101 petrol tank options - ideas? - linking jerry cans?...

I could do with a petrol tank for the 101, and have been considering my options..

I have a big stack of jerry cans here and was wondering if i could do anything useful with them. Running up a rack to hold a load of cans would be easy enough - and i could easily 'adapt' a lid to fit a pickup pipe into one and use an external fuel pump to move the petrol. However - it would be a bit of a pain having to swap tanks over every 40 miles or so, so i wondered if i could easily link them all together?

Can anybody suggest any good ways to connect multiple jerry cans at the same level together. Preferably keeping the cans either linked flexibly or so they are still removable and usable separately. If i looped them all together with pipes through the fillers could i make them syphon automatically (without me having to prime it) if i used progressively slightly shorter pipes down the line?

What is the usual way of equalising multiple petrol tanks?

Reply to
Tom Woods
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If i just split the feed and return fuel lines so they were connected to all tanks simultaneously then what would happen? Would they all equalise levels through the pickup?

Reply to
Tom Woods

On or around 17 Dec 2007 22:45:39 GMT, Tom Woods enlightened us thusly:

balance pipe at the bottom and top, normally. about 1" dia.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

Austin Shackles uttered summat worrerz funny about:

I'm going to be blunt - this may smart.

Stop being a tight wad and get the right tank! If the right tank won't fit get one made up properly.

If we were talking about water I'd say fill yer boots but I wouldn't want to be helping out at an RTC knowing that one of the vehciles had a home cobbled fuel arrangement - especially with the volumes or petrol involved with a

101. None of my comments should be percieved as a lack of confidence in your fabrication skills however there are times when I think we all - myself included - need to recognise our limits and get something done right.

Lee D

Reply to
Lee_D

On or around Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:49:02 -0000, "Lee_D" enlightened us thusly:

I don't know what his skills are. My skills as a welder-fabricator mean that I could make a better tank than most cars have... If you look at any steel car tank (and yes, I know, a lot are plastic now, that's no better as they puncture easily) they're unbelievably crap.

having said that, I'd not make a tank from several jerry-cans bodged together, either - although they are, in fact, designed to carry fuel.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

The reason i was considering doing it using jerry cans and wondering about top mounted take-offs was so i could do it without having to do any welding or fabrication or modifications to the tanks themselves. I'll not be doing it if i have to use balance pipes at a low level or do owt to the cans themselves.

My welding is good enough to build a cradle/bracket which would hold the cans - I wasnt going to attempt a custom tank quite yet!. I was hoping if i could do it by fitting pipes through the lids, i can use proper fittings to take it through them and proper disconnectable fuel lines.

I cant see that if i did it like this is would be any more dodgy than either the existing setup (the tank has spread half a jerry can of petrol over my garden in the last 24 hours), or a vehicle which has externally mounted jerry cans (like a 101 GS or a large number of existing landies and 4x4s).

I have decided to order some of the POR tank sealing stuff for now and give that a try first (since the tank has to come off either way).

Dont want to buy a proper replica tank as i dont want to have to wait

6 months for it to arrive nor pay the price for one to be made quickly.

Have also found this place -

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have some nice square plastic tanks (Rated for derv though). Ithink my ideal solution would be to drop one of them inside the shellof my old petrol one.

Reply to
Tom Woods

In message , Tom Woods writes

Are there none available through Darren in a reasonable time?

Reply to
AJG

My memory is a bit dim on the UK C&U Regs but the chance of a few jerry cans linked together being legal would amaze me. I'd have thought that the first MOT would fail (do 101s have MOTs?), let alone any zealous copper seeing the cans lined up. Venting would be a problem, how will you allow air into the cans without letting vapour out? How will you fill them - individually? Just fill one and have a balance pipe between them all? Balance pipes have to able to take about 1.5 times the volume being pumped in by the bowser to correctly balance two tanks - god knows what size you'd need for 6 cans. The balance pipes would have to be brazed into the bottom of the cans - "danger danger Will Robinson" - flames and jerry cans equals burnt eyebrows!!

Fuel tanks usually have to undergo some testing, petrol tanks have to withstand higher pressures than diesel tanks (petrol has a higher vapour pressure......blah blah) so using a tank specifically for diesel is not a good solution either.

Buy a properly constructed steel fuel tank and save yourself a lot of grief.

Reply to
Roger

I was hoping i could fill them seperately,and just use some form of linkage to stop me having to manually change tanks. Hadnt considered the venting issue. I see the problem!

As far as i am aware the MOT doesnt look at your fuel tank, though i assume they would notice leaks.

Wasnt going to use one without more research but if somebody makes them for diesel, why cant i find a generic cuboid petrol tank?

Everybody seems to have a much higher impression of how well made petrol tanks are than me! All the ones i have seen have been flimsy plastic things or leaky metal ones ;)

Reply to
Tom Woods

There was a long waiting list when i last spoke to him about it earlier this year. The guy who makes them doesnt work very quickly (but is a lot cheaper than anywhere else!) Steve has had another one made elsewhere but its quite pricey!

I've been lucky - it leaked when i bought the truck. Then stopped leaking until very recently when its just given up and opened the flood gates! Ive not used it all summer until i got the eber going again for winter.

Reply to
Tom Woods

No, it was VERY pricey. But very pretty.

Steve

Reply to
steve Taylor

Security of attachment, security of all pipework, designed for the purpose and leak-free are all currently part of the annual MOT checks.

Ever tried to puncture one of those "flimsy plastic things"? Nigh on impossible unless you use a sharpened metal spike and a sod-off big club hammer. They are a lot tougher than they look. I know this 'cos we used to puncture them to drain them when setting up a large motorsport rescue and recovery training event every year, involving nearly 30 cars that all had to have all their fluids drained!!

If your welding skills are sufficient, why not pop down to your local steel stockist and have them cut some plate steel to size for you and weld one up yourself? I did this for a friend's 107" series 1 some years back using 1/8" plate and welded the original filler kneck into the top...... his "party-piece" was to scare all around him by jacking the vehicle under the tank with a hi-lift! To quantify that, the tank did have 3 braces of 1" angle-iron, "V" downwards, running front to back on the underside, this was the part the jack contacted. The braces were put there to give some skid protection as that was why it needed a new tank, he destroyed 2 tanks in a year off-roading it! You can even cut down on the ammount of welding required by having them fold the base and 2 ends from one piece, and the top and 2 sides from another. Heck, you could even tig it up out of stainless, it'd last forever! The major cost in buying one ready-made is the manhours, the materials are relatively cheap, so go on, D.I.Y. it. Badger.

Reply to
Badger

IME stainless fuel tanks tend to work harden and crack with vibration (this was mostly on boats but I don't see why a LR would be different).

Reply to
EMB

The Test in Northern Ireland specifically checks the seal on the cap! Don't recall a specific check elsewhere. No reason to believe it is any different elsewhere in the UK. NB there are only govt. testing stations in NI.

Reply to
JacobH

They did when I tested SWMBO's Fiat, failed on leaking tank (a very slight weep, due to her vigouous grounding it in the lanes round here).

Reply to
NM

yet the 101 hasnt failed any of the 3 or 4 mot's ive put it through and it has always leaked a bit (its just had a petrolly sheen all over the bottom until recently)

Reply to
Tom Woods

Theres a very nice man who said he might be able to fold me some metal and then let me play with his TIG set ;)

I can jack the side of the 101 up using the mounting bracket i built to hold the LPG tank :)

Reply to
Tom Woods

On or around Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:00:20 -0000, "Badger" enlightened us thusly:

1/8" plate is seriously OTT for a petrol tank, mind. I'd use something like 20 SWG which is still thicker than the OE.
Reply to
Austin Shackles

On or around Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:21:27 -0800 (PST), Tom Woods enlightened us thusly:

what shape is a 101 tank?

I could probably make one...

Reply to
Austin Shackles

On or around Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:18:41 -0000, "JacobH" enlightened us thusly:

other than it shouldn't be excessively corroded or leaking. I think even the corrosion is only a warning, not a fail - it only fails for fuel leaks.

and yes, the filler seal is part of the test.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

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