We recently had a discussion in our Members' Area Discussion Forum about the use of swiveling dump chutes on tankers. We certainly encounter the swiveling dump chutes during our travels across North America and they seem to work just fine - assuming installation is correct. By far, A.H.Stock Mfg, Corporation's swiveling chute is the one we encounter the most. From our perspective, when considering the use of swiveling dump chute on the rear of your tanker, there are at least two important items that you must consider: the height of the chute from the ground and the location of tank direct fill connections.

Both Fol Da Tank and Husky list 29 inches as the height of their standard/stock dump tanks. Therefore, it is really important that the bottom of the swiveling dump chute be higher than 29-inches from the ground. On more than one occasion we have seen the swiveling chutes mounted too low and thus a human being has to lift the chute up over the dump tank rail in order for water to fall into the dump tank instead of onto the ground. In almost everyone of those cases, the swiveling chute was a retrofit on an existing dump chute.

The other item of concern, which is not as serious as the height issue noted above, is the chute blocking out access to a direct fill line when the chute is stowed and the tanker arrives at the fill site. When designing a new tanker, the easy answer is to have two direct fills, one on each side of the chute. On a dump chute retrofit, you may just have to live with the chute's stowage position in relation to the direct fill line.

As with any anything relating to apparatus design, measure twice, lay it out on paper, make a diagram, make a mock up in the engine bay, Google it, do whatever is needed to ensure the item will work once the rig is in service.