Aftermarket Fuel Tank

[pwall]

I've been thinking of replacing the OEM fuel tank in my truck with an aftermarket one in order to have increased fuel capacity. Stock tank is 34gallons (128litres).

I ruled out the in-bed type additional tanks as I need that space quite often for camping. So, replacing the OEM tank is what I need to do.

I've looked at two different brands, but hoping someone may have some relative experience with them.

 

Titan Fuel tanks - http://www.titanfueltanks.com/GMC_Chevy_Fuel_Tank.htm

62 Gallon extra heavy duty cross-linked polyethylene fuel tank. (234litres) (also can purchase an off-road skid plate to help protect the fuel tank).

Pros - larger tank, apparently does not extend below frame, lighter - thus less cost to ship to Canada

Cons - more expensive, as much as 25%

 

TransferFlow - http://www.transferflow.com/gm_tanks_0.html

56 gallons, aluminized steel (211litres)

Pros - less expensive

Cons - smaller, more expensive to ship

 

Thoughts ?

[Big black truck]

My vote would be for the Titan. Polyethylene in IMO is far superior to steel for liquid purposes.

[markw8]

I don't know what kind of camper you have, if it's a trailer it won't matter. That being said, I carry a truck camper on my 08 CC deisel dually. With a full 34 galllons loaded for a trip, I have

4840#s on a 4900# rated frt axle. A larger tank would put me over.

 

I'm not the weight police, this is just FWIT. I was surprised how much was on the front of my 2wd truck. With the long wb of a CC not much bed weight goes to the frt. My camper is only 9 1/2 ft.

 

Mark.

[pwall]

My current RV is a travel trailer, but will be moving over to a 5th wheel hopefully next year.

You raise a good point.....I for one do not want to exceed the weight on the axles as my truck has to have a yearly truck inspection and being over-weight would get me a ton of trouble from the MTO (Ministry of Transportation of Ontario).

Stock tank at 34 gallons=227lbs of fuel

62 gallon Titan tank = 451 lbs of fuel (224 lbs more)

[markw8]

My loaded camper is about 3800#s. A big 5er could be 2500#s on the pin. The weight will probably be a little more to the rear than my camper.

 

Do they inspect with the trailer connected, and weigh them?

 

Mark.

[imollison]

Pat,

 

Go with the larger tank, if you are getting close to the weight limit on your truck, either call me to help you out or leave one of the kids at home.

 

I would hope that the extra 200 pounds of fuel will not get you in trouble with MTO. Mind ou if your wife is driving, there maybe a problem....

 

Ian

[pwall]

My loaded camper is about 3800#s. A big 5er could be 2500#s on the pin. The weight will probably be a little more to the rear than my camper.

 

Do they inspect with the trailer connected, and weigh them?

 

Mark.

No, not really. But since my truck is licensed as a commerical vechicle (due to it's wieght), I personally don't take any chances with the MTO. The likelyhood that they'll pull me over and check is nill. However.......

Although I'm sure an extra 200lbs of fuel shouldn't push my truck over, I'll have the truck weighed (I already know it's weight is just shy of 8000lb empty) and find out the individual axle wieght as now I'm curious. ;)

[Big black truck]

You will not exceed your capacity. You can also go to your local DMV and request your load rating to be increased. I know this sounds sick but its true. On all my duallies and 2500 I have increased the value. It will cost you around $9.00 for the effected change.

[Rat4go]

Pat,

 

Most of the SRW diesel trucks don't have much room on the front axle rating due to the weight of the motor....not sure about the dually though.

 

Regardless, on most trucks, the tank is closer to the rear axle than the front, so likely most of the extra weight would be on the rear axle.

 

One more thing....Unless you're going to get into a pretty big 5'er (36' +) or one that's loaded up with tile floors and granite counters, you're looking at 2500 lbs of pin weight or less. As a baseline, My 34' 5er has about 1800lbs or so of pin per the scales. I looked pretty hard at toy haulers for a while and the 36' toy haulers with a slide in the front of the unit that I had the hots for was closer to the 2500lb number with no toys in the back to counter that pin wt.

 

A huge percentage of the pin weight is on the rear axle of the truck. My mainstream drawtite sliding 5er hitch puts the pin about 5" in front of the rear axle and that's pretty standard from what I understand. To see how much of the pin would result in front axle, divide that 5" by your wheelbase (in inches) and multiply that (very small) number by the pin weight. When I did the math on my 1800 lb pin for my CCSB truck with 153" wheelbase, it was close to 60 lbs of the trailer pin went to the front axle. For you with the longer wheelbase of the CCLB, your wheelbase per the chevy site is 167", so a 2500 lb pin 5" in front of the rear axle would put a whopping 75 lbs on the front axle.

 

I didn't believe the math 'til I set my pin on my truck and looked at how little my front end squatted down. Rear of the truck dropped maybe 3" and the front barely moved.

 

More rambling to make this post even longer......I wonder how(if) the DIC deals with the extra fuel capacity in terms of calculated range. I'm sure the sender only tells the DIC that the tank is a certain % full, so the DIC has to know the volume to decide how much fuel is left to do the range calc.

[pwall]

I'll find out in the spring....I've decided on going with the Titan.

 

In regards to the DIC, I've seen a few posts in other forums that say the DIC still works ok. But personally I don't understand how. I would think the on-board computer knows the size of the tank, and if it's increased, wouldn't that throw of it's algorithm ?? I hope it still works, but it won't be a show-stopper if it doesn't.

[Rat4go]

I think everything on the DIC should work fine EXCEPT for the range as that's the only one that should be tied to tank volume. It'll likely always show less range (about half) than you really have. Maybe it learns tank volume, but I doubt it.

[r1byker]

What an interesting thread! I learned more than I bargained for when I started reading. Back to the question; I just had a Transfer Flow replacement tank installed at Transfer Flow; I got the 45 gal. tank to replace the 26 gal. one. I don't know anything about the other brand but I can say that Transfer Flow is committed to a quality product and and 100% customer satisfaction. I was quite happy with everyone I dealt with.

 

The only thing that was affected in the DIC, as was previously mentioned, is the fuel range. The computer thinks there's a 26 gal. tank and so it bases its range on that. From what I can tell, it calculates the range off the fuel gauge, so since that goes down much slower, the fuel range decreases much more slowly. Everything else is fine.

[pwall]

I ended up ordering the titan tank....it's being installed this coming Monday (June 7/10).

The 'miles to empty' on the DIC will definitely be off, however, I'm told that 'EFI Live' can update the programming to let the computer know it's now a 62gallon tank. I'll have to look into that.

[yukon25008.1]

is the tank your getting pwall the same i would use on an 04 yukon xl 2500

[pwall]

I doubt it. Titan only makes tanks for diesel applications (not sure why).

 

Transfer Flow is your next best option. I had a quick look on their website (http://www.transferflow.com), but I don't see them listing a YukonXL. I would contact them and see what they can do.

 

Nice looking YukonXL btw.....