A stainless steel bowser is a towable tank built from 2.5 mm 3CR12 stainless plate, supplied from 500 to 1,500 litres. It is the corrosion-resistant option for potable water, food-grade liquids and any duty where a rusting mild steel tank would contaminate the load.
3CR12 is a utility stainless rather than a decorative one, and that is exactly why it belongs on a trailer. It resists the corrosion that eats mild steel from the inside when a tank is left part-full, and it holds up in coastal air along the Cape and KwaZulu-Natal coast where a painted tank starts bubbling inside two years. It is not polished to a mirror. It is brushed, structural and built to work.
The case for paying the premium is simple. If the tank carries water people or animals drink, or milk, or anything that ends up in a food chain, rust is not a maintenance issue, it is a contamination issue. Stainless removes the question entirely. The same applies to standby fuel storage that sits for months between uses, where condensation inside a steel tank is the usual cause of trouble.
Running gear follows the same pattern as the rest of our bowser range. The 500 litre unit sits on a single 750 kg non-braked axle with 13 inch wheels. The 1,000 and 1,500 litre units run a 1,500 kg braked square axle on 14 inch 195C tyres with a two-tonne braked coupler, which is what a full 1,500 litre tank needs to stop properly on a gradient.
Dairies, guest farms, bottling operations, coastal contractors and municipal water carting are the buyers here. For general on-farm diesel, mild steel remains the better value.