Waste oil collection & transfer tank.

[mjncad]

I'm coming up on a 400-hour service for my JD 4200, and I remember the hassle of draining 7-gallons of hydraulic oil, a gallon of engine oil into pans and then transferring it into jugs, etc to haul to local auto parts store for recycling during the 200-hour service

I decided to make a waste oil collection and transfer tank to make life easier. The unit I built is 11-gallons and is as low profile as possible. I'm hoping I won't have to jack the tractor up onto stands to use it; but if I have to...no big deal.

I've found a number of commercial units available for tractor trailers and they were way too big and expensive. I also was looking into using a 10-gallon RV dump tank; but decided against it because I would have to make too many goofy fittings to accommodate the dump tank.

I found the tank on the Internet and they spin weld in nozzles where you want them. The frame is powder coated steel. I would have used aluminum; but I don't have a spool gun for my welder. The rest of the parts are common hardware store stuff.

If interested, please click on the link in my signature. Also, there are three pictures of the results from my tractor's first ever season of playing in the snow thanks to our abnormal winter. along with some of my other small tractor improvement projects.

 

[DieselPower]

So how much do you have invested in it? Looks interesting.

I have been using these for years. They are 58 quart (14.5 gallon) enclosed drain pans. I have two in service trucks and two of them in the shop. There $70.43 from Ryder Fleet Products. Blitz UNM 42008 - 58 Quart drain pan

 

[mjncad]

Nuts...

I have more than $70 into the rig. It's too bad I didn't know about the Blitz product.

No matter, building it was worth the learning experience and helps keep the mind sharp by exercising the gray matter.

 

[BTDT]

mjncad Do you just leave it in shop till you make a run to town, how do you load it?

DieselPower Don't you have your own shop/business? Do you have a truck come by and pump out your waste oil barrels? Shop I used to work for had this service provided by our oil supplier. We buy new oil, they haul off old oil/anti-freeze/filters.

 

[DieselPower]

BTDT - Yep, have my own shop and mobile service business. I "could" have the oil pumped out but I don't. I have 2 waste oil burners in the shop and burn everything I can get my oily hands on. I crush all my filters with a filter crusher and then sell the remains as scrap metal. Anti-freeze is recycled on site and reinstalled in the vehicle it came out of.

 

[mjncad]

The tank just passed hydro-testing, so I'm looking forward to trying it out on a 400-hour service I need to do once the weather warms up, which will entail about 8 - 10 gallons of oil heading to the recycler. The tank will stay in the garage, or in the corral the HOASS made me put up to hide my tractor toys. If I can't lift the filled unit myself into my pickup using the U-bolt handles, then I'll use the bucket lifting device on the tractor. Once I get to the recycler, I'll ask for help getting it out of the truck if need be.

My goal with the tank was to be able to drain and contain in one operation. When I did my 200 hour service, I have a 7-gallon pan that just barely held the 6.8-gallons of hydraulic oil. Transferring that oil to closed containers was a nuisance and I got tired of cleaning up spills.

Now if I had a business like DieselPower does, it would be a whole other matter. But as a small acreage homeowner, I'm looking for ways to get things done within a home-owner's parameters.

 

[jmc]

Good subject, for me at least, since I have a couple of big oil changes to do.

Seems like i recall some car oil changing service being criticized for draining the oil by pumping it out the top of the engine instead of draining it. (The critics were concerned about not getting all the old oil out.) Still, if you had a pump to do that, you could get rid of MOST of the oil by pumping it directly into a container in the truck to save all the lifting. Then finish the drain via the plug?

 

[Farwell]

I store all of my used oil in a 55 gallon plastic drum and when the day comes that I need to get rid of it I will start looking for a place that will take it.
David B

 

[Kendall69]

I stored mine in a 55 gal drum, my bad for not putting the drum off the ground.

I had about 25 gallons in it and it sprung a leak on the bottom it rusted. Man
did I scramble to dump it all in 5 gallon buckets. Then I had to transfer it to smaller containers to take to the parts store for recycling. I’ll let you know in a month when I get it all dumped.

No more storage for me, now I drain and dump.