if u don't want to read the whole article or don't like the way i did it, the point is that a rear gas tank from an 80's Ranger will fit in a highboy

A lot of people on here ask about rear mount fuel tanks for highboys, and all they get for answers is to use an aftermarket tank that costs several hundred dollars, so here is what i did. I have a 77 highboy that i wanted to put a rear fuel tank in. I got a complete rear tank from an 83 ranger (with straps, filler hose, vent hose, fuel sender, and harness pigtails). I had dual exhaust that was in the way so i cut it off and ran it out in front of my back wheels. next, there is an angle iron crossmember, about 1 1/2 X 1 1/2 X 1/8, about 3 inches in front of the main rear crossmember, that needs to be relocated. Grind or torch the rivets off, move forward to just behind the rearbumpstop brackets, drill new 7/16 holes, and bolt in with 7/16 bolts. Your straps will mount to this piece. then, i shortened the front of the straps (so they're not as tall) about 3 inches i think. I just cut and overlapped them and welded them back together. for the rear of the straps, i cut them off where they narrow (about 1/2 inch maybe) to get rid of the part that bends up and welded on some heavy duty 3 inch hinges from the hardware store. there were already holes in the rear crossmember for the center hole in the hinges that were the right distance apart so i bolted the hinges with 1 5/16 bolt and drilled the other 2 holes. Put the hinge on top of the bottom lip of the rear crossmember and bolt it all together with 5/16 bolts. i also used 5/16 bolts for the front of the straps. run your fuel line along the inside of the frame rail. A new steel line to the pump would be ideal. i used an old line out of another vehicle and only ran it to where the line came down from the cab tank because i already had an inline fuel filter there, and just used rubber fuel line to connect them. Then, splice a wire into your fuel sender wire (orange for my cab tank) and run it back and connect it to your new (yellow?) sender wire. i just added a ring terminal to the ground wire and bolted it with the strap bolt. THE GAUGE ACTUALLY WORKS! for the filler hose, i cut off the upper end because it bent up hit the bottom of the box, ran it over the fram rail, and pieced together the rest of the filler. (i believe a filler from a 1/2 ton 4x4 could work, but i didn't have one to try.) i ended up using a filler neck from a 73 LTD (it's what i had, off a demo car) with some modifications, but i unbolted the false door and bolted in the recessed box with door and it fits. i had some clearance issues with where the inner side panel of the box meets the floor, but i already had a hole ripped in the box there so i just cut across it and flattened the bend a little.

sorry for no pics or more accurate measurements

if anybody can move this to the tech article section, please do so

 

How many gallon tank is your ranger? And is that the small ranger or the f100 ranger? I dont remember what year they discontinued the full size. Nice tech. I would use it but I am switching to LPG.

 

Added to tips and tricks thread above.

 

good info. always nice to have more options. thanks.

 

it is a 15 gallon tank out of a small ranger pickup, sorry i forgot to put that in the article

 

you should post this info in the tips and tricks section