I need help building a box to hold water.?

Question

I need to build two boxes, one to hold 50 gallons of water and the other to hold 100 gallons of water and to fit in the back of a pick up truck. What size should I build them?

YEA ITS FOR A PROJECT.

Answer 1

First of all, let me warn you that water is going to slosh around alot while driving, which will create forces on the walls of the boxes and cause the boxes to slide.

Next, we need to figure how many cubic feet in each box. The conversion is 1 cubic foot equals 7.46 Gallons so the 50 Gallon box should measure 6.7 cubic feet and the 100 gallon box will measure 13.4 cubic feet.

Now since volume is length times width times hieght, (L * W * H), you really need to start by piking two out of the three for each box and then calculating the third.

for example: you have a certain space on the truckbed to fill, you can measure the length and the width of that area and then calculate the height needed to make the box hold the amount of water. Lets say you measure the truckbed area as 2 feet by 3 feet in the area you want to put the 50 gallon box. So H = V/(L * W)
H=6.7 cubic feet / (2 feet * 3 feet)
H=1.12 feet

twice as high to get the 100 gallon box into that same area

I hope this helped you

Good Luck

Answer 2

Why not just buy two 55 gallon drums from the local industrial supply store?

If you must build your own, the conversion from gallons to cubic feet is: 1 gallon = 0.1336806 cubic feet

50 gallons = 6.68 cubic feet
100 gallons = 13.4 cubic feet.

The minimum width of a standard pickup truck is 4 feet, so there is one of your dimensions. You don't want to make it too high, or the driver can't see out the back (rear-view mirror), so the height is limited to about 3 feet.

4 x 3 x 1 = 12, that's pretty close to the 100 gallon size
4 x 3 x 1.11666 is just right.

4 x 1.5 x 1.11666 would work for the 50 gallon tank.

EDIT: I did this work without looking at the answer above me -- I did it simultaneously, but he was first to post and he is correct, so give him 10 points.
.

Answer 3

Simply go to your local fish store and measure the 50 and 100 gallon tanks

Answer 4

Also try an Esky (aka ice box or chilly bins) these would make excellent water carriers as the have lids or wine barrels. Or do really need to build one for a project?