The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Anyone moved their gas tank location?

How many people share my distrust for the incendiary bomb we call a gas tank right under our heinies?

Has anybody moved it or thought about moving the gas tank location? Under the truck bed seems like a nice roomy place to stick one or more gas tanks. But where to put the filler neck?

If you're clever, I'll bet you could reuse the stock filler neck and still have the gas tank below the truck bed, right behind the cab. But I'd worry about overfilling the tank and having gas in the neck.

Usually you can get circle track fuel cells that aren't too large, and will hold up to 32 gallons, which is over twice the capacity of the stock tank.

Any ideas out there?

Put Summits 16 gal. racing fuel tank back of the frame between the last 2 rails. Had to cut 1 1/2" off the very back lower part of the cross member. 1/2" off the 2nd to last rail lower part.

Welded in a piece of 1/2 bar stock to the inside of the back cross member. Drilled and taped (I drill bit) 5/16th tap and bolted my SS Mirror (1" wide)finish straps with that. Had to cut a 1/2" 1/2 moon in back top rail to give brathing tube room. Very easy install 1 days work. Ben

popcorn The Truth is Out There (E-mail me if you need more help)

HR Dad-

Check out my neighbor Ryan Sain's website (http://www.wsu.edu/~rsain/apache.html) and click on fuel cell to see how he/we got one of these into his new frame.

I used a 67-69 camaro tank (18 gal)mounted behind the axle. Had to move the rear cross member back and then reinforce the rear spring mounting by boxing that area of the frame. I am happy with the results.

I think ole Popcorn has an extra one of these tanks unless he used it as a sled or parts washer. Drop him a line and say "GO ASTROS" - he loves that.

I have a 68 Firebird and it seems that everytime I try to put gas in it, it pukes it right back up, unless I go very slowly. But I can see why that design would work well.

YEP: popcorn The Truth is Out There (e-mail me)

Hey Dad,
I think the puking on your Firebird is caused by that ethanol gas you have to use in Colorado.

my 37 tank is still in original place...laying directly under the seat. Talk about sitting on Liquid Dynamite! I feel like a space shuttle sometimes when I "launch" it off.

Hi

It's been a while since I checked in here at the StoveBolt. I have a '37 also, and used (sin of sins) an early seventies Mustang tank. This is a 22 GA tank, which was one major motivation, and since it's a ford the polarity of the sender is opposite that of the GM senders. This made it work right with the 260Z fuel gage I used. (If you have one of these real old (36-38) trucks--check out the tech page for this write up. It works well, at least so far.) That was another motivation. But the main motive was to use a perimeter flange mounting tank. No straps. I built a little dropped sub-frame and mounted it to my boxing plates with 4 5/16 dia screws. It looks pretty sano.

Pat

When I bought my truck (two years ago now!) I was fortunate to find this one for many reasons ... one being the gas tank was already removed, a 30-gallon tank installed in the rear and a really NICE job done with the filler neck in the fender!

See Here

I was toying with the idea of having TWO gas tanks under the bed just behind the cab. One would get the filler neck that comes out the stock location, and the other I would have to find a place to put the neck. Each would have a float in the tank, and an electric solenoid to switch between tank 1 or tank 2 would also switch which tank the fuel gauge would be reading.

It just seems that the stock 14 gallon tank under my ars just doesn't go very far on a tankful. I'd really like to have a lot more range, with a reserve tank.

My plan is to use the stock tank in the bed.

Use a second front bulkhead to make adead space that will not be to noticeable. Filler in top.

Should be no problems. Gain afew inches behind the seat and loose a few in the bed.

I used a 30 gal Blazer tank fit under the rear frame, added a cross member, needed also for shocks after the rear was changed, and straps back to the rear support salvaged from the spare tire rack. The Blazer tank comes two ways to be used on an engine mounted fuel pump(low pressure) or fuel injected tank mounted pump (high pressure)but you need to specify. I ran the filler pipe betweeen the frame and bed and added a filler in the right fender. There is a picture of both under zeke's AD here
http://community.webshots.com/user/zeker6
Zeke

That is REALLY a beautiful and clean restofication of your truck. The only thing that scares me about where you have your gas tank is its exposure to the Pinto-effect if some car rearends you and slides under your truck, rupturing your tank.

I have a long-bed, so I have room for two full size gas tanks in front of the differential. Of course, in my case, I think I'd better design a driveshaft loop to protect the tank from rupturing if the u-joint should ever break.

Zeker6,
Great looking truck!! I have a 46 3/4T and want to do same with gas tank. Thats a ways off. My question is on rearend placement. Any suggestions/tips to center rearend? I don't have bed on but could. Don't have fenders at all.Thanks prior

Zeker6,

Sorry new to this game. I have a 12 bolt rearend.
Thanks

Dan

I filed a spot on frame with a plumb bob lined up with the old rear. This made placement of the 10 bolt replacement easier, but still wasn't happy with the location after installing bed and fenders. I wound up moving it back 1 1/2" to center the wheel in fender opening. Cost me a drive shaft. So my sugestion is plane ahead, the AD had the rear a little forward originally. It propably would have flown, but I knew it was off and like Chuck said with his front end it would have laughed at me every time I looked. Zeke

I took another look at things, and I can see the merits of putting a gas tank behind the rear end. There is a crossmember which could help protect the tank. There's room for a really large gas tank, like one of the 32 gallon fuel cells Circle Track racers use.

If I used something like that, I'd have to have a custom filler neck made for it so that I don't have to have the filler neck in the wooden bed.
I can see where an 18 gallon Camaro tank would be beneficial there, because of its filler neck location.

Having a tank above the driveshaft can be a little dangerous too, in case of a driveshaft failure.

Maybe I should make the stock tank an auxiliary tank and make a main tank behind the rear end. I don't like sitting on gas, but that could usually be empty.

I still want to remove the stock gas tank. Maybe I could still have an aux. tank somewhere behind the cab and have the stock filler neck used for that.

I'll think about it.

Both Zeker6 and Alan Horvath truks I really like the look you,ve accomplished with your tanks and filler necks. I hope mine will look that nice.
Thanks guys.

Dan

I've got a Chevy 12 bolt rear also.

I'm not too concerned about getting rear-ended ... first of all, if anyone rear-ends me, I'll KILL them!!!

Second, I've got a heavy duty steel diamond-plated rear bumper welded back there, so hopefully it's safer than it looks. I *am* very attentive to my rear-view mirror though ... if I see anyone coming at my rear and not paying attention, I'm prepared to floor it and get out of Dodge!

I am not at all concerned leaving the the fuel tank behind the seat. Some of you make it sound like these trucks were blowing up on a daily basis!

BTW Alan: That insulation you are using in your cab - you said you got it at the Home Depot? I couldn't find it. Looked in carpets and insulation depts. Staff is no help. Was I looking in the wrong area?

The insulation you are looking for in the Home Depot stores is located in the window and door section. It comes in rolls - silver on one side and bubble wrap on the other. Make sure and get the adhesive also while your are there. Its cheap.

I agree with Gord. The reason GM put the tank inside the cab was for extra protection. Twas a much better design than the saddle bag tanks, right?

Here's a question for those of you with your tank mounted at the rear. Where do you store your spare tire? I'm leaning toward finding an AD surburban/panel truck/canopy express tank, and filling it through the side of the bed like the '47 & '48. Then I'll be left with that blasted hole in the cab...

I have never heard of one blowing up, that's true. But having fuel in the passenger compartment scares me to no end. I can't believe this thing even COMES with an ashtray, just 4 feet from 16 gallons of gas. On a warm day, you can sometimes smell the gas too. Mmmm, gas fumes.

But here's an idea so that you don't have to worry about the hole in the cab if you move your tank. If you put the tank under the bed in front of the wheels, like in a north-south arrangement on the passenger side of the bed, then you can still use the stock filler neck and have it plumbed down through the cab and into the tank under the bed.

I'm thinking of doing that for the aux. tank. Then probably having a main tank behind the axle with a big heavy bumper protecting it like this other guy is doing.

Yeah, I don't like getting gas too often! Heh heh. Actually, when this truck gets a V8, I know it's going to be pretty thirsty towing a load, and I'd like to have a minimum of 350 miles range because of some of the open stretches out west here. Especially in Utah and Nevada.

Hey, Gord

The stuff 52pu mentioned is not what I used. The stuff I got was from Home Depot ... in the CARPET section -- they have 2 kinds of underlayment for carpet; one is rubber/sponge (garbage) and the other is all cotton fiber stuff, which is what I bought. You can get enough to do the whole interior for less than $20. If I think of it next time I'm there, I'll get the product number and info and post it on my site page:
Here

Hey, Tim

Right now, my spare tire is just thrown in the bed ... I'm thinking of building a box in the bed, right behind the cab, when I get around to redoing my bed ... with a compartment for the spare tire, jack, etc. and a smaller lid on the driver side for an easy-toss of grocery bags.

alan, might look into a space saver spare and put it behind the seat now that the gas tank is gone. get one of the skinny type. just a thought. ron

I knew a family who rolled an early 70s Ford pickup with an in-cab gas tank. No explosion, but there was a fire that killed their little girl.

I think it depends on the useage. A restoration that gets little use, I wouldn't worry too much.

A daily driver or high performance rig, I'd move it.

That's not a bad idea, Ron!

I'm also entertaining another idea ... again, once I get to redoing my bed ... and that is to stand the spare tire up and sink it down into the bed -- like a side mount, only INside the bed, in the front corner on the passenger side. Not a bad idea, eh?

Mines on the roof till I finish restoring it, ;-)

In a lot of the wagons of the 50's ,you open the tailgate, then lift up the floor. You could always cut out that piece and incorporate that under the floor part. I personally would probably place my spare like the wagons do.

How do you lift up the floor of the wooden truck bed? Do you mean have a section hinged so that you can lift it up to expose a filler neck underneath?

I guess as long as you're careful with the gas nozzle, that's an option. If there's no other option.

i just finished duplicating one from a catalog i have home.it will work out sweet for my 56 3100 under the bed. there is measuremt there for AD trucks as well.