The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 1953 Chevy 3/4 ton gas tank placement?

I’ve owned this truck for about 19 years. Now that I am doing a new floor & rebuilding the seat, should I consider replacing moving the tank (I’m thinking for safety reasons). If I should move it where would be the best & easiest place?
Moving it out of the cab might allow me more leg room if I can move the seat back more too!

They make tanks specifically for your truck mounted between the frame rails, under the bed. If your seat is stock, you really won’t gain any room because the seat frame hits the back cab wall stiffeners before it gets anyway near the gas tank.

Since you don’t have a seat riser, you could tilt the front of the seat bottom down to gain a bit of room, but that may feel strange.

Because your truck is a 3/4 ton (3600) the options for under bed fuel tanks are limited, or at least that was my experience. Most of the tank relation experiences you may read about are 3100s and the frame rail spacing is substantially different from your truck.

I moved my tank out of the cab for a variety of reasons including changing to more modern seats (although I don't know that the original tank would not have fit behind them).

I used a 16 gallon tank from Tanks Inc. located behind the rear axle, between the frame rails, with the filler routed out the passenger side under the bed (through the bed side) with the filler cap located on the rear portion of the rear fender. The tank had a number of options including a fuel outlet that I connected to an in-line electric pump (but could be connected to an engine driven fuel pump). I routed the tank vent line out the driver's side, under the bed, through the bed side and mounted the vent high inside the rear fender.

You can find information on my tank installation in my project journal or feel free to PM me with any questions.

If "safety reasons" is why you want to relocate the tank, consider that inside the cab might be the safer than under the bed. Inside the cab it's pretty well protected from just about any crash you might experience. Rollover crashes are an extremely small percentage of all car accidents something like 2%.

Don't forget that if you move your tank, you'll have a big hole in the side of the cab that you'll need to fill.

If you're currently smelling gasoline fumes inside the cab, you have a leak. Either the sending unit gasket isn't sealing or the rubber hoses on the filler neck are leaking.

I've owned two Fords and the current AD truck with gas tanks behind the seat and none of them smell(ed) like fuel inside the cab.

"T" bone. I say that because when I bought my 58 stepside I was driving it home
and stopped at a gas station the 1st time and I guy pulled up next to me and said Nice truck..
did you relocate the gas tank? Then told me this story of a friend would succumbed in a wreck because of
the location of the tank. Needless to say I took that as a sign and relocated the tank to frame.
They make a plug for the filler hole. I have that but not welded in yet. I rigged up a Harley Davidson cap from the inside to tighten up and seal.
A small block of wood on the inside with a nut.
I see no advantage to having the tank behind the seat.

I am 82 years old and grew up in the gasoline business. I have hauled a lot of gasoline and I view gasoline safety differently than most people. The factory placement behind the seat is the safest place because the tank is completely surrounded and away from the hot exhaust. Under the bed installations are very vulnerable to collision damage during a hit from the side or from the rear. And they are vulnerable to being hit from debris on the road. And if mounting brackets fail the tank will drag the ground. If you smell gas inside the cab, there is a leak somewhere and you need to fix it. Along with being in the gasoline business, I have been in the trucking business for 61 years and also a licensed dealer. I have seen quite a few burned out pickups that had the gas tank in a position other than behind the seat. I don't think I ever saw one that burned that had the tank behind the seat. I haven't hauled gasoline in quite a while, but I still have an unrestricted CDL and occasionally still drive. Last week I went and got a load of DEF. This photo was taken over 60 years ago. Gas tank behind the seat and saddle tanks. No seat belts, now power brakes and bias tires that were slick on wet pavement.

My '57 GMC (rip) after a T-bone. Click here.

Tank had been moved to behind the rear axle. Tank stayed intact, but both the vent line and that supply line from the tank to the fuel pump were leaking a lot of gas. Spring Tx VFD showed up in less than 5 minutes, foamed the whole truck and cut the battery cable.

1980s & Beyond: In-cab tanks largely disappeared from mainstream pickups, replaced by frame-mounted or rear-mounted tanks for better crash protection.
Why the Change?
Safety: The primary reason was to reduce fire risk in collisions; in-cab tanks (or those just outside the frame) posed a severe threat.
Regulations: Federal safety standards pushed manufacturers to relocate fuel tanks to safer areas, often within the frame or behind the axle.

Those durn Fed safety standards. Safest place inside frame behind the axle. Believe what you want.

That is a really cool truck Crenwelge.

I think the 48s had them under the bed,I seen a one ton at a local junkyard that does not have the tank in the cab.

I don't believe that removing the tank from behind the seat will give you any more leg room if you have a stock seat.
My seat is all the way back and I can barely fit my scrawny hand between the seat back frame and the back of the cab.