"Movable" Fuel Tank Corral

"Movable" Fuel Tank Corral FENCING Miscellaneous 26-4-32 "It was cheap to set up and should last a lifetime," says Richard Godbout, Cromwell, Minn., who made a portable corral out of thirty old 265-gal. fuel oil tanks. The tanks are held together in groups of three, with each group supported by wooden legs. A steel carrying cradle quick-taches to his front-end loader to move tanks around. "I needed a corral to work my cows and calves every spring and fall. I already had a permanent fence in place and wanted an L-shaped portable fence that I could attach to it," says Godbout. He put an advertisement in a local newspaper asking anyone with old fuel tanks to contact him. Then he hauled the tanks home in his pickup. All the tanks measure 5-ft. long, 2 1/2 ft. wide, and 3 1/2 ft. tall. He placed three tanks end to end, then used 14-ga. strap metal and self-tapping screws to connect the tanks together in 15-ft. long groups. The two outside tanks are supported by treated landscape timber legs. The wooden legs hold the tanks 1 1/2 ft. off the ground to make a 5-ft. high fence. "It's not fancy but it does the job and at a very low cost," says Godbout. "I paid up to $15 apiece for some of the tanks while others were given to me. My total cost per group was about $50 which includes the cost of the tanks, legs, screws, and strap steel. That's a lot less than I would've paid for self-standing commercial gates that are designed to make a portable corral. "Each section weighs about 300 lbs. I use my Belarus 85 hp tractor to move the tanks around. The cradle is curved. I grab the middle tank and lift all three tanks together at the same time." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Richard Godbout, 5145 Lindholm Rd., Cromwell, Minn. 55726 (ph 218 644-3962).

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