While I was laying under there musing over the situation, I got to looking at the front tank that is hanging on the left side of the drive-shaft and then I got to looking at the frame on the other side; the truck frame on the right side has every provision already there to mount an identical opposite tank on the right side of the drive-shaft.

If the provisions are there, I bet somewhere in the world are trucks with tanks hanging on that right side.

Was this an option ?

From all appearances, one could have three tanks under there; one each side of the drive-shaft and the one between the rails behind the rear axle.

I haven't studied close enough to verify; but, I bet that left side tank could be swapped end for end and mounted on the right side.

 

Well there are at least 2 problems with a right side tank.

1 - the EXH runs down the right side and because the tank is on the left side you dont see true dual EXH on a Ford,
2 - and the biggest I see with gas, Diesel maybe not so big? Is how do you fill both sides?
You would need to fill 1 side, put the nozzle on top of the pump to turn the truck around and how no one pulled in when doing this and forget it if you go a trailer!
Hose are not long enough to reach over the bed and forget if you have a bed camper or cap.
Chevy did this on some of think late 70's early 80's and was a big problem.

Now I say diesels may not be an issue if you live near a truck stop.
The truck diesel Inland has fills on both sides as big rigs have tanks on both sides and they fill fast even on a slow setting so that can be a issue for pickup trucks that dont vent well to start.

I think if you need a 3rd tank a in bed tank is the way to go with the fill on the left side
Dave ----

 

I work with a guy restoring a square body chevy. Their dual tank trucks did have the tank on each side, on the outside of the frame of course. But I also thought what a pain that would be, to have to turn the truck around to fill the other side.

 

I never even thought about the exhaust as mine doesn't come but barely past the back of the cab and then turns straight up.- outside the cab corners.

As for the Chevrolets with dual tanks, I started my long-hauling cattle career with a 1978 Chevrolet that had a single 16-gallon left side tank.

On a long trip, I spent more time paying for gas than I did getting to where I was going; and, I was always afraid of running out of gas.

Then I got a second Chevrolet, this one a 454, with the same single 16-gallon tank. and that truck was an ever-present danger of running out; yet, everybody who ever drove that truck with a big load behind it claimed it would outpull any truck they ever drove and could top the Gradyville hill and never touch the stick.

Always carrying a couple Jerry Cans was just a way of life; locked and chained, of course, else somebody would dump one in a tractor or lawn-mower and not say anything and there you would be expecting it to be full when it was empty.

After years and countless miles of always running on fumes, a good friend showed up one day and gave me a right side tank, brackets and all, that he had found at a junk-yard while looking for something else.

We put that tank on the first truck and I never heard anyone ever complain about having to switch sides at the pump --- we were all so glad to have twice the range that it was a small matter to have to move the truck/trailer to fill both sides.

Unless it was some place in the middle of the night with nobody else around, we never did try to keep the pump running, move the truck/trailer, and fill both sides; we just got in the habit of filling the one side, shutting the pump Off, moving the truck, and then fill the other side.

I almost never turned the truck around to switch sides; I always just backed up past the pump island and pulled up on the other side = a lot easier and a lot less confusion.

For the longest time, the 454 truck had exposed rails behind the cab, with a pair of mud-flaps back there and that was all; we found a polished Aluminum 100-gallon tank from a wrecked day-cab and strapped it behind the cab and I honestly believe cut our fuel mileage in half.

Way back when we first put that second 16-gallon tank on that 1978 Chevrolet, we thought we had fuel to spare; now, if I got as low as only 32-gallons, knots would be in my belly, afraid I might run out.

I can't understand this big fear of tanks outside the rails; gas or diesel, almost everything I ever drove has tanks outside the rails.

 

It's been my experience, less and less people know how to drive. The chances of getting t-boned is increasing every year. I would not worry about the tank exploding, but it would most likely start leaking all over the place.

 

Looking at those light guage shields, they have the channels that fit into the plastic tank. It appears there were also metal support members that fit those channels and bolt up to a frame member.

You're right about it being a corrosion problem. I wouldn't drop them to apply paint. I would use Fluid-Film and apply it liberally around the top and side edges. Use a spray can to shoot it in as far as possible or apply bulk Fluid-Film with an air sprayer. It spreads and seeks crevices and cracks. Neutralizes salts and stops corrosion.

 

I have had this truck since almost brand-new and there was never anything except the shield.

That is good to know; I have an aerosol can that I bought years and years ago from, of all places, a display box sitting on the counter at the feed mill.

I have had it for years; I guess I have been keeping it for special occasions.

It would probably be good to just load the 25-gallon herbicide tank with it and saturate everything under the truck about twice a year.

I am sure it would spray as we put diesel fuel in them to soak the dump beds just before loading black-top so it slides out instead of sticking and building up.

The guys that haul a lot of black-top forego the chemical tank and just plumb the spray into one of the saddle tanks.

 

As you said it was a blessing when the dual tanks on either side showed up you did not think of it being a issue.
Also back then you could back up and pull on the other side try that today and see what happens.

Also if you pay by CC and shut the pump off and then move and try and use the same CC o to fill the other side somethings it will not take the CC as they liknk someone stole it.
I have had that happen where I got gas and then when in the store to bya soda & snake and it would not take the card for that reason.
My .02
Dave ----

 

It ain't no problem now as everybody is burning electric and that is at a different island.

Thanks for that bit as it is just one more reason why I ain't ever had a credit card and have no plans to get one.

I know what a soda is; what is a "snake" ?

 

The other issue with a right side tank is that no one makes a tank that's meant to be installed in that location. If you look at the way the filler port is oriented, on the top of the tank, it's canted towards the driver's/left side. So, filling from the right side would be painfully slow based on the way the filler would need to be constructed. Unless you could somehow tie it into the driver's side filler neck, I can't see how it would work. Also, the top half of the tank is stamped to fit into the two frame cross members on the left side. The stamping does not have have the same indentions for installing the tank on the right side. In other words, it physically won't fit very well. Lastly, my under-cab x-member doesn't have the the upside-down "T" slot for the front support strap (the other x-member does have the same triangular shaped hole). So, you'd have to cut that slot for the front support strap, too.

 

You turn the tank 180* so the filler is pointing to the outside.

The only issue I see is the filler may be to far forward?
Looking at the tanks above the left side of the tanks fit to the cab maybe under it as I dont remember now.
I do know you cannot put a long bed 19 gallon tanks where a short bed 16 gallon tank was as I tried on my flare side short bed truck.

Maybe if you have a long bed truck and wanted a right hand 3rd tank you could use the 16 gallon tank and move it back so the filler in on the bed side?
As they say "if there is a will there is a way"
Dave ----

 

Hmm, that's something I never would have thought to do. BUT, isn't the back of the tank higher than the front (when oriented in the factory location)? I wonder if the height differences might not interfere with the under-cab x-member or the top of the tank might come in contact with the cab floor. I'd also be curious as to how much room there would be for the driveshaft. You know, I've got a parts truck coming (with a relatively new tank)....

 

I believe you have inadvertently stumbled upon something that takes care of the issue of having to fill the right tank on the wrong side; instead, just route the filler-neck hose to be beside the left filler-neck opening; the "door" and everything could be grafted into the bed side.

I don't have any of those issues to deal with on my truck with the steel flat; the filler-necks for both of my factory tanks are under the trap-door in the recess where the gooseneck ball resides.

This is an ideal arrangement when towing a gooseneck and the trap-door must be chained open anyway; but, it is not ideal when the trap-door is closed and there is something loaded on the flat that prevents the trap-door being raised; but even then, it has never posed a problem for me as I can just run on the big 52-gallon auxiliary tank.

Curiously, the T-slots are there for both ends on the right side of my truck.

I never really gave it a thought; but, my truck is (I believe) the longest factory-available wheel-base; and, I am now thinking that as the rails get longer, that left side fuel tank gets farther from the cab; I believe the rear end of the tank stays the same distance from the rear axle and gets closer to the cab as the frame gets shorter.


All of this front tank discussion is just discussion for me anyway; as, as soon as I get all of my little duckies in a row, I have a 6041 4-speed auxiliary that is going under there and I think the front tank will have to go as it will probably be right in the path of the new cross-member that the auxiliary hangs on.

In it's place will probably be brackets/hangers for the current drive-shaft assembly to always be there in the event something were to happen to the auxiliary and it have to be temporarily removed; if it were to fail thouwzands and thouwzands of miles from home, I can just strap it on the back of the truck and put the original shaft back in and the wheels keep rolling.