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Mack tank delivery truck

Jeff D.

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A neighbor of mine designs, builds, and delivers septic tanks. A good freind drives for him delivering the tanks, and they've had their trucks in some pretty hairy situations.

They now run Mack trucks, and they're very happy with the performance and durability they've provided (quite the opposite of my feelings of Mack). They were running Fords (w/2 cycle V8 detroits) previously, but say the Macks are much tougher than the Fords were.

He gave me a couple of pics to share here.

Suprisingly the truck had no serious damage after it was uprighted in the second pic, and was still in service later that day.
 

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Jeff D.

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Howd it get on its side?
On the rear of the truck there is two hydraulic stabilizers similair to the ones on a backhoe. If the hole dug for the tank is too big they have a hard time backing the truck far enough back to set the tank correctly while still having the stabilizers on solid ground. I guess the ground gave way from the weight and over it went.

They talk as if this is a common occurance when delivering the really big tanks (it's happened twice this year to my buddy).:eek::beatsme
 

Ford LT-9000

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Those type of trucks are pretty much not used anymore a flatdeck with a decent sized hiab places tanks easier and more precise. The one tank company has a 4x4 crane truck for getting in and out of the places we have here. The largest concrete septic tanks used are 1200 Imperial gallon they come in 2 pieces and you seal the two halfs with a tar strip that comes on a roll.
 

Ford LT-9000

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To make one of those types truck work you would have to have a perfect site that you could back up to the hole where the tank will go. Depending on the Hiab on the trucks here you can reach out with 1000lbs pretty far. If the crane can't do it the excavator can unless its a mini excavator.

The concrete companies usually have well liners etc also on the truck. Now that quite a few of the septic tanks are plastic there is no need for a crane.
 

jmac

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The last tank I put in (last month) was a 1500 gallon tank and was 13000 lbs. was delivered with a truck just like that one and the driver placed tank in the hole for me. Was great! Put a level on it and a couple of shovels of stone under one corner and done. The ground was a little soft and placing the tank was scary to say the least. The driver backed in about 300' over 2' of mud and backed right up to the hole. My hole was as small as possible so the truck didn't have to move the tank very far, was asked to do this by the tank company just because of this reason. The tank company also wanted me to have my dozer on site just in case. The tank could have been placed with excavator but would have been a lot harder and impossible with my Ex60 but could have done it with the PC150 but didn't have it at the time, and didn't want to have to do it. After tank was in the hole I pulled truck out to the road with dozer. Did the same thing with the 1000 gallon pumping tank that was at the same site. Had to pull a couple of dump trucks into the site to dump and out to the road to leave a couple of times with dozer also. One point that I will make that is off topic, but is good thing to think about is concrete floats! I backed filled tank as soon as possible because if you get a hard rain the tank can float in the hole and that would very bad. You could destroy your piping and your grades. The inspector came after most of my work was backed filled and my reason to him was that I could not wait for him because of the chance of the ditches caving in (could move my piping around) and the tanks and d boxes moving from the heavy rain we received. He was ok with it and let me back fill the rest.
 

Orchard Ex

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Suprisingly the truck had no serious damage after it was uprighted in the second pic, and was still in service later that day.
Funny how sometimes what looks like a major problem can turn out fairly minor (like this case) and other things that look like nothing major could have happened to the truck take serious $$ to fix...

Those type of trucks are pretty much not used anymore
Maybe "over there" but that is the only type of truck I've ever seen around here setting septic tanks. I guess we are just bass akwards.:)

He must have been driving parallel to the excavation!:bouncegri
 

Jeff D.

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I've heard mention of a different style of truck for this application, but this type is the only kind I've ever seen being used. They said they're getting another soon, and it sounded like it will be the same style as above.

I went on a delivery run once and it was interesting. Once the truck is positioned near the hole, everything else is done by remote control away from the truck and danger. The controller looked just like a TV remote.:yup

The "big" tanks are 2500gal@18,500lbs w/o the lid, so they're a real bear to move.
 

Ford LT-9000

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Why do you guys use septic tanks that size ?

To have a 1200 gallon tank pumped is close to 500 dollars and only needs to be done every 3 years. If a larger tank is required then we will use plastic or form and pour a concrete tank on site. Any of the precast tanks are two piece its very rare to have a 1 piece tank.

There are quite a few crane trucks around here the local building supply has 2 and both trucks have 7 metric ton cranes the other 2 building supplies have 4 trucks all with 7 ton hiabs. Two crane companies have stinger cranes and hiabs with 10 ton capacity. If the job is extreme the home owner has to pay the extra couple thousand dollars to have a road built to deliver the septic tank and dig the road back out.
 

Bob Horrell

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Out here you have to fill the tank with water before inspection to they can see there are no leaks. This also keeps it from floating should there be a heavy rain before backfilling. Here most use flatbed boom trucks for placing the tanks. The biggest concrete tanks are 1500 gal and as said before are quite heavy.
 

xkvator

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similar trucks around here...

about $125 to get a 1000 gal. tank pumped...
 

Ford LT-9000

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Thats cheap.

Just for the honey truck to come to your house is close to 200-250 dollars the dump fees are another 200 dollars plus tax.
 

Countryboy

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We have both types around here but you see more of the trolly type than the hiab.
 

jmac

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Out here you have to fill the tank with water before inspection to they can see there are no leaks. This also keeps it from floating should there be a heavy rain before backfilling.

What happens if the water is not available at the site?
 

Ford LT-9000

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It is rare to have a tank float unless you have lots of rain or a very high water table. Concrete tanks will never be leak proof it really doesn't matter if a tank weeps abit. The algae seals the leaks eventually. For the pressure test the inspector wants water on the site to test the field.
 

jazak

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They should just buy a couple knucklebooms or small crane trucks. That would never happen again.:nono
 
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