Building a Fuel Tank

[jrandol]

Building Fuel

With the prices of Diesel getting ridiculous I am considering building my own transfer tank to put in the bed of my truck and driving up to Wyoming once a month and filling up. Not going to pay $700+ for a 100 gallon tank and I can weld pretty well so may make my own. Questions are:

Want to make a 200 Gallons In Bed Tank



1. What type of Steel should I use?

2. How much does Diesel Weigh per gallon?

3. How do i figuire dimensions for 200 Gallons of Diesel?



Thanks in advance for your replies



Jeff

 

[snowracer69]

Well, dimensions for 200 gallons depends a little bit...



1 US Gallon = 231 cubic inches = 0. 1337 cubic ft



and 1 cubic foot = 7. 481 US Gallons, so, basically you need



26. 74 cubic feet of space or

46200 cubic inches.



You can do that anyway you want, but that's what 200 gallons is.



As far as weight, I believe diesel is somewhere around 7. 5-8 lbf/gallon. Not 100% sure there though.



MAKE SURE YOU BAFFLE IT. I know you already thought of that, but you would go sliding off the road if it weren't baffled.



I have a 50 gallon aux. tank in the back of my pickup, with a tool box type thing built on top. Fillable from the outside through my canopy. It's a good setup, but does take up a lot of room in the front of the bed... 200 gallons would almost take up all my bed space.



Hope I helped, Josh

 

[klenger]

6. 8 lbs / gallon accouding to once source on the internet.

 

[illflem]

Best to build it out of something that isn't going to rust on the inside. Aluminum or stainless($$$) would be my choice.



You can buy a 200ga tank for $420 here http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/...06970&storeId=6970&productId=299007&langId=-1





If the link doesn't work go to www.northerntool.com and search for 109584

 

[DavidC]

200*6. 8=1360lbs. . Time for some air bags



Dave

 

[big jake 1]

out here in CA, I believe if you carry over a certain amount of fuel in auxilary tanks, they have to be certified and placcarded.

You might want to check that out in your area just to be safe.



big jake

 

[Ray Torresdal]

FUEL TANK

If you look around, you can find aluminum fuel tanks from older semi's that are rectangular. I had one in the bed of an old Isuzu, and drove 2500 miles before I needed to fill. I had a line T'd into the overflow line, with a valve. When my gauge showed near empty, I'd open the valve, and drive until my gauge showed full. It worked great, and cost was very minimal. I may put this tank in my current ride if prices keep going up.



Ray

 

[B.G. Smith]

Tank

Jrandol, go to www.tractorsupplyco.com/ and look at their tanks. You can get a 110 gal. tank for under three bills and you won't have to go through the agony of trying to keep the thin metal that tanks are made of from warping and buckling while you try to weld on it. They have stores in Ne. , Ks. and Texas, whichever is nearest to you or might be cheaper to just order. bg

 

[tgbol]

Placarding is a Federal law for over 100 gallons. The truck must also be inspected every ninty days. Although you can do the inspection and record it yourself. A 200 gallon tank would be about 48"x48"x20". Or half of your bed and 1400# of fuel plus 150-200# for the weight of the tank.

 

[tractorface]

formula

The formula you are looking for is



Length x Width x Height divided by 1728 = *******

multiply ******* x 7. 5 and you have the gallons you are looking for. We build large diesel tanks and this is the formula we use. We build ours out of steel but they are not exposed in the beds of trucks so you may want to use Aluminum instead.



Oh yeah Length width and height are in inches!



Hope this helps.

 

[Ncostello]

I'd like to build a custom tank to replace the factory one mine has. Then I could install a bottom sump and a drain plug. Our newest fire truck has a polypropylene water tank (1000 gal) with a 30 and 20 gallon internal foam cells. They can weld that stuff in any shape or form and install common pipe fittings. I just wonder if the poly would hold up to diesel. It believe its resistant to just about everything and the panels are mainly 1/2" thick... some being thicker. The company is called UPF.

 

[KSyme]

Here's a way I've hooked up some bed tanks in the past on earlier GM's w/ 2 tanks. I've come out of the bottom of the bed tank w/ a 3/4" fitting and went ot the filler neck of the right tank after removing the cap and filler neck and adapt the 1-1/2" down to the 3/4" and run the return up to the top of the bed tank. That way Dad was able to fill the bed tank on the left side, and when that was filling, the gas was running into the right tank. No extra valves needed and used the gauge on the rt. tank to know fuel level. Filled all tanks from left side of truck. Did this on 2 trucks w/o any trouble. Had to block off the vent hose going to the carbon canister on the rt. tank. Had gas seeping out it on the newest truck. One was done over 10 yrs. ago.

 

[KSyme]

Ga. of material

I've built and repaired quite a few tanks over the years. If you built out of steel, 14 ga. is the thinnest I would use. You can weld that ga. nice w/ Mig. use lots of baffles. The boughten service tanks are usually 16 ga. and flex and crack easy. Had to weld up alot of these, and you have to be careful, you can burn through real easy. 4x8 14ga. is 100# / sheet. If you really want a strong tank go w/ 12 ga. about 140# / 4x8 sheet. If you vacumn the tank out good before you weld the top on you won't have any problem w/ debris. The gas tanks I mentioned on previous message, dad only uses the original Q-jet filter and FI filter and doesn't have any problem.