A Grade C tote, a 12 volt pump, a spray bar and a battery box on a skid base. It is the cheapest genuinely useful thing we make, and it exists because a quarry foreman described what he wanted on the back of a delivery ticket in 2022.
What it does
Holds 275 gallons of water, pumps it through a spray bar at low pressure, and keeps respirable dust down on haul roads, demolition sites, crushing operations and anywhere else that generates airborne fines. It is forkliftable, runs off a truck battery or a small solar panel, and has no engine to maintain.
It is not a fire suppression system, a potable water supply or a pressure washer, and we say so on every quote.
The build
- Vessel. Grade C reconditioned 275 gallon tote, steel pallet base for site abuse.
- Pump. 12 V diaphragm pump, typically 5 to 7 gallons per minute at 45 to 60 psi.
- Spray bar. Welded steel bar with replaceable flat-fan nozzles, mounted to the cage or on a skid outrigger.
- Battery box. Lockable, with an isolator and an inline fuse.
- Plumbing. S60x6 male to 2 in NPT, strainer, ball valve, reinforced hose.
- Base. Welded skid with four-way forklift entry and lifting eyes.
Options we fit regularly: a 20 W solar panel with a charge controller, a float switch to protect the pump from running dry, a wand and hose for spot work, and a second nozzle bar for wider coverage.
Why Grade C, specifically
This is non-potable water duty in the harshest environment we sell into. A unit will be hit by a skid steer, left in the sun, filled from a hydrant with whatever is in the line, and forgotten over a long weekend. Paying for cosmetic condition here is money set on fire.
Grade C units are structurally sound and leak-tested — they are stained, scored or have a cargo history that rules out reuse for product. For holding hose water on a quarry road, that is exactly right, and it is the cheapest thing in our catalogue.
Sizing the coverage
A rough field figure: a 275 gallon unit at 6 gallons per minute gives you about forty-five minutes of continuous spraying. Most operations do not spray continuously — they do passes — so a single unit typically covers a shift on a moderate haul road, and a pair covers a bad one.
If you need more than that, two or three units manifolded at the base behave as one tank with one draw point while remaining individually movable. That is usually better than one larger vessel, because you can reposition them independently.
Winter
Drain it. Open the valve, drain the pump head and the spray bar, and disconnect the hose. A frozen diaphragm pump is a replacement pump, and a frozen spray bar splits at the nozzles. There is a longer treatment in winterising IBC totes.
What it costs, roughly
We do not publish prices because the tote component follows the used market and the pump component follows the electrical one. What we will say is that the container is the cheapest part of this build by a wide margin, and that it comes in well under any purpose-built dust suppression equipment on the market — because it is made from something that was about to be ground up.
Related builds
The same chassis logic produces the jobsite wash station (foot-pump tap, soap shelf, greywater tray) and the mobile fuel caddy for off-road diesel. All eleven standard patterns are on the upcycled builds page, and one-offs are welcome — about a quarter of what leaves bay F is something nobody has asked for twice.
Nozzle selection, which decides whether it works
The pump and the tank are the easy part. The nozzles decide whether you are suppressing dust or making mud.
For haul road and general area suppression you want flat-fan nozzles producing a coarse droplet at low pressure — large droplets carry further, resist evaporation and knock particles down. For fine respirable dust at a crusher or conveyor transfer you want the opposite: a fine mist that matches droplet size to particle size.
Trying to do both with one nozzle set does neither well. If you have both duties, build two bars or carry two sets and swap them — they are cheap and they unscrew.
Water quality, and the strainer you will forget
Site water carries grit, and grit destroys diaphragm pumps and blocks nozzles. An inline strainer between the tote and the pump is not optional, and it needs cleaning on a schedule somebody owns.
A float strainer inside the tote, held slightly off the floor, is better still — it draws from the cleanest water rather than from the sediment layer. Both are inexpensive and both are the difference between a season of use and a replaced pump.
Additives, and when they are worth it
Plain water evaporates. On a hot haul road you can be re-treating within the hour, which is a lot of water and a lot of passes.
Surfactant wetting agents reduce surface tension so the water penetrates rather than beading, and hygroscopic products — chloride-based, or organic by-product blends — hold moisture for days rather than hours. Both change your tote requirements slightly: wetting agents are benign, chlorides are corrosive to the cage and to your equipment, and organic blends ferment if stored warm.
If you go to chlorides, read the brine post — the handling considerations are the same.
Power, realistically
A 12 volt diaphragm pump at 6 gallons per minute draws roughly 7 to 10 amps under load. Running it for an hour a day, a 100 amp-hour deep-cycle battery is comfortable for a week between charges.
A 20 watt solar panel with a charge controller will keep that topped up in summer and will not keep up in a Midwest December. Either accept the seasonal limitation, size the panel up, or plan on swapping batteries. We fit all three configurations.
Fuse it properly, use a visible isolator, and keep the battery box locked. A 12 volt system is not dangerous and an unfused one in a steel frame is still a fire risk.
Coverage, and why two units beats one big one
At 6 gallons per minute a 275 gallon unit gives about forty-five minutes of continuous spray. Most operations do passes rather than spraying continuously, so one unit typically covers a shift on a moderate road.
When you need more, two or three units manifolded at the base behave as one tank with one draw point — and remain individually movable by forklift. That matters on a site where the dust problem moves as the work moves. A single large tank cannot be repositioned; two totes can be in ten minutes.
Where it is the wrong tool
Be clear about this. A tote skid at 45 to 60 psi is not a pressure washer, not a fire suppression system and not adequate for a genuine respirable-dust compliance programme in an enclosed space. Those need engineered systems with specified droplet distributions and verification.
What it is excellent at is open-air nuisance and visibility dust on roads, pads, demolition and stockpiles, at a fraction of the cost of anything purpose-built — because the tank was a container that was about to be ground up. Eleven standard patterns from the same bay are on the upcycled builds page.
