me. they actually have lots of water being near the verde river. Im not quite there at age 37 but that area is nice. my well was drilled almost 1000ft and never produced any water. builder tried a second one as well with no luck.
 

CM1995

Administrator
Joined
Jan 21, 2007
Messages
13,248
Location
Alabama
Occupation
Running what I brung and taking what I win
yeah those are pretty big tanks! that looks nice too. very well placed and painted. My delivery guy just installed a wireless laser tank measure. lets him know online how much water is in the tank. when it get low it alarms my address and he drops off a load. before it was a 10ft stick dunking like a dipstick to see the level is. he says it allows him to operate more efficient with everybody on his screen as opposed to frantic out of water calls and scrambling a truck out of order. seems like a solid idea

Now that is slicker than snot on a doorknob!:D

I wonder if they make the same for bulk fuel tanks?
 

hammertime

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2014
Messages
123
Location
Rio Verde Arizona
This is the company he uses. he wanted to do it a while ago. but they just recently made it $$ feasible for him to do so. of course a small group of locals think he is spying or doing something with it? so they dont want it. even though it knocks some $ off the rate. funny...

battery powered sits 1' above tank mounted on pvc. You can set it for whatever size tank and it does the math itself
http://www.tanklink.com/TankDataOnline
 
Top