What does the inside of a tanker look like?

Answer 1

There are two kinds of tankers-baffled and smoothbore. Baffled tankers have walls with holes in them welded to the inside of the tank, which looks like a big piece of pipe with a piece of metal welded across both ends of it because that's what it is. The baffles are there to slow the product down and keep it from sloshing back and forth so bad when the truck stops. This is important: if you're driving down the road with 5000 gallons of salt water at 12 pounds per gallon (this very strong salt water comes out of oil wells) it is all going to move to the back of the tank. If you had to stop quickly to avoid a hazard, all 60,000 pounds of this water are going to slam into the front of the tank as hard as they can. This surge has killed many truck drivers. The baffles slow down the surge, so it's safer. Yes, salt water trailers are made from stainless steel--they'd last about three days if they weren't. Smoothbore tankers don't have the baffles. They use smoothbore tankers to carry things like crude oil (which is too thick to pass through the baffles) and liquid food (it's impossible to clean a baffled tanker well enough to make the tank safe for food again). Be careful when you drive around milk tankers--they have a very dangerous job.