Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How much weight can a septic tank cover handle?

Back to the original question:

New tank installed during construction of the house across the street from me.

It handled a cement truck that backed over it going into the yard, it did NOT handle it coming back out..................

It didn't handle the weight going across either. The truck just finished it off on the return trip over. Normal residential septic tanks are not designed to have concentrated ground pressure on them. A foot of ground cover, lawn mowers. One is pushing the envelope when cars and pickups are driven over them. The newer two and three compartment tanks that are required are more forgiving. A concrete truck driver should know better than to drive over a septic tank and should be one of his first questions as to where it is when he gets on the job.

Our septic tank lid is in the yard. But the diverter valve is in cattle pasture - during the 25 years it had a concrete lid, the cows walked on it at will. When I had to replace it with a plastic diverter assembly, I read the specs on the lid and have since fenced the cows off of it.

I put the PVC risers on my lids and then the PVC cover over that, Now I know exactly where it is at. I keep a few small stones under 0ne corner of the the septic tank lids to let the gas escape and the riser is vented

For a lotta years back even in far northern Minnesota the septic tank installers have had to file paperwork and a sketch of location to the city or county. Have you tried checking there just to see if there are such records?

Osky

Use risers. If you need to get to your tank, it’s less than 5 mins and you are in. Plus, everyone can see location.

Bought property last year. First thing I installed. Replaced pump while I was there since it was 17 years old.

My brother drives a 1200 lb scag over his sometimes 2x a week.

Should is the magic word. Franklin Co. Health Dept clerk couldn't (wouldn't) look up the data without knowing the date the house was built. That took a trip across town to the hall of records where they have 3 different systems of retrieving property information, but first we had to go thru a bunch of old books before accessing the microfiche (remember them?) system that didn't work unless you hit the monitor in just the right spot. It took 2 hours with the help of an older woman who had worked there for decades. On my own it would never have been found. Then returning to the health dept. they only had an approximate position. It was explained that at times (70s & earlier) in the past the only maps that were drawn could have been in the dust on the hood of the county truck. Never did find that tank for sure & I lived there for 10 years. It was supposed to be pumped every 5 years due the lake being within 100 yards. Oh well...

Rural Arkansas, no permits for anything. MIL quarters have not been lived in for at least 4 years. I suppose the tank could actually be empty. (or full of ground water) I bought the property and of course the main house. The Single wide was transferred with no value. It's in good shape however, livable with all appliances HVAC etc. No need of it, perhaps I could keep everything and put the 5th wheel there (power, water, septic) Going to get the septic company that did the main house to come and check it over. Life has enough problems one can't control. This one I can.

If it is a modern tank there would be options for a traffic rated cover or a standard cover from most tank suppliers... just like electrical vaults... Unless you can find the installer and paperwork from the original install it is a crapshoot of course.... no pun intended...

If it has ever been pumped out, the company that pumped it may know where it is located if you can figure out who did the pumping...

When I was a kid, I worked for an excavator where we were putting in septic tanks and drain fields. I think you said you basically know where it is. To find the exact location, you can probably use a metal detector. The concrete tanks that we put in had a 6" square plug about a foot from each end with a 24" round hatch in the middle. Around here, building code is for the tank to be about 18" below grade. Unfortunately, I've seen them as deep as 30". I'd pump it out and fill it with sand if you're getting rid of the trailer.

I wouldn't drive anything bigger than a lawn mower over it.

My OLD house in MO has a septic that didn't survive my BIL driving his tractor over it. Since he lived there it didn't concern me. He seemed a trifle upset though.