Ruh Roh! Blazer tank issues...

[Boyd]

I went to cut the bed brace this evening to allow clearance for the blazer tank and realized that the filler exits directly under the bed brace. Is this common?

It looks like I can cut a small section of brace out entirely to allow the filler to come up through the bed floor and then use 2 metal strap pieces to bridge the bed mount to the rest of the bed brace around the filler.

I could also move the tank back towards the rear bumper a few inches, but that would entail drilling many more holes and re-running the fuel line, which I really don't want to do.

Has anyone else ran into this problem?

[hoseman1979]

My repair for this was to cut off the filler neck as it came from the factory and move it up and right so it clears the frame and bed support. I spot welded it to the tank and then brazed it to seal. I also spotted a plate over the original fill hole brazed it to seal. After that, I tested it with some of my sons bubble stuff. Then I drilled out the new filler hole and retested it. It works, it looks dumb, but no one will see it when the bed is on. If I had it to do over, I would find someone to make me an aluminum tank. I am glad to know that I am not the only one to have this problem and wonder why the don't sell a tank that fixes this. I am betting that the bulk of the Blazer tanks purchased go in pickups and that many of us have done fixes we are less than happy with.

[usmcchevy]

I slid my tank back just a bit so then I only had to notch the back of the cross member.

[oldblue1968chevy]

mines the same as yours..cept i bent it up higher torched as much of brace as i could off (bed was off lol) and build the 1 3/8 up to 1 1/2 with jb weld epoxy...pc3 or something is what i used, same same though...then put 1.5"hose on and went at it

[Boyd]

Several good ideas...I'll post my solution when I tackle it this weekend.

[John Fabris]

For mine, I angle cut the filler pipe, rotated it so it angled back towards the driver rear stake pocket, and welded it back up. Tight clearance, but you still get to keep some of the bed support on the frame at that spot.

[Boyd]

I'll post pics later, but I ended up re-drilling the mounting holes and moved the tank back about 3 inches. It easily clears the support brace now.

[lilred67]

Originally Posted by usmcchevy

I slid my tank back just a bit so then I only had to notch the back of the cross member.

thats what i have done with the 2 blazer tanks i 've installed

[vasquezmrysvll]

i used a mid 70's van tank, didn't need to cut the bed support at all, but i did need to cut a 1.75" hole in the frame rail with a hole saw. then welded some reinforcement around the hole, from the inside of the rail so it could not be seen from the outside.