Long range fuel tank - which material?

[dinoevo]

Hi,

I'm getting a long range fuel tank made up and did a ton of research what other people are doing for that. I noticed most of the tanks are out of steel. To keep the weight down I was thinking to go with aluminum, but I'm not sure if it's maybe too soft or too brittle for a tank which is bolted to the subframe and holds about 22 gallon.

Maybe it would be better to make a mounting bracket out of steel and have only the tank in aluminum.

Any advice?

Cheers

 

[nick disjunkt]

aluminium is pretty common for truck fuel tanks in the UK. As long as they are well supported they are fine. Aluminium fatigues easily and cracks when it does so just make sure it is supported so that it cannot deform when being bounced around. I have a 90gallon tank and a 55gallon tank on my truck, both aluminium, and no problems. The 90gallon tank is original fitment and the truck has over 300,000 miles.

 

[nick disjunkt]

I use tanks like this:

 

[herm]

all the 100 and 150 gallon tanks on our heavy tucks are aluminum.

 

[dinoevo]

Thanks for your response.

The big tanks are out of aluminum, but all the mounting brackets and such are out of steel.

So the question is, is it a good idea to make everything out of aluminum or should I try to come up with a steel mounting solution?

Attached drawings of the tank. Right now the overhanging sheets should get bolted to the subframe.

 

[herm]

tanks have no square edges for a reason. as the fluid sloshes around it hits the side and puts a lot of force on the welds. you need to design the tank without the square edges, rounded edges provide a place for the fluid to go without hiting the welds completly. look at fuel trucks and the tank on your vehical.

 

[sasaholic]

tanks have no square edges for a reason. as the fluid sloshes around it hits the side and puts a lot of force on the welds. you need to design the tank without the square edges, rounded edges provide a place for the fluid to go without hiting the welds completly. look at fuel trucks and the tank on your vehical.

not so true. look at every fuel cell in any baja truck. all are rectangular or square with sharp edges and get put through more abuse than most anything we will ever put out tanks though

 

[ersatzknarf]

Ahh, yes, but is not the bladder inside the fuel cell without square edges ?

 

[bob91yj]

Square edged box on the fuel cell is just that, a steel box. There is a bladder in the box that holds the fuel. Most are stuffed with foam blocks to prevent sloshing.

I cheated, bought a bigger tank. Replaced my stock 26 gallon stocker with a Transfer Flow 45 gallon on my Dmax. The TF tank is aluminized steel.

 

[sasaholic]

well ive ran many trucks with aluminum rectangular tanks in the back of our service trucks with over 100 gallons of diesel in each and have never seen a problem with them and they dont have bladders

 

[cwsqbm]

For diesel, aluminum is fine. However, for the stuff they try to pass off as gasoline in most places in the U.S. (aka E10 or soon E15), I'd go steel. Alcohol and aluminum aren't good together in the long term.

 

[herm]

i have a 108 gallon under toolbox L shaped square side tank in my work truck too, I have seen plenty of them leak. we drive about 50% of the time off pavement.

fuel cells generally have foam and then a bladder in them, The ones we used when stock car racing did.

you will be putting a lot more force on a squared off edge vs. a rounded or bevled edge, its physics. I would hate to be stuck somewhere with my aux tank leaking because of bad design.

 

[r_w]

A good fabricator would want to bend most of those corners anyway (a few minutes on the brake instead of hours behind the mask) --get one that can radius the bends.

The price may give you sticker shock--enough so you will rethink about losing a couple gallons to get a stock sized tank. You can look at racing cells or boat tanks (or even ag equipment) if you are going to skidplate it.

All vehicle tanks I have ever seen use a steel band mount. I am pretty sure there is a good reason for that...

 

[dinoevo]

Thanks for your input guys. I removed all the brakets and designed a steel mounting system for the aluminum tank.

As r_w mentioned, the price went down a lot as I talked to someone who can bend most of it.

 

[lost1]

Dinoevo. Was the tank for your delica? I just sold my delica which had a long range stainless tank that I fabbed up. It sat where the spare tire went and was held up with a couple steel straps (that promptly rusted to hell). The spare went on the roof rack. Great little vehicle but the wife madee replace it with a unimog doka. I am on Vancouver island of you ever want to chat.