I have a 1949 F1. What’s the preference for gas tank location? Originally behind the seat or relocate somewhere else?

 

Mine are all original in the original location for what it is worth. I do what I can to keep mine like Henry made them.

The real question, is what are you going for?

 

Another stock location here. Re-engineering stuff usually leads to a series of 'so then' consequences - not a path I've taken.

 

Well I am in the dark sider group on here and I mounted mine up under the frame in the rear. I used a 16 gallon mustang tank. Put Mustang tank in the search bar and adds will show up with a lot of information

 

From another dark sider I also mounted a Mustang 20 gal between the frame rails.

 

I also moved the gas tank to the rear on my '52 F-3 (20 gal. Mustang tank), but Fortyniner is correct in that there are several things to consider. Because my truck wiring was completely shot, I have converted to a
12v wiring harness, this made it easy to wire a 12v electric fuel pump. My current issue is that I would like to retain the original fuel gauge, but it looks like the Mustang sending unit (or other 12V units) work on Ohms resistance, but the gauge uses King Sealy language (you can search the forum on this) so that's a problem. If you use an electric pump, you will want an impact switch and roll-over valve for safety. It's not as hard as it sounds, but for me, it is worth the effort.
w

 

I think it's funny every time this subject is brought up. I can't see any good reason to move the tank.
If moving it for safety I don't see a benefit. The tank is mounted high up and away from all four sided.
If moving it to gain leg room in the cab, again, I don't see any benefit. Any seat will hit the upper half of the back of the cab and won't give you any more room. I'm a big guy, 6'2", 260 pounds and I've driven my stock '49 F-2 not only on some pretty decent distance trips locally but on three 1600 mile round trips and I find the cab comfortable, not as comfortable as my '21 RAM with fully adjustable seat, but comfortable.
If you're concerned about fumes in the cab I have had gas fumes in the cab once in the 30+ years I've been driving the truck. The sending unit gasket deteriorated and needed to be replaced, took about half an hour.
If you haven't guested, I'm a stock location guy.

 

If we're talking strictly safety, there's at least a couple good reasons to relocate the tank.

One, the outlet on the 48-52 tanks hang right off the bottom of the tank, so if anything were to happen to that connection there's no way to stop up to 20 gallons of fuel from spilling. While the chances of anything happening to realize this occurrence may be slim, it happened enough "back in the day" that a change was made to the way fuel was picked up out of the gas tank in future generations of trucks. The bottom outlet was outlawed.

Two, and this did happen a lot and many people were severely burned or killed because of it over the years, in a T-bone accident, these trucks have a high center of gravity and if hit right will tip over onto their side. If it tips onto the filler neck side, the impact will dislodge the filler neck from the tank, spilling up to 20 gallons of gas into the passenger compartment and onto the ground, where the slightest spark will ignite said fuel and potentially burn trapped occupants or bystanders. That is the real reason why in-cab tanks were eliminated (finally) in the 70's and gas caps and filler necks were placed behind doors.

Yes, we drivers of old iron understand and accept the risks associated with stiff steering columns, protruding handles and *****, steel everywhere that doesn't give like vinyl and plastic that tears up arms, chests and knees, but that doesn't mean we should be obverse to making changes in the name of safety if we so desire.

 

Wayne makes a lot of great points.
My tank is in the stock location, so here's another story. I had a bunch of boys in an 80s F250 4x4 extended cab long box pickup rear-end my 48 F1 at speed as I turned into my road. Enough force that it emptied my glovebox all over the seat. Didn't lose a drop of fuel. I'm sure if I had a rear mounted tank it would have ruptured as the tailgate and rear stake pockets were destroyed and the box shoved into the back of the cab. You can't plan for all possibilities.

 

Mines in the stock location. After cleaning, sealing etc I made some modifications. I plugged the bottom feed and re routed the feed to the top like a modern vehicle. I had to cut a hole for the new feed but it was easy and there's "hot rod" parts available to do it easily. I have a roll over valve/vent in the top of the tank which vents out the bottom of the cab in front of the bed. With that I can run a non vented cap. All the lines run inside the frame and a mechanical fuel pump works just fine. The down side to the stock tank is the shape. Since the top of the tank is narrower than the bottom the gauge isn't accurate when the tank is nearly full. It drops very quickly in that first few gallons, then give a more accurate reading as the level drops in the fatter, bottom section.
Rusty

 

Do you have any pics of the aftermath? Were you uninjured?

 

Nope, not hurt, but I did bite my lip. I changed the bent wheel and drove it home 1 1/4 miles until I could schedule the repair shop the straighten the frame rails. Repaired the sheet metal that I had restored a year earlier, installed a new tailgate and kept driving it for the next 10 years. The seat took up the hit the truck experienced. The original set up is amazing. Henry knew what he was doing.