The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Gas tank question........

Does anybody know if there are baffles in my gas tank? I'm refurbishing mine from a 1950 1/2 ton. I want to put nuts and bolts in it and slosh them around to remove the light rust inside. Can I do it?

Spot

yes there's baffles - yes you can slosh things around and get'em back out - the baffles don't close areas off, they're partial walls that "stop waves"

Bill

The baffles in my 38 are U shaped in the center of the tank. The side wall of the tank completes the "box". The sending unit lives inside it. The top of the baffles come to about 1/2" from the top of the tank & there are small channels in the bottom to allow gas into and out of the baffled area. IF your tank is constructed the same way you'll have difficulty getting anything solid into or out of the baffled area except by using the sending unit hole. You'll prolly have to put some down the filler tube and some in the sender hole to get both sides of the baffle walls. If yours isn't made the same way disregard all of the above.

Are you sure? There are no baffles in my '49 1/2-ton.

None in my 49 either.

None in my 54 suburban gas tank.

what makes you non-baffle folks think you've none? have you opened up the tanks to actually view inside, or just looked in the sender hole? virtually all gas tanks have baffles [not necessarily as Tiny's], otherwise with nothing to damp the gas sloshing around, your gas gauge would constantly bang back and forth between the stops with a half tank .... the baffle [usually 2] is simply a plate that attaches between the closer sides, only covering the middle 3/4's top to bottom, leaving space above and below .... I had a 60's truck once that a baffle broke loose, drove me crazy hearing it sliding around in there!

Bill

Hey guys, when I buy my clutch head drivers I'll take off my sending unit and look inside to see if I have any baffles. I just assumed all tanks would have them to cut down on the sloshing gas like Bill described. I'll report to the group what I find with my flashlight!! Just didn't want to get something stuck in there that I couldn't get out.

Spot

The baffles you describe make sense, but my '49 doesn't have them. My tank was out of the truck, empty, and I was using bright lights and mirrors to look inside while I cleaned and coated the interior of the tank.

Norcal49er........Well, we can assume then that '49's with original in-cab tanks do not have baffles, but mine is a 1950.
We will see if that model year has baffles or not.

To be continued.........

Spot

I mechanic's mirror works well for that. If the tank is out you can also tell by the spot welds (or absence thereof) that hold the baffles in place.

My 51 tank doesn't have baffles either and I know that from looking into it from the sender hole when I cleaned it.

When cleaning tanks comes up I always remember someone, probably here, saying they had a method that brought a smile to my face. They filled the tank with some aggregate, probably gravel, and then strapped it to the side of their rear tractor tire and headed out to the field. Killed two birds with one stone. On the less ingenius side, my wife and I just did the hippy-hippy shake in the driveway with the tank. On my 50, and I do not remember a baffle in there and I know I was looking.

Steve,

Straping my tank to the side of a tractor wheel would be a great way to de-rust the inside of my tank but unfortunately I ain't a farmer!! No tractor. So, I'll do the "hippy shake" method you used. Thanks for confirming that our 1950 model tanks do not have baffles. If they did, I wondered how I was ever going to get around them with aggregate or chains.

I've yet to order a new sending unit and flexible gas line, but I'm making progress with sanding down both the tank exterior and the interior platform behind the seat. It won't be long before I'll have it all back together.

Spot

Hey Nifty 50, I did the same thing with a couple of old tanks. Instead of a tractor tire, though, we fastened them to the front of a gas powered cement mixer and let them rotate. Cleaned the tanks up nicely.