So I just put together a DIY PowerTank with stuff off Amazon for a little over $200. Should be all that I need, aside from the actual CO2.
I had intended to put it on my roof rack with Quick Fist Super mounts, but I'm starting to get a bit nervous about whether it's sturdy enough for that much weight, and I also don't love the idea of it being up so high or exposed to the Texas sun all the time. I'd also have to take the Quick Fists completely off the rack when it wasn't in use so they don't just dangle up there. I searched the forums and saw some ways that people had handled this in the past, but most of those involved welding things, and (1) I don't have the skill for that, (2) I don't want to spend the money for someone else to do it, and (3) I want this to be reversible if I decide to throw the third row back in at some point, or god forbid someday sell the rig.
New idea is to build my own basic, temporary mount for it on the third row seat bracket. I've drawn out how I think this could work... My first thought was to simply ratchet strap it to the bracket and let it sit against the side wall of the rig. But on a test fitting (simply setting it on top of the bracket, that is), the diameter of the tank is big enough that I think any hard jostling would just make it swing around the bracket and into the cargo area - need more than one fixed point to strap around to avoid that, which isn't available there, as far as I can tell. So I wanted something that would brace it and keep it on TOP of the bracket, rather than dangling off the side.
With that in mind, I drew up the below. I'd make this out of wood, and the idea would be to lay the can horizontally on this block, with a support piece underneath that would brace it against the drop-down tab on the bracket to keep the whole thing from spinning about the axis of the bracket (that's the triangular piece visible in the "end" drawing - though now that I think about it, it could just be a normal block, no need for a triangle except to take up less room). From there, I just run two ratchet straps through slits in the main wood piece and around the bracket underneath
This seems like it should be pretty stable to me. I'm not that worried about front to back movement once it is strapped down, the support piece against the drop-down tab of the bracket should prevent it from spinning, and I don't think there's any crazy stresses anywhere. But I am most definitely NOT an engineer, so I wanted to get some thoughts from the people on here who have more experience with this stuff. Hopefully I've drawn this clearly enough to give a good idea of what I'm trying to achieve...
Thoughts, anyone?
I had intended to put it on my roof rack with Quick Fist Super mounts, but I'm starting to get a bit nervous about whether it's sturdy enough for that much weight, and I also don't love the idea of it being up so high or exposed to the Texas sun all the time. I'd also have to take the Quick Fists completely off the rack when it wasn't in use so they don't just dangle up there. I searched the forums and saw some ways that people had handled this in the past, but most of those involved welding things, and (1) I don't have the skill for that, (2) I don't want to spend the money for someone else to do it, and (3) I want this to be reversible if I decide to throw the third row back in at some point, or god forbid someday sell the rig.
New idea is to build my own basic, temporary mount for it on the third row seat bracket. I've drawn out how I think this could work... My first thought was to simply ratchet strap it to the bracket and let it sit against the side wall of the rig. But on a test fitting (simply setting it on top of the bracket, that is), the diameter of the tank is big enough that I think any hard jostling would just make it swing around the bracket and into the cargo area - need more than one fixed point to strap around to avoid that, which isn't available there, as far as I can tell. So I wanted something that would brace it and keep it on TOP of the bracket, rather than dangling off the side.
With that in mind, I drew up the below. I'd make this out of wood, and the idea would be to lay the can horizontally on this block, with a support piece underneath that would brace it against the drop-down tab on the bracket to keep the whole thing from spinning about the axis of the bracket (that's the triangular piece visible in the "end" drawing - though now that I think about it, it could just be a normal block, no need for a triangle except to take up less room). From there, I just run two ratchet straps through slits in the main wood piece and around the bracket underneath
This seems like it should be pretty stable to me. I'm not that worried about front to back movement once it is strapped down, the support piece against the drop-down tab of the bracket should prevent it from spinning, and I don't think there's any crazy stresses anywhere. But I am most definitely NOT an engineer, so I wanted to get some thoughts from the people on here who have more experience with this stuff. Hopefully I've drawn this clearly enough to give a good idea of what I'm trying to achieve...
Thoughts, anyone?
