Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: jeff1 on September 04, 2008, 09:43:14 pm
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This is the correct way to install a tank cage for optimum safety.
these are the bits you'll need?
1. The correct size bolts for your type of cage, Here I have 4x150x12 high tensile steel bolts star washers and self locking nuts.
2. Steel plates for under the van fitted against the chassis.
3. Steel tubing for inside the chassis, this stops the floor from de-forming.
(http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k23/jeffo_01/Tankinstallcompletion001Small.jpg)
The Tools needed are simple
Drill bit for the size bolts your using a cone drill cutter for enlarging the hole for the tube.(you don't need the tape measure shown)
Ring Spanner and socket to fit your nuts & bolts.
(http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k23/jeffo_01/Tankinstallcompletion002Small.jpg)
(http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k23/jeffo_01/Tankinstallcompletion006Small.jpg)
Start by marking all the holes for your tank or better still, drill through the holes of the tank brackets to ensure there in the right position, using the drill bit for your size bolts, drill through the floor and continue through until you have drilled through the chassis, you may have to fiddle about a bit unless you have a longer drill bit.
Once you have drilled the hole, you now have to enlarge it using a cone cutter (see pics) begin to enlarge the hole and keep testing until your tube passes through the enlarged hole, (see pic)
(http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k23/jeffo_01/Tankinstallcompletion005Small.jpg)
Continue this method for all your bolts, when your done, drop in all the tubes into there holes, fit the cage so all the holes line up with all the holes on your cage, drop in all the bolts so they pass through and exit the chassis.
If your working on your own? stick a heavy weight on top of the bolt head to make it easier when your underneath, but if you can get someone to give you a hand.
Working underneath the van add the steel plate, star washer and nut (see pic)
(http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k23/jeffo_01/Tankinstallcompletion004Small.jpg)
beging to tighten by hand until its finger tight, using your ratchet inside the van and the ring spanner on the nut begin to tighten by tightening the bolt only and holding the nut still, this will pull the star washer into the steel plate and create small dimples to help keep it tight, if you tighten the nut the star washer will create a groove and the nut can come undone.
Continue until all the nuts and bolts are fitted and the cage is installed, Make sure everything is nice and tight.
Once the installation is complete, paint the steel plate underneath with some metal paint.
[underneath]
(http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k23/jeffo_01/Tankinstallcompletion007Small.jpg)
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this is what mine looks like underneath :D
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this is what mine looks like underneath :D
Glad to hear that but do you have the tubes fitted??
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no :-X
explain
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Great post jeff... looks good your tank seen the pics of it in your van
dave
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no :-X
explain
I explained a little about them in my post, there there to add strength to the install, if your fitting a cage or a tow bar and the bolts have to travel through the body work a tube must be fitted to stop distortion during the install.
Great post jeff... looks good your tank seen the pics of it in your van
dave
Thanks Dave
Took a little time but I got there in the end
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FAO: Jeff,
Nice to see someone who knows how to fit the bolts properly. Same applies when fitting built in ramps. :) Jeff's way fills in the gap between the chassis, the proper way to do it. :)
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Thanks Wayne
Its nice to know someone else knows how to fit them correctly, the same principle also apply's to fitting Tow bars.
I would love to take a few professional systems apart to see if the correct procedure has been followed.
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is the tubing sltighly longer? or same as the space they are in?
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jeff
you could have painted around the hole aswell ;)
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Jeff,
Give you a tip, quickest way to remove a lot of nylon, locking nuts with a spanner/ratchet with socket is to burn the nylon off with a Oxy/accetylene or other heat source first, but it renders the nylon locking useless afterwards. Good info for thieves. I use to open up safes in the army everytime some Rodney (officer) messed up big style. :)
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jeff
you could have painted around the hole aswell ;)
How do you know I didn't Matt :P
is the tubing sltighly longer? or same as the space they are in?
The tube has to sit on the chassis and be around 1mm below the top level of the floor, the floor metal is only a couple of mm thick.
Jeff,
Give you a tip, quickest way to remove a lot of nylon, locking nuts with a spanner/ratchet with socket is to burn the nylon off with a Oxy/accetylene or other heat source first, but it renders the nylon locking useless afterwards. Good info for thieves. I use to open up safes in the army everytime some Rodney (officer) messed up big style. :)
Been there and done that Wayne ;D I used to open safes for a living, not as a thief I might add Lol but as a security engineer, I used to pick my locks and still have the nack and skill, 'O' and the picks Lol
Your only supposed to use nylon locking nuts once anyway if you wish it to preform the same roll.
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Jeff,
Give you a tip, quickest way to remove a lot of nylon, locking nuts with a spanner/ratchet with socket is to burn the nylon off with a Oxy/accetylene or other heat source first, but it renders the nylon locking useless afterwards. Good info for thieves. I use to open up safes in the army everytime some Rodney (officer) messed up big style. :)
You ever made an Oxy/Accetylene bomb.... if not try it its great fun... ;D
Bazz...
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This is the correct way to install a tank cage for optimum safety.
Well you have done a mighty fine job of securing that tank and probably coudnt do anymore.
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jeff 1 your a star .
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If I ever pack in window cleaning I would love to learn to be a locksmith as it intrigues me. Shouldn't have any problems learning it as I'm a qualified metalsmith. Locksmith has to be the easiest way of making money that I know of in the minimal of time as well.
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Jeff,
Give you a tip, quickest way to remove a lot of nylon, locking nuts with a spanner/ratchet with socket is to burn the nylon off with a Oxy/accetylene or other heat source first, but it renders the nylon locking useless afterwards. Good info for thieves. I use to open up safes in the army everytime some Rodney (officer) messed up big style. :)
You ever made an Oxy/Accetylene bomb.... if not try it its great fun... ;D
Bazz...
Tried it Bazz, great fun using coke cans and similar and watching them shoot up to the ceiling ;D
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Good one for you Bazz that I use to do with tradesmen with metal toolboxes/storage boxes. When they go on holiday, drill a hole in their padlocked tool box, braze a grease nipple on and attach a grease gun and fill up their tool box with grease. When they come back off their hols and open their tool boxes they have a big shock whilst you're crying with laughter at their facial disbelief. Takes hours to get rid of the grease from their tools ;D
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This is the correct way to install a tank cage for optimum safety.
Well you have done a mighty fine job of securing that tank and probably coudnt do anymore.
Only by adding more bolts lol
jeff 1 your a star .
Glad I could help Dave ;)
If I ever pack in window cleaning I would love to learn to be a locksmith as it intrigues me. Shouldn't have any problems learning it as I'm a qualified metalsmith. Locksmith has to be the easiest way of making money that I know of in the minimal of time as well.
You can go for your MLA, When I went for mine I was tested by an ex-safe breaker, He would get into business's by picking the locks of all the doors, then pick the locks to the safes, he would lock everything back up on his way out, it took the police years to catch him because it always looked like an inside Job.
His down fall was he was caught by a passing patrol car as he was locking the final door of his last Job, he got 4 years and while he was inside the talked him into training professional locksmiths.
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Fantastic Jeff, thank you SO much for this, this is great.
Btw, I can't get my head around the steel tubes, from the picture, it looks like it's solid, but if it's solid the bolt can't go through can it? So it must be hollow?
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Fantastic Jeff, thank you SO much for this, this is great.
Btw, I can't get my head around the steel tubes, from the picture, it looks like it's solid, but if it's solid the bolt can't go through can it? So it must be hollow?
Thanks Tim ;)
Hollow steel tubes for your bolts to pass through, if you look at the fourth picture down you can just see there hollow.
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hi jeff
looks a good clean van what year is it? have you got a pic with cage installed?protecta cote looks very good , how did you apply it?
daz
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hi jeff
looks a good clean van what year is it? have you got a pic with cage installed?protecta cote looks very good , how did you apply it?
daz
Its a V reg, you wouldn't have said that when Michelle bought it, it was a painters van, the outside had paint all over it and the inside was also covered in paint, I managed to remove all the external paint but the quickest way to hide the stuff inside was to paint it with pretetakote and I applied it all with a brush.
Here is a before and one with the tank installed
(http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k23/jeffo_01/PaintedVan001Small.jpg)
(http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k23/jeffo_01/Tankinstallcompletion015Small.jpg)
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cheers jeff, looks the business,i have a 04 scudo, have seen loads of older ones , still in very good nick, have not seen any rusty ones , so am confident mine will last a while,thanks for taking the time to post pics, this is a very good informative topic. ;)
daz
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Your welcome daz
I went with Michelle to buy it and the first place I end up is on the ground inspecting they underneath sections including the chassis then into the engine compartment, once I was happy with that, I took it for a fair old run to test everything, apart from the cosmetic appearance of it, on the whole it was a good van with no rust and it runs very well.
They only problems I could see was the cosmetic appearance and only one lock worked, all the others were broken and a small dent on the front bumper that I can easily remove when I get some spare time.
Took me a while to remove the external paint using just T-cut and I had all the locks working within a couple of hours, all in all its a very nice van.
Vans aren't my cup of tea though I still prefer my Trailer
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yep , the locks are crap, one of mine has gone on sliding door , just turns , was told it is an in built security feature ,where if some one tries to break in using wrong key, it snaps of something in barrel so key turns all the way round, you can get a set of locks of ebay , but are over £100 >:(
daz
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yep , the locks are crap, one of mine has gone on sliding door , just turns , was told it is an in built security feature ,where if some one tries to break in using wrong key, it snaps of something in barrel so key turns all the way round, you can get a set of locks of ebay , but are over £100 >:(
daz
A £100 :o :o I think I better start charging my daughter then ;D I fixed them all myself, the back door lock was the worst one to remove, take off the panel at the side door and check that the cam arm has not come off, that's what was wrong with one of her side doors 10 seconds later it was working again.
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Hi Jeff, i am just getting a guy to steel strap my tank in, hope you dont mind me showing him these pics,.... more to the point .. i hope he does not mind me interfering ;D
just one little question for the ever cautious me!! ;)
are those little square plates underneath , strong enough to secure a 650 upright, with the force and pressure they will excerte whilst cornering and breaking....
knowing how precise and safety concious you are.... it maybe a daft question...
but i thought i would ask, for my peace of mind Jeff.
Thanks.
Gary.
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what type of steel for plates was used and also size cut
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Hi Jeff, i am just getting a guy to steel strap my tank in, hope you dont mind me showing him these pics,.... more to the point .. i hope he does not mind me interfering ;D
just one little question for the ever cautious me!! ;)
are those little square plates underneath , strong enough to secure a 650 upright, with the force and pressure they will excerte whilst cornering and breaking....
knowing how precise and safety concious you are.... it maybe a daft question...
but i thought i would ask, for my peace of mind Jeff.
Thanks.
Gary.
Hi Gary
No safety question is daft in my mind.
The plate underneath is large enough for your tank you can make them larger if you wish, there is no need for them to be to big unless you have a couple of bolts within a short space of each other then the plate needs to be long enough for both bolts.
You may be supprised just how stong chassis are on vehicles but the plate helps to spread the load on the chassis.
One point I must make to you, is you will need to add larger nuts/bolts for your tank, than the ones I used the bolts take a lot of pressure.
I don't mind you showing your guy, I just hope he's understanding lol
what type of steel for plates was used and also size cut
I used Mild steel, I measured them to fit my daughters van, Just pop underneath your van with a tape measure and measure the width of your chassis, its not a problem if the plate is a little wider than your chassis.
My own plate was 6mm x 60mm x 150mm and thats fine for my own tank
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see my other thread about 400ltr in a vivaor. i am thinking of using square U bolts on the chassis rail
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Just had a read of it and although I like the idea of U bolts I can see a problem or two.
1. You will need a spreader plate underneath and above on your chassis.
2. When the bolts come through into the van, what are your intentions on fitting the cage to the 2 bolts, of each U clamp? Again I think another spreader bar would be needed because the holding area will be so small, it would be fine for everyday driving but with out the plates above and below, if you were to have an accident they would not hold due to the strain exerted on the frame.
This is only my thoughts and I may well be wrong, but do have a good think about how you will fit 2 bolts for one fixing mount.
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jefff the bolts are square U bolts so should hopefully grip chassis rails and themn the two ends will come up through floor into 2 holes on frame of tank. a small plate would also be added like you said.
not sure about spreade ron the underside though
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There very good, I'll see if I can get hold of some from my supplier.
I mention the spreader bar underneath to take the pressure off the chassis, If you have ever used those ladder clamps on a roof rack you'll know what I mean, if you over thighten them, they will deform the chassis without the extra support.