Any links to the heater your using? I'd put in some direct burial cable with a gfci breaker controlling the outlet mounted to the post next to the tank. How many feet of ext cord are you using?

put 4 D rings on it stick it in the ground and when you want to drain it to wash it out hook chains to the D rings and get a front end loader and pick it up problem solved :rocking:

The potential of 3500 pounds of water and trough weight sloshin around off the front of the tractor in the middle of winter with every splash of the water turning to ice everywhere it spills.

I'd hate to see the tank heavy duty enough to hold that weight on any amount of D-rings trying to lift it.

Back to how to build a propane heat source. Rural Coop electricity is high dollar stuff anyway. Actually, maybe even a kerosene/diesel fueled heater.

Come on, I know we got some others members here as cheap as I am and has built somethin like this before.

get a piece of 8 or 10 inch pipe, set it in the bottom of tank. cut whole in side, weld pipe to hole in tank stick pear burner in it?

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make sure the pipe has a cap on the end

what about just plumbing lines from it to a house water heater and back to the tank? or using that style element in another form...like stuck in threw the sides of the tank in a few places. could set it for 110 degrees and have hot tub for begle to play in.

dang i wish i knew what this thing was called i just thought about it it's almost like a heat lamp but you can stick it in water and it'll hang on the side with the heater part in the water of course and heat it that way

Not what I wanted, but so far this heat lamp in the pipe sounds like the easiest route here.

Back when my grandfather was alive he used to have cattle and he made a tank inside a tank that he used to burn wood in to keep it thawed. Worked pretty good. The inner tank had a cover, door and small stack on it.

we have put in alot of water tanks for farmers around here....have to have a pad built up a little, then put a good base of crusher run rock down..when we put the waterline in, 3/4" waterline, we put a piece of 8 or 10" diameter plastic corrugated around it....leave them stickin out of the ground bout 6 or 8 inches......dont put dirt inside the corrugated pipe, as the heat from the earth keeps it from freezing....set the tanks down over them and plumb them in...the tanks have 2 water holes on top that are bout the size of a basketball...they have balls in them that the stock push down with their nose to drink...then when done the balls seal back up....this keeps ice out....the tanks dont have any source of heat, except for what the earth is providing...out of all the ones we have done, none has frozen....the tanks aint cheap tho, but seem to be worth it....also keep in mind, im not sure how this would work in illinois, but in georgia where im at, it gets down to low teens here and no probs so far...i kno it gets colder up there :c: