The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot '60-'66 Trucks Fuel tank relocation '61 C20

Safety isn't an issue? Urban Myth's? Wow, with all due respect on a subject this important lets not throw out such careless statements. This has been discussed many times here on the Stovebolt and actual first hand accounts have been shared of the carnage that can occur as a direct result of a fuel tank in the passenger compartment of a vehicle.

Relocate that tank to be between the frame rails, out of the cab. Check out this link: https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=492803#Post492803

But first read the following "re-post" from the following forum thread: https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...n&topic=0&Search=true#Post497930

Opinions vary but it seems like a good old dose of common horse sense needs to be applied here?

The best place for the fuel tank is between the frame rails where there is structural steel around the tank to protect it, not a sheet metal body.

I am floored every time someone says that a gas tanks in the cab is safer than an external tanks? (You are riding in an enclosed area with 20 gallons of fuel right behind you.)

Check out the first post on this link. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=322241

As bad, or maybe worse, than the in cab tank is an external frame mounted saddle tank. Check out this link http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2001/04/20/018916.html

But don't rely on the car companies to keep you safe.

It wasn't until the 60's when whistleblowers and lawyers first started to pressure car companies to make safer cars. Remember Ralph Nader and the Corvair?

When it comes to safety and car companies I think Lee Iacoca answered this question best back in the mid 1970's. When he was in charge of Ford Motor Co. and his engineers told him that the Pinto's fuel tank would rupture in a rear end colision and fill the cabin of the car with gas and gas fumes he said "Safety doesn't sell cars".

Check out this link http://www.autosafety.org/pinto-madness

"Almost seven years after Miller's testimony, a woman, whom for legal reasons we will call Sandra Gillespie, pulled onto a Minneapolis highway in her new Ford Pinto. Riding with her was a young boy, whom we'll call Robbie Carlton. As she entered a merge lane, Sandra Gillespie's car stalled. Another car rear-ended hers at an impact speed of 28 miles per hour. The Pinto's gas tank ruptured. Vapors from it mixed quickly with the air in the passenger compartment. A spark ignited the mixture and the car exploded in a ball of fire. Sandra died in agony a few hours later in an emergency hospital. Her passenger, 13-year-old Robbie Carlton, is still alive; he has just come home from another futile operation aimed at grafting a new ear and nose from skin on the few unscarred portions of his badly burned body. (This accident is real; the details are from police reports.)"

I guess to sum this up each person needs to do what they think is best when it comes to safety in their vehicle.

For me, the tank is out of the cab in my '65 C10 and moved to the back https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=492803#Post492803 and seat belts are going in next.