Magnetic Scuba Tank Rack for Truck

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Deep South Divers

Contributor
Messages
1,444
Reaction score
502
Location
Savannah, GA, USA
...So I'm in Lowe's last night looking for stainless steel hardware for a project I'm doing, when I get bonked in the head with what looks like a broom handle.

Turns out, they sell what they call a "bolt magnet." Essentially, it's a very strong magnet on what is basically a broom handle. If you drop a load of nuts and bolts, you can use it to "sweep" up the steel nuts and bolts. To display it, they hung it from one of their shelving units right above the nuts and bolts drawers and I ran smack into it.

...Anyway, it got me thinking:

1. This thing has a ridiculously strong magnet on it, and it's retail price is $14. Has anyone thought of bolting a tank rack to this kind of magnet so that it'd hold scuba tanks - without having to drill the bed of your truck? I've seen the suction cup style, but my truck's bed is sprayed with bedliner.

2. Has anyone used magnets like this in place of straps or bungees to hold steel scuba tanks? Steel scuba tanks will hold a magnet, right? Why not get creative and ditch the strap thing?

3. Anyone decorating their steel scuba tanks with refrigerator magnets? Seems like a natural progression for the average scuba diver. None of us takes themselves real seriously anyway. :D
 
Great Idea.....as long as all of your tanks are steel. Would probably be a good way to hold you rack in place in the bed of the truck and then you would only have to strap AL tanks to the rack.
 
Might work without significant forces, but I wouldn't want to trust it in a sharp corner, much less a crash, to keep the tanks corralled. As for using strong magnets to clip stuff to the tank - electronics and compasses don't like them.
 
Might work without significant forces, but I wouldn't want to trust it in a sharp corner, much less a crash, to keep the tanks corralled. As for using strong magnets to clip stuff to the tank - electronics and compasses don't like them.

Oh contraire; One of my clients has a private dock with a "maglock" gate on it. The weakest maglock option I've found on Google holds 600 lbs. The average ones hold 1200 lbs and the heavy duty are more... And all this from a simple electromagnet.

I conclude that, done right, a tank rack held onto the steel bed of a truck would be quite sturdy. Ditto for steel tanks... So much so that you might have to have an electromagnet push-button thing to counter the permanent magnet to release the tanks.

...Or you could just situate the magnets in such a fashion as to be REALLY connected to the truck and only holding the tanks with - say - 100 lbs of force.

I would think it was simply a matter of dialing it in right, done during the engineering stage. Add the design of the tanks against the FRONTMOST part of the bed (creating a "push" force when braking or impacting) and I think you'd have a serious winner design.

At any rate... Nobody's done it yet? Either rack to truck or rack to tank? I'm switching over to all steels... Maybe I should give it a shot...

I just like the idea of 1. Not drilling my truck bed for a secure connection and 2. Holding my tanks without having to affix a strap. Sure, it would require steel tanks, but you could always just use a strap only for aluminum tanks.

I was just wondering if anyone'd done it. Nobody? Seems like a rather logical conclusion to owning a dive truck and/or steel tanks.
 
You mean ..... Lifting Magnet | eBay .......?......they are strong and with handle they can magnetic lock or unlock steel materials . As i know they don't keep load steel magnetized and are very simple to use
 
Last edited:
Yeah, that's the idea, but I think that's unnecessarily complex and expensive. The idea with this tank rack is simply to hold two tanks upright against the cab of a truck. Multiple magnets can be used. Two small 20 lb neo magnets inside a u-shaped cradle would be plenty to hold a tank during driving and on bumpy roads.

For the rack, four on the feet and four on the cab surface would be enough to hold the rack in place even in a rollover. These magnets cost less than $5 each.

The only real possibility of a rack like that losing grip would be an impact from the rear... But then again, that's no worse than any other tank rack on the market; a 10-15g impact from a rear hit would break most tank rack mounts or straps. Many tank racks aren't secured at all, so this would be a pretty significant improvement.

Nobody's done anything like this yet? I guess I could give it a shot...
 
Last edited:
I would me more concerned with lateral impacts throwing the tanks from the truck. Whatever we may think about other types of commercially available tank racks, there is a reason you don't see them used hardly ever. Those magnets, while quite strong, even at 600lbs, will not take a jerking motion very well and the 600lbs is only when pulled. They will have almost no stability laterally so you will still have to tie the tanks to something to keep them from sliding sideways. If you put them on the bed side, then you would be better off, but I still wouldn't risk it.

Tie them off properly and you'll be much safer.
 
I agree, but most tank racks aren't tied in at all. See these images:

https://www.google.com/search?q=scu...ved=0ahUKEwi5tJbLscLJAhWJSCYKHdGLAsIQ_AUICCgC

The vast majority of them - including ones on a jarring boat - are not tied in... Or are screwed to fiberglass with self-tapping screws that have only maybe 20 pounds of holding force.

Most recreational divers use the pool noodle style of rack just to keep them from rolling around. Obviously a magnetic rack would be an improvement.

The truth is... Most people carry tanks in their car or truck totally unsecured at all... Some go so far as to wedge their tanks against something so they don't roll around, but that's about it. People often cite the advantage of, "My tanks don't roll around in the bed of my truck anymore," as a reason that doubles are better than single tanks. Yes, they're joking, but there's truth to it.

At the recreational dive sites like Ginnie and Blue Grotto et al, more often than not I saw people arriving with loose tanks or even tanks strapped together so they didn't roll. The reason is... Nobody really wants to make a permanent alteration to their vehicle to properly secure just a couple tanks.

The latest boat tank rack uses SUCTION CUPS to hold tanks, even in offshore seas. I can't see how a series of strong magnets wouldn't do as good of a job or better in a truck.

Regarding the lateral force thing: My truck's bed is sprayed with bedliner. There's no way you could slide a magnet across it without resorting to forces much greater than even the most extreme driving could produce.
 
I would not be comfortable with a magnet being the only thing holding my tank down in my truck. I would not use bungees or a weak strap either. 600lbs sounds like a lot but if you shock load a tank, like during an accident, the instant force exerted on the tank plus its weight would exceed the 600lbs. When I tie a tank in my truck bed I can't shake the tank without the whole truck shaking along with it.
 
What are you making the actual rack out of? Also remember the speeds that boats are going vs. a vehicle on the highway, and the consequences of vertical vs horizontal. If you lay the tanks down flat, you only need one piece of line going from the front tie towns on the bed, with a double wrap around each valve, and a rubber wheel chock against each side of the tank to properly secure it. The rope prevents them from sliding away from the bed, which only really happens in a rapid acceleration up a hill, or a rear end impact at pretty high speed, and the wheel chocks keep them from rolling. Storing vertically is not done in vehicles very often due to how much more difficult it is to safely secure them. You have to keep the bottoms from sliding out from the valve, the valves from moving, and the tanks from sliding side to side. Too much going on

The wooden horizontal racks are fine because it keeps the tanks from rolling, secures the valves, and the weight and friction created by the rack is enough for a simple piece of rope to keep it from moving at all. Your point #2 of using it to directly stick the tank to the truck is downright dangerous and I would not risk it if you got into a collision. It is extraordinarily dangerous and it is unlikely that in an accident investigation if the tank did any damage from flying out that insurance would cover you. That magnet will not hold against jarring forces even if it is rated at 600lbs. 15g's is not much in an accident and that is enough to knock an al80 off of that magnet, and it is even less in lateral since the magnets aren't curved to the tank so that 600lbs that it has against the truck because it is flat *less because of the space created by the bedliner*, is very small because of the contact patch on the tank. To get that grab force you have to have it sandwiched with its full surface area directly against two pieces of ferrous metal. If you're designing a rack that has the c's cut out of it for the tanks and sticking that against the wall I have much less of an issue with it because you'll have multiple magnets holding a large rigid piece, but you still HAVE to secure the valves with line or straps to keep them in. Heavy duty bungee is OK.

imgp0132.jpg

This design with the racks held on by neodymium magnets would be OK. Anything less than that is unsafe
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom