The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk gas tank location

I often wonder, why people move their tanks.What is the advantage?Some people relocate them into the same place as a Pinto,safe?Others locate them inthe same place as the unsafest vehicle of all time ,the 73-79 Chev truck.What is it the causes people to eat Blowfish ?There must be an advantage,but what is it?I'd like to know why I should move my tank ,what are the benefits.

I think it is just preference more than anything. However, if an inside the cab tank developes a leak you do get to smell fumes which is not pleasant. There has been arguments both ways as you point out in your post. I have friends who have them both ways. Since I used an S10 chassis the tank was outside so I left it.

I would like to use the space behind my seat for storage and speakers. But, I'm not going to do that until I can figure out a safe place to put it under the bed. If there is one!

Anywhere between the frame rails should be okay, so long as it's well away from the exhaust. (Which is kind of obvious, now that I think about it... )

I am leaving mine under the seat. I figure that if something t-bones me hard enough to rupture the tank, I'm long gone anyway.

Might as well toss in my $.02. If you're going to retain your stock 53 rigid seat I'm hard pressed to see what you're going to have room to store. If you're getting fumes it's time to replace the tank anyways!

IMO the cab is the best protected location for a tank. Hanging it out in the rear with exposure on 5 surfaces just doesn't register as an upgrade. I guess it's just another one of those calls, where each individual makes his own decision. The price of a new stock tank (if your's is leaking) in the long run, will be money well spent.

I'm putting mine back in the frame to get more capacity to feed my 454 and to gain space for real stereo equipment. It's not for safetys' sake, I just want what little space I have in the cab for modern day luxuries. The tank is mounted in a welded in support members and will be surrounded by a class three hitch. I'm not too worried about the Pinto effect, my truck is not a tin can three inches off of the ground. Each to there own I guess,
Scott

I put a tank in the rear and welded in two crossmembers for support and in the event of rear end collision there's a bit of protection, ie rear bumper, rear bed cross sill, and crossmember. I just felt it was too dangerous in the cab in the event of roll over. If you look at the new trucks coming off the line there nothing but plastic back there and maybe a crossmember. Some people even install the tank left or right hand frame rail behind the cab which is good also. Bob T

Recently drove my dump truck on a 450 mile excursion to work on my property. For one thing, the stock tank is small. It's a pain to stop for gas so often. Also, the new sending unit cover decided to develop a wee leak. Just enough to provide me with some lovely fragrance de premium. So I stopped at an auto parts and bought a phillips screwdriver and some gas resistant permatex and fixed that. Then I noticed a little dribble coming from the filler neck into the cab while filling up. No wonder that fragrance was lingering so long. Tightening the %#@*!!! out of the clamp solved that for now.

So, at the very least I'd like to have an auxillary tank simply for the increased fuel capacity. But I'm also wondering how it is safer to have a fuel tank INSIDE the cab where humans tend to congregate. I mean, this is a pretty good sized truck. People see it coming and tend to get out the way. However, if I did encounter the dreaded crash and burn scenerio, it would probably be the head injury from an all metal interior, a crushed chest from the oversized steering wheel and lap belt gut rupture that would get me just before the explosion. I don't know? Any other thoughts out there???

Speaking from personal experience, getting the gas tank out of the cab is a big improvement.

Older trucks had very little room in the cab to start with, getting rid of the gas tank adds much needed room for stereo equipment, storage or whatever.

Relocate the tank between the frame rails (your preference on where) and you are in business.

I moved mine to get additional leg room with the seat back. MIght have gained 3/16 if i was lucky

I'd like to get mine out of the cab but I don't have much of a choice on where it's located; considering the rear axle, hydraulic resevoir and lines, exhaust pipe, bed hinge (and shortened frame rails to accomodate the hinge), and drive shaft about all I could fit back there is a five gallon can. I can't even mount it on the outside of the frame rails cuz that's where the tilt bed rams are located. I spent the better part of an afternoon looking and measuring for a place to put an external tank. If someone has some suggestions (other than removing the hydraulics which ain't gonna happen - that's what makes it rather unique) on where a tank could go; I'm willing to listen.

I remember spending many hours in trucks with the tanks in the cab and can vividly recall "au de Mobil" while riding in them, something I'd like to not experience again if I could avoid it. My only consolation is that I won't be driving it that much and will probably keep the windows open most of the time anyway.

Tractor78, there is nowhere to put it between the rails on the 60 - 62 frames except the very back (Where I have a hitch and soon a spare tire)unless you re-route the exhaust and muffler and then you have to figure out that. That is one of the advantages of the "ladder" frame that you have over the "X" frame that we have.
Hey Gazim, don't you have a 60-62 chassis? Where did you put the tank?

My mistake. I thought the frames were essentially the same from 60 - 87. An X frame will complicate things. Sorry!

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