Tanker Operations #12 - Vacuum Tanker Fill Site Ops
 
By President Mark Davis
March 9, 2017
 

As we saw in the video clips from our Austin County, Texas drill, one way to handle the loading of a vacuum tanker is to set-up a dump tank, keep it full of water, and let the vacuum tanker load directly from the dump tank. This procedure is one reason that folks often carry two dump tanks on a vacuum tanker. One for use at the dump site and one for use at a fill site. We found some photos from our 2013 drill in Ashland, New York where two vacuum tankers were used in the shuttle operation. Ashland Tanker 301 (3,500 gal) is an older unit that has been used many times to haul water. At the drill, we wanted to show a dump tank fill site operation, so a small portable pump took water from Lake Chatauqua and discharged it into the dump tank. When a vacuum tanker arrived at the fill site, it self-loaded and headed back to the dump site. By the time the vacuum tanker returned, the dump tank was full again and ready for the tanker to load.