Interesting discussion.
Lets face it, as Lee Iacocoa stated when talking about Pinto's exploding: Safety doesn't sell cars.
GM put the tank in the cab because it was the least expensive place for them to put it from a cost of installation on the assembly line perspective.
Long bed, short bed, step-side, fleetside, didn't matter, all the tanks were in the cab... it was easy and made them more money due to minimized labor to install.
There was almost no thought concerning "safety" when designing cars before the mid 1960's, let alone trucks.
Last edited by Hot Rod John; 03/05/2010 2:09 PM.
