The Creek Bank tank is equipped with some pretty cool hardware. We figured if we were going to build the Ferrari of bait tanks, we couldn't put a Pinto hood ornament and door handles on it. The latch on the main lid is a highly polished stainless steel compression latch and found mostly on higher priced boats (our Ferrari hood ornament). To open the lid, raise the D ring to release the compression on the latch and rotate ¼ turn and lift the lid. When you close the lid, be sure to press the D ring flat in the latch housing. This will seat the lid tight against the tank top plate. If the latch needs to be tightened or loosened, you can adjust the height of the locking lever using the two nuts on the threaded shaft on the bottom of the latch.

You will notice on edge of the lid there are steps cut into it. There are matching steps cut into the top plate on the tank that the lid sits into. When the water gets into these steps, the surface tension on the water creates it's own seal by filling the gaps. Because water seeks the path of least resistance, to escape from between the lid and tank it has to go up, then sideways, then up again, then sideways again, and finally up yet again. In rough situations a slight amount of water will leak, but not very much.

Shown to the left is the bottom of the 50 gallon tank lid. You will notice that we've put a splash deflector on the underside of the lid to keep the water from sloshing back and forth in the tank. The water level in our tanks is about 2" from the top, which is to the bottom of the splash deflector. If you have a large space between the top of the water and the bottom of the lid, the water will slosh back and forth and wreak havoc on your bait. By eliminating the air space inside of the tank the water can't slosh back and forth, thus not beating your bait up. Because of the smaller surface area of the 30 gallon tank, a splash deflector is not installed.

The hinges are also solid stainless steel. They are heavy duty, highly polished, and look great (no Pinto door handles here). They will hold up to any abuse you can throw at them. The design of these hinges allows either lid to be completely removed in less than 5 seconds! To keep the lid in place during normal operation, hinge locks have been installed to keep the lid in place until you're ready to remove them. The hinge locks are located beside the hinges on the left side of the tank when facing the front of the tank. To remove either the main tank lid or the filter box lid, simply slide the hinge lock away from the lid, open the lid straight up and slide the lid towards the hinge lock until it comes off the pins.

To replace the lid, hold it straight up and slide the hinges of the lid onto the pins on the tank. Close the lid and slide the hinge locks back into place.

If the hinge locks become too easy to slide back and forth, there is a screw that can be tightened underneath the lock. Keep the locks tight so they don’t vibrate to the unlocked position. REMEMBER to keep your hinge locks in place when hauling your boat down the road.

The hardware that we manufacture these tanks with is easy to use, functional, and great looking. Why should removing a lid be a pain.