Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | Since we mix hot loads in my mixing shed and transport them to the field in a tender, we have this situation both on the tender truck and the sprayer itself. The sprayer tank is stainless steel and the tender tank is black poly so we can't see the level from the outside world in either case.
We have some of the same problems with a cloudy sight gauge hose and have used a fishing bobber with reasonable success.
Last year I had the bright idea of using a sight gauge hose about twice as long as necessary. I coiled up the excess and placed it under the tank on the tender truck so it was out of the way. With the tank empty, I poured crop oil into the top of the sight gauge hose until it just started to show in the sight gauge at the bottom of the tank. My idea was that then as the tank was filled the crop oil would rise in the sight gauge tubing and since it was pure would not get the tubing cloudy. Being crop oil it shouldn't hurt anything.
I hadn't thought about the density of the crop oil versus the density of the spray mix. The result was that the level in the sight gauge was not the same as the level in the tank. I scrapped the idea and just went with a pair of sight gauge hoses along with some tees and quarter turn valves. We now have one shut off and just use the other. When that one gets so cloudy we can't use it, we open the valve on the other and use it until it gets cloudy and then change them both to start over again.
I guess my oil in the sight gauge tubing idea might have worked had I made some calibrated marks on the tank beside the tubing. These marks could be made by filling the tank with a known amount and making a mark. Adding some more and making another mark etc. This should compensate for the differences in density between the oil and tank product. Of course using a completely different product such as fertilizer would need its own set of calibration marks. Probably not worth the effort.
Edited by tedbear 4/23/2026 17:27
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Sprayer tank fill indicator hose
