Rock Crawling Water Storage, Baffled?

[5Runner]

Another little question for built in water storage design for 4wheeling. The point is this rig will get bounced around a lot.

Goal:
14 gallons of water storage.

Idea:
use two 7 gallon tanks plumbed together with shut off valves prior to the pump. Each tank 12 x 12 x 12

Why:
On short trips, I only need to bring 7 gallons. I don't want 7 gallons sloshing around in a 14 gallon tank.
On some trips, I want all 14 gallons. Then I can fill both.

The Problem:
Two tanks with the fittings will cost about $200
One larger tank with fittings will cost about $130

That's nearly 1/2 as much more, just to lessen the slosh. I feel that is important, but man...is it $70 important? I had two portable 7 gallon tanks in the previous build, and even the 7 gallon tanks annoying sloshed around. I can only imagine what a 14 gallon would do...but will it be that much worse...$70 worth worse?

The tank mfg cannot put baffles in.

I am going to put a 4" hole in the top for access to cleaning. Is there anything I can put in or modify to minimize the slosh if I got the larger tank.

Am I over thinking my sloshing concerns?

Thanks...I need to get this ordered ASAP, running out of time for my first trip of the season coming up.

 

[AxeAngel]

With a 4" opening you could always buy the larger 14 gal tank and then insert a deflated air bladder into the tank. Add desired amount of water to the tank. Inflate the air bladder while still in the tank. Would help with sloshing.

-Sam

 

[mudbutt]

Race car gas tanks use an open cell foam to prevent sloshing. I have no clue as to where you could buy something that would be safe and effective in a water tank tho....

 

[gertrude]

5Runner,
Here is what i am going to use. It's baffled and priced good.
http://www.americanrvcompany.com/Va...Tanks-15-Gallon-Camper-Trailer-RV_p_8526.html

 

[shov3lbum]

5Runner,
Here is what i am going to use. It's baffled and priced good.
http://www.americanrvcompany.com/Va...Tanks-15-Gallon-Camper-Trailer-RV_p_8526.html

That looks awesome and for the price, not a bad deal I might say, I've been looking for something to fill the huge void left by moving my spare tire and this looks almost perfect, nice find

 

[BigSwede]

I think sloshing is a concern. I purposely bought two smaller water jugs rather than one large one, for this reason and for ease of carry.

 

[JimQPublic]

I have the 12 gallon, 24" version of the same tank. It seems sturdy and has multiple options for attaching fittings. Installed it vertically as a grey water tank in my trailer in 2004- no problems to date.

Note that my 24" tank is not baffled. I don't know what size they start adding baffles.

Company website here:
http://www.valterra.com/ind/abs_water_tanks.htm

 

[5Runner]

Well, I ordered a 12 x 12 x 20, 12 gallon tank. It will probably slosh side to side the 20" length. It's going inside a wood compartment below a sleeping platform. I'm insulating around it with 1/2" poly. Hopefully this will minimize the sound, as I have not come up with a baffling solution I like.

 

[5Runner]

Thanks for the thoughts and advice. Here is the tank I went with. No baffles, I'll see what happens.

 

[Errant]

I use a baffled Valterra tank with a Valterra hand pump in a Uniseal flexible bulkhead on my M100. I went with the flexible bulkhead so that I could easily remove/rebuild the pump and to avoid having the top crack around an epoxied bulkhead, which seems to be an issue on some tanks used off-road.

 

[5Runner]

Okay. I made up this problem in my head. Sloshing is a non-issue with a set up like this.

We did a 5 night trip in Moab where we bounced around as much as I will ever. I started with 12 gallons and ended with about 1 or so. I never one single time heard or thought otherwise of any noise coming from the tank. Just the pump when using the water, but that just made me smile, it wasn't loud.

This is very unexpected (obviously) as my other portable plastic tanks made a lot of noise.

Perceived problem, solved.