I'm thinking of installing a 91 gallon external fuel tank in my f250 7.3. Anyone do this? How do you like it? Problems?

 

Problems!!!! filling it up at 4.25 a gallon.....I'd have to sell a kidney on the black market to do that

 

Other than needing to fill out a loan ap before every fill-up... I'd be concerned with the law. In some states, you'll need a commercial license with an endorsement.. or something similar, to carry more than 50 gallons.. I'll see if I can dig up this info for you.

 

I run a 91 gal fuel and tool from RDS http://www.rdsaluminum.com/homepage.html I had a fill up for $430 the other week!! But it is nice to have the range.

 

I figured I have to buy the fuel anyways so I'll just pay for it all at once. Plus the range. Thanks for the quick response!!!

 

If you drive a lot of miles this makes sense. But if it takes a few months to burn this diesel, you might have problems with water and fungus.

You are probably OK, just worrying about garage queens.

Jim Henderson

 

Thanks Jim. I sure didn't think of that. I guess I could just fill if half way or maybe less when I'm not traveling. It trickles into my main tank.

 

I don't know about the individual states, but the federal standard is set so that you can haul up to 119 gallons in a container. A 120 gallon container would require a CDL with a hazmat endorsement.

 

You'd have to start the fuel pump 3-4 times to get 91 gallons in it, with that $74 dollar limit.

 

I have a 95 gallon RDS. Buy it "cheap", stack it deep. I'm burning $3.83 fuel from almost a month ago. It will be heavy though, with the weight of your tank you'll have at least 700# in the bed when you are full up. Good for winter traction weight and emergencies too- the truck can idle 24hrs/day for almost a week on a full load of fuel, and provides at least a 2000 mile range. I suppose that's not an issue for you in Florida, neither is componsating for the weight by waiting for the duallies to start driving on the lake.

I bought the tank with a transfer pump, which works great for both filling the truck and equipment (don't worry tax man, it's allways 100% road fuel). I'm no expert on the gravity feed systems, so I won't comment there, but if the tank you are looking at has a pump on it already I'd vote for keeping it. Gives you the option to fuel other engines if nessisary, or easily offload the fuel if a circumstance presented itself that required it. Even if you are on the road all day, you probably won't drive much further in a day than what you can put in your on-board tanks. Your bed will have reisdual amounts of fuel in it from spills, and there will be a fuel odor present, especially if the tank is under a shell, topper, cap, or tonneau.

Add a little biocide addative for piece of mind if you are worried about algae.

 

Thanks for the info. The gravity feed is working great. However I heard that the ball in the valve is plastic not brass so it has potential to jell. But I run a solution(dont remember the name) through every other tank to keep it clean. Thanks again!!

 

At 7.15 pounds a gallon, you'd have just a little over 650 pounds of fuel in that tank.

 

7.15#/gal is what I figure for weight too, plus an average of about 50 or so for the tank.

 

Only some pumps have the limits set.....I filled up today and it was like $109, this is at a reputable truck stop style station. I rarely trust the small station Diesel......not such an issue with gasoline, but Diesel is better with "high use" stations.

 

I have a 99 SD PS and I have a 105 gallon transfer tank in the bed of mine with an external pump. Works great for fueling the truck and excavators if need be. And of course its always on road fuel. I tend to watch fuel prices then fill up the whole works when the price is down. I have a fuel water seperator on mine to keep the dreaded H2O out of the fuel before going into the tank. What was the algae treatment you talked about in the earlier post? I have not heard of that but I have had no issues with algae but I also burn alot of fuel and change it often.