Couple of old truck gas tanks on trailer as poor man's transfer tank?

[BadDecisions]

After getting the tractor, I'm quickly realizing that getting and transporting fuel in plastic jugs is kind of a pain in the back side, especially after learning the hard way last night that one of them split at a top seam....only after starting to fill the tractor... We also only have one gas station in town, that's routinely $0.50 to $1.00 more expensive than the stations in the suburbs, so I try to combine fuel stops with my commute to/from work, and I've had full fuel cans stolen out of the back of the truck a couple times when I made other stops not thinking about fuel sitting in the bed. It's also a pain if I want to take the off road toys or boat out, as the cheaper gas stations add an hour or so round trip to go there and back.

I started looking for gasoline transfer tanks, and good lord, they're expensive, even used! Especially so for personal use, relatively low volume use. All my equipment/toys are gasoline powered. Then again, new 5 gallon fuel jugs aren't exactly cheap anymore. I thought about one of the fuel storage tanks onsite, but I doubt I'd burn through enough gas in a short enough amount of time to make that financially feasible or even have some company come out to fill it. I'd imagine there's probably a minimum order amount that's much more than I'd want to have on hand at any point.

I realized that I've got several large, 30+ gallon fuel tanks left over from trucks that I've used as parts trucks/donor trucks, a few of which are basically large rectangles that would be super simple to mount to one of my small utility trailers. We also have a local salvage yard with a bunch of semi trucks in them that I could likely get a tank from pretty cheap. Add a 12VDC universal inline fuel pump, and bingo - dirt cheap redneck transfer tank that I could just trailer into the city with me once a month or so?

Other than being really slow, and a bit cumbersome to use without having a typical gas pump handle/nozzle thing, is there anything that would make this a Darwin Award nominee level bad idea? I figure it would be easy enough to make a cover for them too if it's a "it will attract the attention of every cop in a 10 mile radius" kind of thing too. :laughing:

 

[old and tired]

So.... How did you pick your TBN name? any story behind it?


Just kidding, (sort of!!!) Diesel is one thing but gas... well that's explosive. The gas tanks I've dealt with have multiple inlet/outlets. What's your plan to seal them?

 

[dlctcg]

The gas tanks I've dealt with have multiple inlet/outlets. What's your plan to seal them?

And to vent them (especially during transport).... I'm sure you can do what you are thinking... but is it a legal way of transport... I don't know.... & if there where ever an incident... there is a lot at stake...

 

[3Ts]

The gasoline aux tanks are designed differently than the diesel tanks. As mentioned, gasoline is explosive while diesel is "only" combustible. Personally, I wouldn't do it. You never know when you'll need those safety features. I agree they are crazy expensive, but I bit the bullet and bought a regulation gasoline one. I was the passenger in the truck during an accident when it rolled over. No fuel leaks, no flames, no major injuries but the truck was totaled!

 

[BadDecisions]

So.... How did you pick your TBN name? any story behind it?


Just kidding, (sort of!!!) Diesel is one thing but gas... well that's explosive. The gas tanks I've dealt with have multiple inlet/outlets. What's your plan to seal them?

It's basically my life story....40 years of one unfortunate decision after another....if people could have bet on my life, someone could have gotten very rich by betting against me, lol.

Inlet/outlets? Keep them the same as factory? Big fill pipe capped off with a typical screw on gas cap. Outlet to motor - goes to external fuel pump. Vent goes to vent fitting with rollover valve.

And to vent them (especially during transport).... I'm sure you can do what you are thinking... but is it a legal way of transport... I don't know.... & if there where ever an incident... there is a lot at stake...

The legal nature of it is one concern, but where I'm coming up empty is "what's the difference between it hung off the side of my truck frame, or hung off the side of my trailer frame?" Or bolted between truck frame, and trailer frame? It sure seems simple enough to me, but then I've run into situations before where something may have seemed simple at first, but learning one small, but important difference detail, changed everything.

The gasoline aux tanks are designed differently than the diesel tanks. As mentioned, gasoline is explosive while diesel is "only" combustible. Personally, I wouldn't do it. You never know when you'll need those safety features. I agree they are crazy expensive, but I bit the bullet and bought a regulation gasoline one. I was the passenger in the truck during an accident when it rolled over. No fuel leaks, no flames, no major injuries but the truck was totaled!

Which is why I'm looking at a gas tank from a truck that was always intended to carry gas....is there some fundamental difference between the gas tank in my Chevy pickup, and the $800 transfer tank? Are all the auto manufacturers in the habit of selling cars and trucks with gas tanks that are not approved for transporting gasoline? Are these things inherently unsafe, and I should remove my factory equipped gasoline tank to replace it with a regulation transfer tank instead because it's somehow more safe?

I'm not arguing the points, rather just trying to understand this better. The cynic in me wants to just blame it on people's tendency to default to "you get what you pay for" mindless BS, or the status symbol that comes with having a massive tank bolted into the truck bed (seriously...I know several self proclaimed "rednecks" that drive around with big transfer tanks in their beds that have never had a single drop of fuel in them, though these are also the same nimrods that think rolling coal out of 12" exhaust stacks in a pickup is also cool), but as I get older, I have come to learn that while something may seem like a good idea in my head, it's usually wise to step back and look at it from different angles first before committing to it and later thinking "well...that sure didn't turn out like I thought it would" :laughing: This is often combined with "but it sure seemed so stupid simple...why haven't I seen this done before??"

 

[EddieWalker]

I know there is a limit to what size gas tank that you can transport due to safety issues. I don't know any of the laws, or physics behind it. I do know that static electricity is one of the biggest causes of gasoline fires at gas stations and with small 5 gallon gas cans. It becomes increasingly dangerous the more gasoline that you have in a container. I believe the largest ones that you can buy are 15 gallons because of the static electricity concerns.

Since you mentioned doing this for a tractor, is your tractor a gasoline engine?

Diesel is completely different and a lot safer. I have two 100 gallon aluminum saddle tanks from big rigs that I mounted to a trailer for my diesel fuel needs. I haven't used it in years, but when I'm doing a big project, it's nice to have that much fuel available.

 

[skipperbrown]

How about fixing them (semi) permanently at your home and having an occasional delivery? I don't know if they still do this, but growing up we had gas tractors and had a 500 gallon gas fuel tank next to the 500 gallon heating oil tank. Grandaddy would schedule a delivery when it got low. I've read here that you can get home delivery of diesel if it's over x number of gallons. Hauling a hundred + gallons of gasoline on a trailer or the back of your truck kind of gets the hairs on the back of my neck rising if you saw all the rear end accidents around here.

 

[BadDecisions]

All of my equipment is gas, including the tractor. The only diesels I have are my two pickup trucks. The tractor is a bigger pain now due to the loader frame going over the hood of the tractor (Wagner jungle gym loader on an 8N), which means I can't fully open the tank cover, and I can't even get a 5 gallon jug nozzle down to the opening in the tank. So it's fumble with a funnel, and either trying to hold the stupid plastic interlock thing on gas jug nozzles by hand, or take the nozzle off, and attempt to slowly pour 5 gallons down the funnel without spilling gas everywhere else. It's less than fun. I've tried a couple siphons on other equipment, but since everything sold now is lowest bidder China specials, they seem to have _very_ short lifespans....my last one fell apart on the 2nd use.

I seem to remember a number around 100 gallons before getting into hazmat certs and placards, which I would still be under. I do seem to remember that there were differences in the rules for portable containers vs tanks mounted in/on vehicles, with the portable container limits being much lower. My plan was to use a 44 gallon Suburban tank that I saved some time ago thinking I was going to put it into my Blazer but didn't fit. I also have a 31 gallon Blazer tank that I was considering using as well, seeing as how my boat could suck up 20 gallons on it's own. Though whether using a factory gas tank mounted to a trailer now makes it a "portable" container or changes it classification in some other way is something that I'm not really finding any clear cut answers on one way or another.

I also remember there being different rules on the transfer tanks if they're somehow plumbed into the vehicle's main fuel system, where if I were to add a way to auto-fill the truck tank with the flip of a switch, it's a completely different ball game compared to having to stop, and manually put a nozzle or hose into the truck's filler neck to transfer, which wouldn't really apply to me anyways.

 

[BadDecisions]

How about fixing them (semi) permanently at your home and having an occasional delivery? I don't know if they still do this, but growing up we had gas tractors and had a 500 gallon gas fuel tank next to the 500 gallon heating oil tank. Grandaddy would schedule a delivery when it got low. I've read here that you can get home delivery of diesel if it's over x number of gallons. Hauling a hundred + gallons of gasoline on a trailer or the back of your truck kind of gets the hairs on the back of my neck rising if you saw all the rear end accidents around here.

500 gallons would likely go bad before I used it all, and I don't know of any place that will do home delivery of gasoline like this...I'm looking at doing something that's between 40 and 80 gallons total.

 

[3Ts]

Which is why I'm looking at a gas tank from a truck that was always intended to carry gas....is there some fundamental difference between the gas tank in my Chevy pickup, and the $800 transfer tank? Are all the auto manufacturers in the habit of selling cars and trucks with gas tanks that are not approved for transporting gasoline? Are these things inherently unsafe, and I should remove my factory equipped gasoline tank to replace it with a regulation transfer tank instead because it's somehow more safe?

Sorry, I was under the impression that you were taking diesel truck saddle tanks in a setup like Eddie has and filling them with gasoline. I don't know what the limits are on quantity for gasoline, but if the tank was originally intended for gasoline, then I'd think that it would have all the parts and pieces needed to be legal in the application for which it was designed, you'll need some research on the legality of using it differently. It may end up being more cost effective to just go with a transfer tank that was designed for gasoline from the beginning.