I recently "accquired" a 105 gallon fuel tank. It was gonna go in my buddy's 250, but then we realized it was made for a long bed so we decided to put it in mine. So I've got a couple questions about it.
First of all, the tank has only been filled with diesel until now. What should I do to clean it before I put unleaded in it? I was thinking I would just fill it with water, go do some donuts and then come back and emopty it. I figure that if I did that a few times then let it dry out upside-down for a day it would be fine. Any thoughts on that plan?
Secondly, as I said before, this is a 105 gallon tank. At 6 lbs/gal, I'm looking at over 700lbs in the bed after you include the weight of the tank itself. I have 3 inch lift blocks in the rear already so that's pretty much out, plus that doesn't really help support the load any better anyway. So my thought was I would get an AAL. However, I plan on getting a 5 or 6 inch suspension lift within the next couple months and I'm trying to come up with a way to balance all of this. Should I just get an AAL and then only get blocks when I get the lift? This may be dumb question, but is there a way to stack AALs? I've never worked with them before.

 

Wow, how far from a gas station are you planning on travelling that you need an additional 105 gallons?

 

I didn't <i>need</i> anything. I just had the chance so I took it. I live in Soouth Florida and I think the best benefit will be during hurricane season. When nobody can get gas and I've got 1700 mile's worth sitting in my truck, I'll be very happy. Plus, I have a business license to do lawn maintainance and cut trees and such, so if there's a hurricane elsewhere, I can just fill up my tank and go. I could run chainsaws, generators, my truck, etc. for weeks on that.

 

I wasn't beating you up, just was curious of the circumstances. Sorry, can't help ya on the suspension question.

 

I think that an AAL is mostly to gain height, yet it will increase payload as well. For that much weight, I would look into beefing up your suspension by adding additional leaf springs. I think if you did that, you could keep your 3" blocks but since you are going to do a lift kit soon you may end up needing an AAL either way. You may try posting this in the suspension forum and get some better responses. I think this is a good idea you have, especially living in FL. My parents live there and I hear about how the gas stations have lines for miles and eventually run out all together when them hurricanes come thru.

 

wow!! 105 gallon tank? 700lbs of gas you wont be able to put anything in the bed. i would think youd need a 350 suspension setup not to mention some big *** tank straps to hold that baby up lol.

 

Yeah I estimate that the when full, the whole thing weighs around 850 lbs. I filled it up with water today and drove around and it wasn't too bad. I'm running 4.56s with 33s so I still had plenty of power, but I definitely notice it when going over speed bumps and while stopping. Water weighs about two pounds/gal more than gas so it won't be quite that severe when filled with gas. Since the tank goes against the cab, it weighed the whole truck down, not just the back. The truck sat probably an inch lower all the way around. Maybe slightly more in the back. It was nowhere near bottoming out, though so I think it's okay.

As far as holding it down, it's L-shaped so it doesn't relly need to be strapped in. The section that sits on the bed goes almost to my wheel wells and fits perfectly between the walls of the bed. That part is also about 10-12 inches high. I'm estimating that section probably weighs around 500lbs when full. It is pretty much impossible to move even when empty, so I'm not worried about it. I may bolt it down in the future, but for now I don't think I'll keep it in the truck until there's a hurricane or I go on a road trip or something.

 

i think if you put the lift on you will have top heavy conditions if the tank is filled and when you are don with all this can u please post pics

 

That's a really good point and I'm glad you thought of it. Like I said, I will probably just leave it out of the truck until I need it. It's impractical to have 800lbs in the bed of a half-ton all the time. Did you want me to post pics of the tank or when I'm done with the lift? I can try to have some up tomorrow, but I won't have the lift for another 2 months probably.

 

FWIW:
On a previous work truck, F-250 V10, I used a weather guard 88 gallon setup. It was rated for diesel only, but I usually only kept around 50 gallon of gasoline in it at the time and had no problems.

 

i have seen many lifts in my life so thats not a big deal but when u lift it and decide 2 put the tank in thats wat i wanna c im slightly curious 2 c wat the tank looks like now so if u can post pics that b great.

 

Yeah the tank is already in the truck. I'm actually going to take it out tomorrow but I'll try to remember to take some pictures beforeI remove it.