Rock Crawling Water Storage, Baffled?

[5Runner]

Another little question for built in water storage design for 4wheeling. The point is this rig will get bounced around a lot.

Goal:
14 gallons of water storage.

Idea:
use two 7 gallon tanks plumbed together with shut off valves prior to the pump. Each tank 12 x 12 x 12

Why:
On short trips, I only need to bring 7 gallons. I don't want 7 gallons sloshing around in a 14 gallon tank.
On some trips, I want all 14 gallons. Then I can fill both.

The Problem:
Two tanks with the fittings will cost about $200
One larger tank with fittings will cost about $130

That's nearly 1/2 as much more, just to lessen the slosh. I feel that is important, but man...is it $70 important? I had two portable 7 gallon tanks in the previous build, and even the 7 gallon tanks annoying sloshed around. I can only imagine what a 14 gallon would do...but will it be that much worse...$70 worth worse?

The tank mfg cannot put baffles in.

I am going to put a 4" hole in the top for access to cleaning. Is there anything I can put in or modify to minimize the slosh if I got the larger tank.

Am I over thinking my sloshing concerns?

Thanks...I need to get this ordered ASAP, running out of time for my first trip of the season coming up.

[AxeAngel]

With a 4" opening you could always buy the larger 14 gal tank and then insert a deflated air bladder into the tank. Add desired amount of water to the tank. Inflate the air bladder while still in the tank. Would help with sloshing.

-Sam

[mudbutt]

Race car gas tanks use an open cell foam to prevent sloshing. I have no clue as to where you could buy something that would be safe and effective in a water tank tho....

[gertrude]

5Runner,
Here is what i am going to use. It's baffled and priced good.
http://www.americanrvcompany.com/Val...RV_p_8526.html

[shov3lbum]

5Runner,
Here is what i am going to use. It's baffled and priced good.
http://www.americanrvcompany.com/Val...RV_p_8526.html

That looks awesome and for the price, not a bad deal I might say, I've been looking for something to fill the huge void left by moving my spare tire and this looks almost perfect, nice find

[BigSwede]

I think sloshing is a concern. I purposely bought two smaller water jugs rather than one large one, for this reason and for ease of carry.

[JimQPublic]

I have the 12 gallon, 24" version of the same tank. It seems sturdy and has multiple options for attaching fittings. Installed it vertically as a grey water tank in my trailer in 2004- no problems to date.

Note that my 24" tank is not baffled. I don't know what size they start adding baffles.

Company website here:
http://www.valterra.com/ind/abs_water_tanks.htm

[5Runner]

Well, I ordered a 12 x 12 x 20, 12 gallon tank. It will probably slosh side to side the 20" length. It's going inside a wood compartment below a sleeping platform. I'm insulating around it with 1/2" poly. Hopefully this will minimize the sound, as I have not come up with a baffling solution I like.

[5Runner]

Thanks for the thoughts and advice. Here is the tank I went with. No baffles, I'll see what happens.

[Errant]

I use a baffled Valterra tank with a Valterra hand pump in a Uniseal flexible bulkhead on my M100. I went with the flexible bulkhead so that I could easily remove/rebuild the pump and to avoid having the top crack around an epoxied bulkhead, which seems to be an issue on some tanks used off-road.