Sludging tankers are winkers!!!

[Cowabunga]

Blew the middle sight glass off the tanker this afternoon. As usual it was as soon as I'd started the PTO, so full to the brim. What a mess! Got the level down inside to more or less hole level and stuffed some paper hard into it to stop spilling on the road. Hardly believe the mess on the tractor and spent the last hour hosing it down.

Emptied the rest of the load back into the pit and although I have a spare perspex glass in stock, can't get it to thread because of the rust in the collar. So I've decided now to weld a strong steel plate over this and the bottom one. If the bottom one blew I'd have a hell of a mess with 10,000 litres of slurry squirting out through a four inch hole. They are useless things anyway and only the top back one is actually used, to indicate when the tanker is about full.
Will do the second tanker too. All three front holes, because both are the same age and this is the second glass to blow in six months.

Yuk!!

 

[john432]

Ych a fi! But at least you had the back window shut!

 

[Bloders]

I think even the top kne is useless.
I bought steel blanking plugs for ours. Tidies the thread a bit to get it to start and then wound it in, tight.

 

[Cowabunga]

Ych a fi! But at least you had the back window shut!

Yes I did and couldn't even open it to see what the hell had happened or was happening. After if subsided, I did open the window a bit and the internal tidal wave gave a punch of slurry that got a surprising amount of slurry onto the right hand window, ceiling, the linkage console and the pillar Datatronic. I think it splashed up off the left hand mudguard. Ych y fi, ie wir! Very fortunately virtually none hit me.

 

[Cowabunga]

I think even the top kne is useless.
I bought steel blanking plugs for ours. Tidies the thread a bit to get it to start and then wound it in, tight.

I've just cut some plain thick steel plate and will weld it on to the collar. Just used a pipe wrench to break the bottom one off and it and the collar were full of solid old muck anyway. I've never ever used those front sight glasses so blanking them will be all gain and no more potential stinky pain.

 

[ollie989898]

Saw this happen to someone else. As a consequence I never have the back window open when tanking.

 

[ColinV6]

Yep always ALWAYS have the window shut. Mind you I always do anyways for the dust lol.

I’ve never understood threaded sight glasses, mine has ones that just place on and a screw keeps them in place

 

[Cmoran]

Same happened me few years back so we bent flat iron into a U shape and welded around the new glass threaded a bolt in against the glass for extra grip

 

[Lofty1984]

Yes I did and couldn't even open it to see what the hell had happened or was happening. After if subsided, I did open the window a bit and the internal tidal wave gave a punch of slurry that got a surprising amount of slurry onto the right hand window, ceiling, the linkage console and the pillar Datatronic. I think it splashed up off the left hand mudguard. Ych y fi, ie wir! Very fortunately virtually none hit me.

What no pics

 

[Cowabunga]

What no pics

'Twas the last thing on my mind.

 

[Hilly]

Funny ive had two blown this winter first time ever, hispec have a better design than threaded , has a hoop over with a bolt holds glass in easy replaced unlike the problem your having with threads, did seriously consider welding up as as you say only rear top one worth while having.

 

[Cowabunga]

Funny ive had two blown this winter first time ever, hispec have a better design than threaded , has a hoop over with a bolt holds glass in easy replaced unlike the problem your having with threads, did seriously consider welding up as as you say only rear top one worth while having.

Mine are Hispec tankers too, but threaded. Both lower holes will be welded up early tomorrow. The steel is already cut.

 

[Tarw Coch]

If you don’t want to weld on your tanker, I have seen them plated by bolting a plate on.
You need a couple of bolts with a bit of steel on sticking out at 90 degrees and a couple of holes drilled in your plate.
Fasten the bolts to the plate loosely then put the ends with the steel legs on through the hole where the sight glass sits and turn them through approx 180 degrees until the steel legs are holding on the inside of tanker and tighten up.
This way you haven’t burnt your paint off making the tanker more prone to rust.

@Cowabunga thought I’d better tag you as you’re more likely to see this, wouldn’t want you to say wish I’d thought of that before I welded it.

 

[Cowabunga]

If you don’t want to weld on your tanker, I have seen them plated by bolting a plate on.
You need a couple of bolts with a bit of steel on sticking out at 90 degrees and a couple of holes drilled in your plate.
Fasten the bolts to the plate loosely then put the ends with the steel legs on through the hole where the sight glass sits and turn them through approx 180 degrees until the steel legs are holding on the inside of tanker and tighten up.
This way you haven’t burnt your paint off making the tanker more prone to rust.

@Cowabunga thought I’d better tag you as you’re more likely to see this, wouldn’t want you to say wish I’d thought of that before I welded it.

Thanks, but I have red paint and welding rods. Tidy job. I may take pictures.

 

[Tarw Coch]

Thanks, but I have red paint and welding rods. Tidy job. I may take pictures.

I’m not doubting you will do a tidy job including paint but I’d be thinking more of the paint burnt off on the inside in contact with slurry and rust working from the inside out.

 

[davedb]

I’m not doubting you will do a tidy job including paint but I’d be thinking more of the paint burnt off on the inside in contact with slurry and rust working from the inside out.

Tankers arnt painted on the inside from new so no worries there

 

[Cowabunga]

I’m not doubting you will do a tidy job including paint but I’d be thinking more of the paint burnt off on the inside in contact with slurry and rust working from the inside out.

Paint inside? You must be kidding? There was no paint when new, so there’s nothing to worry about there. There’s places where rust will get it far sooner than there. Both the existing collar and the new plate are quite heavy metal. My main concern is whether flammable gas has accumulated overnight inside the tank.

 

[Tarw Coch]

Tankers arnt painted on the inside from new so no worries there

Fair enough, I’ve never looked inside a new one .
However, I’m sure you’re right, I know someone who had a fair quantity of mastic over from putting up a slurry tower and they painted the inside of their new tanker with it, I believe it was quite a job!

 

[Happy hillbily]

Used to be a lad localy that did a little bit of contracting, had an ancient mf 1200, an equally old barrel muck spreader and a slurry tanker of similar age. The sight glasses had long gone on the tanker,and in their place he had rammed a fence post into the hole, and cut the end off. Was like that for as long as i remember !

 

[Cowabunga]

Fair enough, I’ve never looked inside a new one .
However, I’m sure you’re right, I know someone who had a fair quantity of mastic over from putting up a slurry tower and they painted the inside of their new tanker with it, I believe it was quite a job!

I did that on a tanker back in the 1980's but used black bitumen stuff called Presomet. I can smell it just from thinking about it. What a fudging waste of time that was! Not particularly clever or healthy. I'm still here though, just about.

Which reminds me that I used the stuff with far greater success on the wheel-side of the mudguards on the then new MF 165 back in 1973. I was just on 15 when I decided to pull the wheels off the new tractor and coat it. I'm wondering now whether it was the same 5 gallon pale blue drum I used both times? Surely not.