40 gallon suburban tank in reg cab ?

[liftmeup]

found a 40 gallon suburban tank and the heavy steel shield from a suburban, looks like it would go under my pickup with no problems, Just move fuel door to the rear and fill the front hole. Anyone else do this ? I have a single side tank and it seems like I fill up every other time I go somewhere...

 

[sean1960]

It can be done, but the crossmembers are diffrent. The crossmembers in the burb that the tank came from are made specifically to fit the shape of that pan and the tank. Just improvise! You can make it work.

 

[HotRodPC]

Do make it work and let us know what you have to move to make it work. We do have a write up on here for a smaller K5 Blazer tank by Old77. I'm also more interested in the 40 Gallon.

 

[liftmeup]

ok I will be the man to try it. I will cut the members out of the burb just in case I need them or even just for reference.

 

[crazy4offroad]

Here's a how-to on the 30-gallon Blazer tank...
http://www.captkaoscustoms.com/blazertank.html
but I dont even like how low that sucker hangs, would hate to see what a 40 gallon looks like. Which is why I was wanting to do this with a 25-gallon Blazer tank. Almost 10 gallons more than my single 16-gallon saddlebag gas tank so it would have to be an improvement.

 

[liftmeup]

I have a heavy duty hitch on the back of the truck and from a glance I think it will still sit lower than the tank.. I will put it up there and get a idea, if its silly low i will not use it but it does have the skid plate and all so not overy convered with it.l after all its all the side tanks that blow up, you dont hear about to many suburbans catching fire from impact. (side or rear)

 

[crazy4offroad]

True but a lot of Cherokees/Grand Cherokees are blowing up from rear impacts these days with a similar rear tank, mainly because of unibody contruction, and plastic skid pan and often urethane tanks. And honestly I think it was just a couple accidents in the late 80 through mid 90s that got people all tore up over the saddlebag tanks, it's not like the Toyota "stuck gas pedal" frenzy that was going on not too long ago. Main reason I wanted to do it was for the extended fuel range, not so much the safety factor. Figure a little fab time and the cost of the tank, you could do this for 1/2 or 1/3 the cost of a nice RCI fuel cell setup with baffles, rollover valve, etc (which was also a consideration). When I get around to this, I'm going to cut the filler neck and weld it on pointing straight back. I have one of those neat-o Pontiac flip-down license plate holders, I'll put the gas filler in the rear bumper.

 

[HotRodPC]

I know I sure like the idea of having 40 gallons. Which I do in the 2 x 20 gallon tanks, but I am not a fan of filling since fillers are on 2 sides of the truck. Even Ford got that right, and put fillers on the same side of the truck. C'mon GM, what were you thinking all those years??? And, the switch valve is a common failure too, so I'd much rather have a single 40 behind the axle, putting the extra weight where it can acutally be beneficial for traction in bad weather. Also worry a bit about high center on the 4x4. I'd just prefer the tank in the back even if it means giving up carrying a spare tire under there.

 

[GreaseDog]

True but a lot of Cherokees/Grand Cherokees are blowing up from rear impacts these days with a similar rear tank, mainly because of unibody contruction, and plastic skid pan and often urethane tanks. And honestly I think it was just a couple accidents in the late 80 through mid 90s that got people all tore up over the saddlebag tanks, it's not like the Toyota "stuck gas pedal" frenzy that was going on not too long ago. Main reason I wanted to do it was for the extended fuel range, not so much the safety factor. Figure a little fab time and the cost of the tank, you could do this for 1/2 or 1/3 the cost of a nice RCI fuel cell setup with baffles, rollover valve, etc (which was also a consideration). When I get around to this, I'm going to cut the filler neck and weld it on pointing straight back. I have one of those neat-o Pontiac flip-down license plate holders, I'll put the gas filler in the rear bumper.

with the saddle tanks, and the NBC tests where they "exploded"... Dateline had to rig the tanks with an ignitor in order to get them to explode... the saddle tank scare was totally fabricated.

http://whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/LIE/nbc.html

 

[sean1960]

Yes, that saddle tank scare was crap and it cost GM some money. I have one saddle tank mounted to the inside the frame rails. It's only a 16 gallon tank but my truck isn't a daily driver. I'll take some pictures some time and explain how I did in a tech write-up. I will say that you'll need a 3 inch body lift to make it (saddle tank between the rails) work. It also requires substantial amount of lift to clear the tank. My differential clears by 13 inches but I need to drop the tank about 2 inches more, it fills to slow.

 

[Old77]

I used a 25 gallon k5 tank and is perfect for me. 40 gallon would be too much for my tastes.

 

[oneluckypops]

something that puzzles me would be the spring sag with a full 40 gallon tank. Not sure how much that would weigh but you would also have to consider the leverage factor of it hanging behind the axle. Yea you would pick up added traction to the rear wheels but what about the front steer axle what kind of effect do you think it would have on that? Suburbans are longer then a RCLB truck so i could see the extra length of the suburban helping with the leverage. Any thoughts?

 

[RetroC10Sport]

something that puzzles me would be the spring sag with a full 40 gallon tank. Not sure how much that would weigh but you would also have to consider the leverage factor of it hanging behind the axle. Yea you would pick up added traction to the rear wheels but what about the front steer axle what kind of effect do you think it would have on that? Suburbans are longer then a RCLB truck so i could see the extra length of the suburban helping with the leverage. Any thoughts?

A full tank will weigh in at 247 lbs. plus the weight of the tank itself.

 

[oneluckypops]

A full tank will weigh in at 247 lbs. plus the weight of the tank itself.

ok so 247 lb's hanging behind the axle would translate to about what? 300 lb's?

 

[RetroC10Sport]

Something like that.