How do you haul your welding bottles ?

[JradM]

Bumping this old thread because I had the same question.

I have a pickup. I want to take a C25 cylinder for a refill. The internet seems to say I ought to transport it vertically... but I can't imagine that being more secure than horizontally in the back of my truck.

Maybe if I had a backrack or something to secure it to, but even supported with straps like guidewires on a radio tower, standing up just seems less secure.

Here's a couple images of what AI thought that would look like (my cylinder is 120cf and of course looks nothing like the monstrosities in these photos):

 

[u2slow]

How big a bottle? An inert gas doesn't bother me to lay down, unlike a fuel cylinder. Screw the safety top cover on. Room behind your seat? Out of sight attracts the least problems IME.

 

[JradM]

How big a bottle? An inert gas doesn't bother me to lay down, unlike a fuel cylinder. Screw the safety top cover on. Room behind your seat? Out of sight attracts the least problems IME.

122cf, like 48" tall with the cap. Standing up it would be much higher than the sides of my pickup bed. It's not like I couldn't strap it vertically if I had to, but that seems silly. Why give a chance to tip over?

Are they going to give me the side-eye when I slide it into my pickup bed on it's side after the refill?

 

[NUTTSGT]

I just lay it down and strap it flat ..no matter the gas.

 

[u2slow]

Are they going to give me the side-eye when I slide it into my pickup bed on it's side after the refill?

I don't know. The tool store here fills my bottles. They don't say much, but they also don't see what happens under my 5' tall canopy.

 

[LeeG]

I just strap it to a 2x4 and strap both horizontal in the bed of my truck. If it’s acetylene, I let it stand to remix for a day before I use it.

 

[Jazz1]

Pallet laid upside down in pickup..can strap them in…it works..

 

[4x4Pete]

Ontario requires cylinder transported vertically. Van outfitting companies make vertical racks for service vehicles. It would be much easier to slide them under a shelf, but it's illegal. The MTO (our DOT) are hunting for easy prey. Service vans with no logos and ladders are a target. First two things they check is if you have over 10 pressurized cylinders which require hazardous placards on your vehicle (they will count spray cans!)) and proper transport (vertical and secure).

 

[jblnut]

Between the front and middle seats in the minivan laying down with a jacket behind to keep it from rolling around. Doesn’t matter the gas, they all get hauled the same way.

 

[imagineer]

Just lay them in the bed of the pickup, rolled to one side, and ball up a shop towel under the inside edge to prevent them from rolling.

As a qualifier, I get the tanks for free from where I work, and it's a very short drive (6 miles) to and from.

 

[WillyBoy]

If it's acetylene and you absolutely can't avoid transporting it horizontally, don't connect it or attempt to draw gas from it until it's been vertical for at least a couple of hours.

 

[Jazz1]

If it's acetylene and you absolutely can't avoid transporting it horizontally, don't connect it or attempt to draw gas from it until it's been vertical for at least a couple of hours.

My son was horrified at the condition of my 60 year old hoses on torch when he came back from trade school. I had to buy new ones immediately. He also filled me in on acetylene so when I ran out of acetylene I switched to propane as it’s safer for this old guy and it’s price appeals to me.
Junior gave me torch spectacles, hearing protection and respirators.

 

[cannuck]

Usually one on each shoulder

No shyte, but a fellow I used to work with would carry one 250 cu.ft. Nigrogen bottle over each shoulder and climb 40 or so feet up into transformer vaults of steel mills. That's about 110 lb. each side, and he would do that until we had a dozen or two in place. I used to able to carry them one at a time, but I doubt I could move them any more than 30 or 40 feet on flat ground any more.

When coming to the shop, I carry bottle lying down, chocked and strapped in back of pickup. Nave no need to rush use of acetylene after putting it on welding cart.

 

[Jackfre]

Fun thread. “Well, I have to get it from here to there and this is what I have.” When I was a kid I worked up on the St Lawrence. The ironworkers made an angle iron ramp and used to lay a full O2 tank on the ramp and take a sledge breaking off the neck. And out toward our friends and neighbors, Canada. When a couple didn’t behave as anticipated a cage was added to the rack to contain the initial burst. Mid-60’s I was working on a shopping mall build and a cylinder fell over, broke the neck off the tank it it went through 3 cinder block wall before running out of gas. Fun stuff these tanks.

 

[welder4956]

I haul mine laying down in the bed of the truck with a ratchet strap tying them down.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Depends on what I've got to transport my bottles.
Trailer, on to the little tank pallet, strapped down and we're off.
Station wagon bundled in the car back on the pallet.
Sedan, bundled in the trunk on the pallet.
SUV, bundled in the pallet in the back.
Then my little horizontal transport bottle pallet died, and I've been bundling them in blankets and wedging them in place. Not my finest hour.
Now that I've got a trailer, again, they'll be riding on a new pallet, strapped down.

I've always transported horizontally. I always make Airgas, or wherever, my one and only destination on a bottle trip. After I get home, I set the acetylene upright overnight, and it works fine. If you don't, the flame is a funny color and odor and isn't as hot from the acetone.

 

[Dave G in Gansevoort]

I have Haun deliver and pick up acetylene and oxygen cylinders. Inert welding gases, I lay over in the back of the suv, and secure to prevent any movement. And keep a window open, just in case one leaks. Don’t need to asphyxiate myself…

 

[PowerWagonBuilder]

After a surgery, I was on lifting restriction but my 300 Argon ran out on my TIG and I needed to get it swapped... so I made a machine do the lifting. The guys at the LWS were kind enough to unload and load for me.



I've been hauling bottles strapped like this for years now and never had one move. If I have more than one, then I put them on a pallet and then strap them in an X across the pallet.



My desk is across the hall from our State Police DOT manager and he and I have lots of water-cooler conversations. He said that folks hauling one or two small bottles to and from the LWS are of ZERO concern to DOT, so long as its strapped down in an effective and intelligent manner. He said they DO check on Service call trucks to make sure that the gauges are off and the caps are on, and that they are secured to the truck. No bottles should ever be moved, or even unchained / strapped from a fixture if the cap is off.

Now, if you have 1,001 lbs or more of compressed gas, inert or combustible, doesn't matter - then Hazmat applies and thats a whole other realm than just us garage guys swapping bottles.

 

[NUTTSGT]

That's an interesting way to strap aa bottle down. I like that.

 

[PowerWagonBuilder]

That's an interesting way to strap aa bottle down. I like that.

Thank you. On the smaller diameter ones, where the straps aren't applying any downward force, I will set a 6x6 under the neck / cap shoulder so that its still getting pulled downward on.