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On the early coaches you got a 38 US gal forward tank beneath and forward of the front spring. This is the fiberglass housing that encased the tank and insulation around it. If you can get one of these somewhere it'll make your job easier... sort of. I ended up making my own tank and elected to make it 1/2" or so taller which necessitated getting rid of the upper lid which then didn't fit. | Here's one of the early forwards tanks I got from buddy, Jay, in Wa. along with the housing a few yrs back. Fittings on this one leaked badly and regardless of my best efforts to weld them up to stop the leaks I was unsuccessful and had to toss it. I would learn later that 50-ish year old HDPE simply isn't worth the time or trouble to repair and expect any useful service out of it. I'm posting some dimensions here as well for future reference. | I decided to learn to do plastic hot-air welding to build my own tank. If anyone decides to follow along and make their own tank - THEY DO SO ENTIRELY AT THEIR OWN RISK. This post in no way is intended as an instruction publication on how it should be done. It's merely my account of how I did it and the issues I encountered. | Got me a hot-air welder, a 4x8' sheet of 1/4" HDPE, a bunch of 3/16" x 3ft. wht. HDPE welding rods,bucked out all the pieces on my table saw and with the scraps I welded up this contraption to see if my very first corner-weld would hold water. Well, it did... for 3 days till I dumped it out, then satisfied my plastic welding apprenticeship was successful. What a pile of shit that notion turned out to be. |
Watched all the Youtube videos, read all the online advice & tutorials, set up a decent flat work surface and had at'er. | Designed some baffles... | The corner welds turned out to be the MOST challenging. | |
First water test, first of MANY actually. Notice the paper towels under each corner. Proved a good way to quickly highlight any leaks if/when they happened. And oh... did they happen. I'm ashamed to say how many times I had to fill, drain, dry out, grind-off, weld again, refill then repeat this tank. So I won't, suffice to say I now know why folks buy the roto-molded tanks or get a pro to weld them up a new one. | Top finally on and tank full with a clear poly spout so I could watch it for a day or more to see if it went down. I did, barely, but there was no water on the ppr towels or table. Good to go. I was so DONE with welding this thing. Outside measurements, roughly: 27" x 32" x 10 1/2". NOTE: there is another 3/4" (spin-on) fitting on the bottom of the tank in addition to the two visible. Top= vent; Side= fill; Bottom= drain & pump feed. | Here it is in the shroud with sheet foam around it ready to go in. I cut open the angled corner of the shroud and riveted in an SS angle piece to better fit the new square corner on my tank. I checked in advance to make sure all steering-rods/components would clear it safely. | |
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