does your tank [not] hang low?

[1-ton of fun]

who has found a tank that fits between the rails of a 55-59 and doesn't hang down?

i have a long bed, so there is a lot of available length. i was thinking of a muscle car tank that has a rear fill, and mounting it turned 90 degrees so the filler is pointing behind the drivers side wheel. mount it almost up against the bed cross sills, trying to keep the hang down below the frame to a minimum.

does anyone have anything that hangs down less than 2" than the frame?

[1-ton of fun]

this is another that i was looking at:
http://www.tanksinc.com/index.cfm/pa...rod/prd249.htm

[1-ton of fun]

or this is the muscle car tank:
http://www.tanksinc.com/index.cfm/pa...rod/prd249.htm

[Apachemike]

I heard the 70 mustang/cougar tanks fits perfect. The issue is the fuel sender depth on shorter tanks

[OrrieG]

A amount of fuel they hold. The Mustang is 16 gallons, the aluminum ones that hang down are 19. The aluminum will take standard floats to work with original or new gauges. The Mustang requires changes to read correctly unless you get an aftermarket gauge with the right resistance. The mustangs mouint from above so if you ever need to remove them you have to raise the bed. The after market ones mount to the bottom of the frame rails.

[roger55]

Two inches is going to be pretty hard to do.

Mine is probably 4"



You can see my details in that other recent thread.

[1-ton of fun]

i have a fair amount of space if i could find a tank that was short but wide and long. my truck is a long bed, so i have more space than most of y'all on the back end

[1-ton of fun]

lol, so long i couldn't get it all in the frame there ^

[roger55]

Is your's a 3200?

That's what mine is and I still had to move that rear crossmember back.

[mr48chev]

I think 'low" may be a relative term here. If you have a slammed on the ground truck you don't want the tank hanging down too low while on a truck like Roger55's it doesn't bother anything except you can possibly see more of the tank than he likes.

[1-ton of fun]

mine is a 3600 (technically i think it is called a 36 in '59, they dropped the zeros)

moving crossmembersis no problem, i already cut the rivets out of the shock crossmember, the rear leaf hanger crossmember is next.

i'll reuse them to hold the tank.

my truck will be relatively low and long, so i am trying to minimize how low the tank hangs. if i can get 2" or less i'd be happy.

[roger55]

Is yours 89" bed? If so, your frame should be the same as mine. I've never seen the frame of the 97" bed so I'm not sure what it looks like.

I just went out to the truck and took measurements.
My tank bottom is 3 3/4" below the frame and 18 1/8" off the ground at it's lowest point.

I have stock rear springs and the bed isn't on the truck yet. Say the weight of the bed will drop it 1" then that would be 17" off the ground. That's a lot.

My tank from Tank's Inc. is a 17 gallon and has the ability for a side fill. I really think it's a perfect solution. I got the idea for this tank from Speedbump. I mounted mine up a little higher than he did though. As you can see, it's as high as it possibly can go.

Seems to me, it's going to be pretty hard to get a tank with any decent size at all to hang much higher than what I've got. And if you want a side fill, it's going to limit your selection a lot.

[OrrieG]

Something to remember is that the bumper is located below the frame and even with a tank hanging down you cannot see it especially on a lower truck. Here are photos of my 19 gallon tank, you can see the bumper and hitch pretty well hide it. Mine is about 6" below the bottom of the frame.

[roger55]

I really like your side fill mod Orrie. Nice job.
That tank looks great.

I do think you have good point about the lowering of the truck making a tank even harder to see. I think he's over-thinking this issue.

[_Ogre]

don't get hung up on the 2'' hang down, the fenders are at least 4'' down from the frame



i believe my tank hangs 3.5'' below the frame and can't be seen under my roll pan that goes to the bottom of the fenders
my hitch receiver is welded to the bottom of the frame x-member that you see in the pic above

[OrrieG]

Originally Posted by roger55

I really like your side fill mod Orrie. Nice job.
That tank looks great.

I do think you have good point about the lowering of the truck making a tank even harder to see. I think he's over-thinking this issue.

The tanks are designed for a Stepside, which has the cross rails in a different position. it doesn't show but I welded a 3/4 x .125 angle on the cab side to keep it stiff.

[Highsider]

"my 19 gallon tank"

Now, you are talking (capacity)!

[_Ogre]

speaking of highsider...

the ideal tank for all of our trucks would be the panel tank
mounted inside the frame and in front of the rearend
we could keep the under bed spare mount
the filler neck could easily be rerouted from the stock location
never figured out why no one reman the panel tanks

highsider, do you have any pics of your stock tank/filler?

[OrrieG]

I looked at 60-70 era saddle tanks but they were all set up for long beds, could not squeeze one into the short fleet. Did not think about the panel tanks or would have tried to find one. Probably not remanf because the spare tire location has been the "preferred" option everyone sees.

[Highsider]

These were taken when I first bought it, a couple of years ago

Front nose.


The filler doesn't show up, but is mid-tank & angles to the right and up to the passenger side:




Name what other angle you want and I will try to get it.

[OrrieG]

Highsider, no hurry but sometime when you are crawling around under the truck could you measure the length and rear strap location in relation to the end of the tank. I still may see if I can find one to use for a second tank but need to know if it will fit the short frame. Thanks in advance.

[_Ogre]

thanks highsider
as i remember they're not big tanks, maybe 16 gallon
that is a short frame on highsider's panel, same frame as any 3100 series
never figured out why the aftermarket didn't go after making those

the panel did fill from the center passenger side
but any reman could make them fill on the front left to reuse the stock filler neck

[whitedog76]

I remember seeing a post awhile back where someone was using a Suzuki Samari/Sidekick tank.

From my research, they have an 11 gallon and 18 gallon tank availible.