Jerry cans in spare tire space?

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ashooter

ashooter

Joined
May 13, 2006
Threads
114
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Location
West of the Pecos
I was crawling around under my '80 today and the thought crossed my mind that a guy might be able to fabricate a jerry can holder that fits between the cross brace where the spare tire "pulley" is and the underside of the truck body.

Seems like a couple of NATO or Wedco cans would fit there with no problem, and it wouldn't be near as dangerous as putting them on a roof rack. Any reason not to do this?

The Aussie auxillary fuel tank that's made to fill that space would be a great, but that's not a poor boy's project.
 
Any sort of custom work under there is going to be expensive, but it's a nice place to store gasoline. Assuming you could fab a good and secure mount it would work well with Wedco cans. Nothing else seals that well.

By the time you do all of that, it probably would not be too much more for a factory subtank.

Boston Mangler had some great looking tanks fabbed up-ask if he is going to make another batch of them.

The extra gas it nice, I've been filling both, then when the main is low, I hit the switch and drive another week. It will get it's first offroad test in March.
 
Bear80 said:
I had though about using the nut brackets from the spare tire crossmember to make some type of carrier. However, it would be a pain lifting up anything holding even just 2 jerry cans into place. It just didn't seem practical so I bought an oem sub tank.
Click to expand...

More practical and safer;)
 
TiredIronGRB said:
More practical and safer;)
Click to expand...


You talking about the OEM subtank?

The problem with that is you can't buy one in the states, except a used one from Oz, right? Then you have to pay to have it shipped here and pay big bucks to have somebody install it... and where am I going to find somebody to install it in Central or West Texas who knows what the heck they're doing?

My thought is that I could relatively easily and cheaply have some kind of clamping shelf thingamjig rigged up by a local welder that would securely hold a couple of 5 gallon NATO or Wedco cans. Probably be a lot cheaper than a rear bumper and a lot cheaper than a subtank.

Am I wrong?

I LOVE the idea of the 14 gallon subtank, but it seems like that is a pretty high dollar mod for a relatively small amount of gas. Not to mention the trouble finding somebody who could install it correctly around here.
 
ashooter said:
I LOVE the idea of the 14 gallon subtank, but it seems like that is a pretty high dollar mod for a relatively small amount of gas. Not to mention the trouble finding somebody who could install it correctly around here.
Click to expand...


Honestly, this is one of those installs you have to do yourself. There are only two other places I would remotely trust: Slee Offroad, and Mudrak. There are so many little detail pieces to the install, only you will take the time to puzzle it out and do it right.

Saying that, I installed mine using the resources here on ih8mud, and I'm not a super competent automotive electrician.

If you need extra gas, you are going to be way out there, and if you're way out there, the cost of that extra gas seems pretty cheap.

If you can get Boston Mangler to make some more tanks, that looks like a great option and uses the familar Toyota sender and electronics.
 
TiredIronGRB said:
As long as you have protection to keep the cans from being punctured, I have several scrapes in that area from rock.
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I'm not a rock crawler. This truck would be used more as an "expedition" rig. Not 1000 miles in the boonies, but maybe 200 miles. Extra gas probably not 100% required, but "nice to have".

$500 plus installation for an OEM subtank? That's still about $350 more than what I'd guess I could have a jerry can holder built for. Of course the subtank would be BETTER, but it just seems like I could rig something up to slide a jerry can or two in there pretty easily/cheaply for "just in case" scenarios.

Seems a shame to waste all that empty space, but I don't want to throw a BUNCH of money/time at it right now. Got other add-ons I want first - ARB bumper, Slee roof rack, rear bumper & tire carrier, etc...

I'll take another look at the FAQ, but I'm thinking I may take the truck to the welder next week and see what he thinks he can do for me.
 
one thing with that is that it would likely be a pain to deal with loading and unloading the cans. Visualize doing that in Mud, for example...
the roof rack is a pretty good spot, if you don't plan on going upside down.
 
Retrieving the full cans from under there and placing full cans into that space after you've filled them is going to be a huge pain. Do you really want to crawl under your truck in your good clothes whilel your at the greasy gas station to access those cans? You might consider fabbing a large metal plate that holds the cans and then you can use the spare tire chain and crank to lift and secure the plate into place. This would at least solve the accesibilty issue. But I imagine theres a substantial amount of R&D involved in making it work right. Like everyone else has said, it's better to use a sub tank.
 
I would also suggest a sub-tank based on simplicity and ease of use.
 
What about a water bladder or plastic water cell? With all the various sizes available out there, there must be something that fits under there. It would be easy and cheap to plumb with fill and pour lines, so you'd never have to remove it (unless for cleaning). Then the space is still used, but no expense of the subtank or the hassle of the jerries. I agree with others, a full jerry can is not exactly lightweight, especially to try to shove it into an ackward space like that. You don't mention a tire carrier, and seem to want to keep the crossmember and tire winch, so if I assume (and I know what that gets me) you want to keep the spare in its stock location, then you'd have to lower it every time you wanted to access the jerry cans. Believe me, the expense of a subtank will seem miniscule after a few rounds of this.

Even if you do have a tire carrier and have that OEM spare tire space totally free, it will still be a pain IMHO.
 
No, I don't keep the spare under there. One of the first things I thought when I bought this truck was that the way the spare goes under there was a horrible idea.

BUT, if they wouldn't hang too low I could rig up sort of an H shaped bracket on which I could lay 2 jerry cans and then hoist them up with the spare tire carrier. Hmm... I'll have to do some thinking and measuring.

Y'all have given me quite a few ideas to ponder. THANKS!
 
Ever thought of putting a fuel cell in there? Plumb one line from the main tank to the fuel cell with an inline fuel pump to transfer the fuel (since there won't be a way to attach a filler) Would this work? You could set this up as an auxiliary holding tank. Run another line from the cell to the main tank to fill it when needed.
 
Cruiserdrew said:
If you can get Boston Mangler to make some more tanks, that looks like a great option and uses the familar Toyota sender and electronics.
Click to expand...

Thanks Drew!

We have ONE left!

Must be picked up in SD or could possibly be delivered around So Cal

Details here: Baja Overland

Thanks
 
I've been meaning to get over to Northwest Metal Fab for quite some time now, doing the Head Gasket came first, though. They make aux tanks for all manner of 4runners, mini's etc. I thought I could sell them on coming up with a solution for us, too. I was thinking a tank sized to fit between the frame rails and a little above for clearance, probably 25 gallons or so. I think it might be easier to use a second filler neck assembly, like from a je, no, no, I can't even type it, I mean from a vehicle that has a filler neck that can be bought aftermarket and mount the filler on the quarter panel. The tank should be sized so a stock fuel pump assembly and sender work and then the systems can be switched back and forth, sender, pump and all. Just thinking out loud.
 
Lots of good ideas. I tend to prefer OE or other mounted tank. But these present problems with venting and pumping when emissions are involved.
Another idea; Brad at Silver Creek Steel in Prescott AZ once fabricated a round aluminum "Jerry Can" to replace a 31" spare tire. (928) 443-5874. It could be made in any diameter.
He made it slimmer like a space-saver spare to tuck under better, and very thick to take hits. It held a lot of gas, yet when full, weighed less than the spare it replaced.
It had all of the inherent problems of using the spare tire winch, except that unlike getting a flat, YOU decide when to top off the main tank. If you wait until you are in a bog or on a rock, that's your fault!
 
it would just suck to puncture one of those Jerry cans and then you would still be out the extra gas ... if you would do something like this you would need some kind of skid as well
 
did the aluminum spare tire style jerry can have any type of pump?
you could wire in just about any type of 12v pump to move fuel from that storage tank to the main tank filler neck from a switch in the cab, add in a separate gauge for the storage tank etc., or am I looking at this wrong?
to me, ultimately less effective than a true sub-tank but not a bad idea.. probably could be done for less than $100

missed the earlier post on the fuel cell, sorry looking at a combination of the two ideas.
 
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