what is "doming out"?

Thompsons were carbon steel tanks built in Cali, the pony engines originally turned a home brew vacuum pump made from a chevy I-6 or V-8 depending on the size of the tank. The heads were made by thompson but the blocks were chevy.

 

yep you are correct...i checked thompson's website, i'm guessing it must have been a 454 chevy block driven by a 3? cylinder deutz diesel. it was all mounted on the deck ahead of the tank. a lever was used to engage the clutch to start the pump. there was a valve on top of the pump that could be changed so that it could become a compressor and build some pressure in the tank. the trailer was maybe 4800 gal and about 38 ft. long.

 

matlack had two nice new vac tanks out of swedesboro around 1994. 5500 gal carbon steel . three full sized domes, diesel/vac unit center mounted under the tank.

 

In 1988 it was a dump body vac tank w/ a full manhole size outlet at the bottom of the rear head. Might have been a Pressvac

He used to come to Woodbridge every 6 weeks. We would shut the washrack down and he would vac the water off the 40' pit and dump it into the outisde holding tank, faster than blowing it out!

Then he would suck up the sludge behind the weir and take it out to Michigan fo disposal. That place used to mix it w/ cement dust and landfill it.

He did all the Matlack cleaning racks in the eastern region once per quarter.

 

i believe i have seen the unit you are referring to in rollins-bridgeport.
i may have even unloaded it, can't remember.

back around 1986, i was sent with a vac unit out to matlack in pataskala,ohio to pickup their waste. it was in drums; thick, goo. i believe i was there 8 hours trying to load.

 

I remember a guy from that region who Matlack sent around w/ a filter to 'fix' loads.

Central Dispatch dropped a load of Formic that was loaded after latex and was full of skins. We double filtered it and returned it to the consignee for the cost of three cases of filter elements for his filter housing and his travel cost.

He was a retired driver who had gone into sales and finally retired except to salvage screwd up loads. If he couldn't re-deliver it he would peddle it. He was one of the old timers that were disapearing before they shut down. They had alot of knowledgeable people that seemed to all melt away.

 

That Kinder morgan rack sounds like the BP/Arco rack in Seattle......loads at over 700GPM, and "slams" the whole rack when it ramps down!

 

When you used to top load , there was a bolt that stuck down 3-4 inches in the tank. If you filled up past the bottom of the bolt.. The trailer wasn't completely full but it would start to overflow.. Everybody would always tell you.. Don't go over the bottom of the bolt..but never why.. So one day I thought I would find out .. Well when you go over it. The load starts to come out. Thank God I had a containment area on top of the tank. That's doming out. And if you top load.. That's the reason why you don't go over the bottom of the bolt.

 

I remember top loading toluene in Marcus Hook and there was no counter at the rack. The bolt you mentioned had several discs on it one above the other on the trailers we ran and that's how we gauged or gallons when we would fill up to one of those discs.

 

Now with petroleum tankers you have what's called a skully. System. It grounds out the trailers and has an electric eye in the tank, so when you bottom load, you won't put to much fuel in that compartment.. The eye catches the fuel level and turns off the loading. Then you have to take out a few gallons out of that compartment and dump it in an empty compartment to turn the loading back on.