Long Ranger Auxilliary Tank Photos

[JPK]

Here are some photos of the tank installed and some with the skid plates added (note that the charcoal fitler is repositioned behind the rear axle to give room to mount the tank.)

From side showing clearance:

From front corner drivers side - the tank is on the driver's side of the drive shaft:

Right down the center from in front of the tanks, with the oem tank on the left side of the drive ******** and the Long Ranger on the right :

This is a view of my all too exposed transmission pan and oil pan:

One of my all too exposed transfer case with the front of the auxilliary tank in the photo:

Here is after skid plates instal.

And the skid plate protecting the auxilliary tank:

JPK

 

[hudsonhawk]

Thats a nice fit. Looks good.

 

[nwoods]

Wow nice skid plate package!

In certain off road situations (like climbing a steep off camber dry waterfall), my front end shifts over about 4 or 5 inches, and my drive shaft would rub on various things. I have since provided clearance for those things, but the proximity of your LongRanger tank to the driveshaft makes me wonder. I suggest being cautious in that kind of maneuver.

 

[jrueppel]

Thanks for the photos. Looks great down there. Definitely on my wish list now.

 

[JPK]

Wow nice skid plate package!

In certain off road situations (like climbing a steep off camber dry waterfall), my front end shifts over about 4 or 5 inches, and my drive shaft would rub on various things. I have since provided clearance for those things, but the proximity of your LongRanger tank to the driveshaft makes me wonder. I suggest being cautious in that kind of maneuver.

The auxilliary tank is actually further away from the drive shaft then the oem tank. The photos are all from under the driver's side and make the aux tank appear closer than the oem tank, but the tape tells the true tail.

We lifted the Jeep to the maximum droop and stuffed it as much as possible and there was no interference, but I'll keep an eye on it and listen for any rubbing as well.

JPK

 

[Jorsn]

Is that a River Raider skid for the aux tank?

 

[JPK]

Is that a River Raider skid for the aux tank?

Yes, I drove up there and they modified their engine/tranny skid to fit the AEV Hemi - their Hemi skid package is configured off the shelf for the Burnsville Offroad Hemi instal, which has the engine back a couple of inches - and to drop the engine/tranny skid to clear the AEV cross over exhaust pipe.

While I was there they fabbed up the skid for the auxilliary tank.

But the Long Ranger auxilliary tank is now offerred with an armored bottom and I'm not sure that new version needs a skid - at least for overlanding/adventuring as opposed to lots of rock crawling. The armored version came out just after I got my un-armored tank.

You'll note that I chose the aluminum skids rather than the steel skids to keep weight down. Since the steel oem transfer case skid is replaced - it doesn't provide much coverage, as can be seen in the "before" photo, the entire weight gain is something on order of 70lbs, as opposed to the roughly 175lbs the steel skids would have added. Of course steel skids would add more protection, but rock crawling isn't what I use my Jeep for. River Raiders does offer both steel and aluminum, btw.

JPK

 

[Dan Grec]

Hey JPK -
Thanks for the great photos, I have a couple of questions if you don't mind...

1. I'm curious how filling the tank works. When you start pumping gas in, does it disperse evenly between the two tanks? (ie when you put in half of total capacity, half is in one tank and half in the other)
or does the setup fill the "original" tank totally full before filling the second?

2. How are the two tanks connected? I assume there is at least one hose, I'd love to know where it is exactly. Maybe there are even two? (one for gas in, one for air out?)
(I assume you can't get a photo of that, maybe you can describe it to me)

3. When filling, can you essentially throw the nozzle in and stand around while it fills all approx. 38 gals? Does the pump continuously click-off or go pretty smoothly..?

If you can't tell, I'm thinking a lot about buying one of these, and maybe even trying to make one myself to save a few bucks. I need to see the exact setup under a JK with a measure, but it occurs to me it might be possible to buy a second stock tank from Jeep (or have a very basic one fabbed), mount it on the other side, then connect the two tanks with a hose "at the bottom" for the gas to flow in/out, and a hose "at the top" for air to move in/out. No secondary pump required here - should be much cheaper.

The only issue I can see right now is how low the "hose at the bottom" needs to be (ie under the drive shaft) and therefore too exposed.
From your photos, it looks like I could put that hose under the drive shaft soon after it comes out of the transfer case, and still have it not protrude lower than the bottom of the two tanks - therefore I could bolt a skid over it.
(infact, it looks like your skids would cover such a proposed "bottom hose")
Thoughts?

It's just an idea for now, I'm still thinking about it

Thanks again,

-Dan

 

[JPK]

I haven't watched the fuel gauge as I've filled the tanks, but I believe that the oem tank fills first. I think I read that in the manual, but now can't find the manual.

To fill all 40.6 gals (22.6 oem + 18 Aux, though the most I've filled is ~35gals, as I recall) you just put the nozzle in the tank and hope the pump has a high enough $ limit to allow a full fill up. The fueling is actually better than with just the stock tank, which in mine often spit some back toward the end. The better fueling may be the result of raising and repositioning the charcoal filter for better venting, don't know.

The Long Ranger website has some good photos of the tank, here's a link: http://www.thelongranger.com.au/jklongrangefueltank.html

As the photos reveal, the hose is at the top of the aux tank and goes to the supplied pump. The aux tank remains full until you pump some or all of its contents to the oem tank. There is a supplied led gauge for the aux tank, and of course you have your oem gauge. You can transfer as much fuel as the oem tank needs when you wish by flicking the pump switch. The pump isn't fast and it takes maybe 40 minutes to transfer all 18 gals, or as much as will transfer - there must be some fuel you can't get to, as with any tank. The LR website gives a 1.7 litres/minute transfer rate.

I didn't do the instal, but I'm betting that the hose from the aux pump runs into the filler hose near the oem tank and the vent hose taps into the oem vent hose.

I suppose you could use a low mounted hose between the tanks. But to ensure that the oem pick up has fuel it can reach in an off camber situation, left/driver's side down, I'd suggest a check valve in the hose.

When we were figuring out how best to fab the skid for the aux tank, we considered going across the run between the tanks at the forward end of the rear DS. We didn't because there were adequate mounting points for the aux skid up front and we didn't need to, but at the front of the tanks you could run a skid between them without DS interference at full droop. That would protect the hose.

BTW, I'm almost certain it is a violation of federal regulations, and probably a bunch of state regulations too, to have a gravity feed, maybe a bottom feed of any sort, on an over the road fuel tank. If you search for diesel aux tanks, which is a target rich field to search as opposed to gas aux tanks, you will note that every maker of gravity feed aux tanks notes that a gravity feed system, allowing fuel to gravity feed from aux to oem tank, is for off road use only and/or has some other restriction. Also, diesel is diesel and gas ain't diesel. I think even refueing tanks that see over the road use need to be top pick up.

Also, if you have a tank made, it will need a roll over safe vent fitting both to meet regs and for basic safety. The roll over vent fittings work sort of like a check valve in reverse. They're readily available and not too expensive. Here's a link to a few. http://www.jegs.com/p/JAZ/JAZ-Roll-Over-Vent-Valves/751554/10002/-1

I like this one too - top left: http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stor...toreId=10001&Jnar=0&catalogId=10002&N=0&Nty=0
JPK

 

[Dan Grec]

Thanks for the detailled info JPK, I really appreciate it.

It soudns like you put some thought into fabbing your own / figuring something out.
I'm sure the Long Ranger is a "no problems" solution that "juts works" instread of the list of problems I'll face trying to make my own solution.
It also just occured to me to find an oem tank off a wreck and use that as a secondary.. it will already have a roll over safe vent, etc.

I'll look into it some day.

Thanks again,
-Dan

 

[Ryanc]

Do you need any type of heat sheild? Im not sure of the combustible temp of gasoline(250-300 I guess), but Id imagine that exhuast pipe gets pretty hot.

 

[JPK]

Do you need any type of heat sheild? Im not sure of the combustible temp of gasoline(250-300 I guess), but Id imagine that exhuast pipe gets pretty hot.

The Long Ranger has a heat shield built in. Here's a photo of the tank before the skid plate instal. The heat shield is shown.

BTW, one reason we decided not to run the auxilliary tank skid plate over to the frame, which would have been easier and provided a stiffer, stronger mount as well as protection for the exhuast piping, was to avoid trapping in heat from the exhuast piping.

The new silver exhaust pipe was installed to take the place of a pre-muffler resonator that AEV included in their exhaust system. The remaining muffler is in the oem position, but tucked up a little better. The Jeep got a little louder, but the sound of the Hemi is pleasant as hell and not obnoxious.

JPK