I have a 52 F1 and started to move the tank to the rear to get more room in the cab. I would really like to have the weight on the *** end so I cut out cross member, and started to mount tank until I started looking at seat placement.
To get bucket seats to tilt back from vertical they to where they are half way comfortable they hit the rear window area before they hit the tank. I am using small seats out of a Thunderbird and removed the head rests and they are not real comfortable to me as I am 5' 9'' and 210 lbs. Thank goodness I have a tilt wheel!


Just my findings for me and I know lots of people have mounted seats with head rest, etc.

 

True, but I always relocate my in cab tanks to the back anyway. Don't like hearing the gas slosh around behind me and never felt great about having the tank there, safe or not. With the tank moved you can put a speaker box back there or a storage area for tools and supplies.

 

If you don't need the space in the cab, I would leave the tank in the cab. Personally, I would feel safer with it in the cab than at the very back end of the frame.
Mark

 

Remember the Pinto!

 

I tend to agree. The people that have seen the tank in the cab of my "new" truck are shocked...but think about how much damage the truck would need to sustain to rupture the tank there. The smell is a different story....

 

Mark

 

The Pinto was so small it was like having the tank right behind the seat. I can't stand the smell, mine is in the rear. Someone would have to hit me so hard to get to my tank that I wouldn't survive anyway. I would be cut in half by the flatbed long before I would burn to death. And their car would be toast.

 

My F-1 still has the tank behind the stock seat. Been driving it for 7 years now no problems. Zero gas smells.
Doubt you will gain any seat room by removing it.

 

If you have a gas smell, maybe you need new gaskets.

 

Or filler hose.

 

Hey, I owned a Pinto - bitchin' ride - powder blue, no less. The flame issue was related to the filler tube as rear mounted tanks were were hardly unique to that model.

On the cab odor issue, I'm with others - replace the rubber filler and the sender gasket. After that, you'll just smell the roses and Axe body spray.

 

I don't have a gas smell since the tank is not in the cab. When I got the truck it had been sitting for 5 years and it still smelled bad. There was still some really rank gas and a whole lot of rust. I like it in the back and have room for speakers, tools, tie downs, jack and lug wrench, a few clean rags, my tennis bag, and no telling what else. Plus, with my new hearing aids, I won't have to listen to the slosh as I am fighting Houston traffic at 20 miles an hour on the freeways...

 

No smell in mine either, from what I can tell. I heard a few complaints about that being an issue, but as noted with new rubber and filler gasket, there should be no odor.

I'm with the others, though. If you don't need to move,I wouldn't. Doesn't seem it will affect your seating situation at all and if you move it back to the frame, you'll have to modify your rear fenders or bed to setup the filler neck. That's not worth it to me.

 

It is true that you won't gain the ability to recline the seats by removing the tank. But there is a reason why the OEMs removed the tank from inside the truck in later model years. You can figure it out yourself if you think about a side impact where the filler tube goes through the body and into the tank.

Also there is a reason why headrests were added to the seats. The small back window trucks ('48-'50) don't have this problem but as rear windows got larger and the OEMs started to do rear crash testing they found that in only a 35 mph hit from the rear the driver/passenger's heads go through the back window and only stops when the neck hits the window frame severely damaging the brain stem.

So you can take your chances on being barbecued and becoming a paraplegic or you can move your tank and add headrests.

For those of you that need something more graphic:

 

On my 49 F-1, I kept the tank in the cab. I'm 6'2" and 215 pounds so room at the wheel was important. The original seat is so upright that you feel like you are leaning forward when you sit in it. Most modern seats are more reclined. When I installed my 1990 Ranger bench seat I used the original seat tracks but modified them by taking two inches off the rear legs. This gave me the angle of recline I wanted and also moved my view through the windshield from the top 1/4 to the center. The recline of the bench seat did not touch the gas tank and I still had access behind the seat since the Ranger seat folded forward just like the original.