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- #121
Time to revisit gas tanks...
I'm really struggling to find enough space for fuel in this rig. I'd like to be at about 25 gallons and that's proving challenging.
Anyways, I resorted to both kinds of CAD, (computer and cardboard) and this is what I came up with.
The bottom side reliefs are for links and diff cover.
There are some big ass parts that need to share space at full compression. As modeling this is only sitting around 20 gallons.
I do like that I'm using all the space I have. It's definitely better than the serious wonky *ish I sketched at some point in the past.
In practice I found I could get this under the rear seats but not all the way forward without making the rear footwell worthless, (which I need to get as deep as I can already just to have a reasonable seating position). I like the fact it kind of gives me a fore aft sump. It also doesn't require any kind of a saddle tank since the low area is all the way side to side. I've been eyeballing the walbro pickups and would likely do 4 of them but all in the low portion. Like this but with two on each side to avoid restriction on the pump if two of them go dry.
I still really like the concept of the Holley Hydramat, but there just don't seem to be any in appropriate form factors that aren't tiny.
Last but not certainly not least, there's one more big problem with my concept... How do I avoid pretending this is Pinto and going up in flames if I ever get rear ended?
The rig will be tall enough it's just begging to slide someone else's nose under the rear bumper. It seems to me I have three choices an none of them are very good.
1) Hose my capacity and raise the tank floor. It also ruins my deep area sump strategy but I can do multiple pickups if needed. I could also just fill the void behind the back seat or let the tank bulge over the sides of the frame rails. However spilling over the rails gets in the way of my plans for a last set of structural bars back there...
2) Build one bad mother of a skid plate. My XJ is setup like this. You basically attach to the bottom of the frame rails using 1/4" aluminum or some such and leave an air (or rubber) gap to the actual tank. However on the XJ the bumper is still at a more reasonable height. The bonus to this approach is that the skid can become my tank support. Downside is that I'm not sure it's enough protection in the rear ending scenario.
3) Build added 4-5 bars off my bumper down to a 2x1 (or 3x1 or whatever) beam style tank support. This might look full on mad max but it does have the upside of having a bigger air gap to the tank and the armor would weld in at a pretty serious angle (tending the deflect the offending car downward (or conversely pop my rear up in the air). Downside, the tank would only be able to install from above making floorboards and firewalls that much more interesting.
I can also combine any of these options, but it's trade offs all around.
Soooooo opinions requested: What would you do to balance capacity vs. protection vs. sumps and pickups that work at all angles?
-Joel
I'm really struggling to find enough space for fuel in this rig. I'd like to be at about 25 gallons and that's proving challenging.
Anyways, I resorted to both kinds of CAD, (computer and cardboard) and this is what I came up with.
The bottom side reliefs are for links and diff cover.
There are some big ass parts that need to share space at full compression. As modeling this is only sitting around 20 gallons.
I do like that I'm using all the space I have. It's definitely better than the serious wonky *ish I sketched at some point in the past.
In practice I found I could get this under the rear seats but not all the way forward without making the rear footwell worthless, (which I need to get as deep as I can already just to have a reasonable seating position). I like the fact it kind of gives me a fore aft sump. It also doesn't require any kind of a saddle tank since the low area is all the way side to side. I've been eyeballing the walbro pickups and would likely do 4 of them but all in the low portion. Like this but with two on each side to avoid restriction on the pump if two of them go dry.
I still really like the concept of the Holley Hydramat, but there just don't seem to be any in appropriate form factors that aren't tiny.
Last but not certainly not least, there's one more big problem with my concept... How do I avoid pretending this is Pinto and going up in flames if I ever get rear ended?
The rig will be tall enough it's just begging to slide someone else's nose under the rear bumper. It seems to me I have three choices an none of them are very good.
1) Hose my capacity and raise the tank floor. It also ruins my deep area sump strategy but I can do multiple pickups if needed. I could also just fill the void behind the back seat or let the tank bulge over the sides of the frame rails. However spilling over the rails gets in the way of my plans for a last set of structural bars back there...
2) Build one bad mother of a skid plate. My XJ is setup like this. You basically attach to the bottom of the frame rails using 1/4" aluminum or some such and leave an air (or rubber) gap to the actual tank. However on the XJ the bumper is still at a more reasonable height. The bonus to this approach is that the skid can become my tank support. Downside is that I'm not sure it's enough protection in the rear ending scenario.
3) Build added 4-5 bars off my bumper down to a 2x1 (or 3x1 or whatever) beam style tank support. This might look full on mad max but it does have the upside of having a bigger air gap to the tank and the armor would weld in at a pretty serious angle (tending the deflect the offending car downward (or conversely pop my rear up in the air). Downside, the tank would only be able to install from above making floorboards and firewalls that much more interesting.
I can also combine any of these options, but it's trade offs all around.
Soooooo opinions requested: What would you do to balance capacity vs. protection vs. sumps and pickups that work at all angles?
-Joel
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