Aux tank for a Disco1, why buy when you can made your own...

[RonL]

4.6 gallon extra (side aux) tank....

Why 4.6? My goal was 6 gallons, but as you will see in the pictures, 4.6 is all that would fit without hanging down.

I was wanted to get more range out of my 1997 Disco, fully loaded with 600lbs and the wife with the three kids, I get 12 mpg @70mph or 15mpg @60mph. That equals 288-360 miles on a fill up. I have a 5 gal jerry can on the rear bumper, but I wanted something that did not require stopping.

The "Long Ranger" tanks are cool, but over $1000 and hang very low. So I designed my own gravity feed side tank out of Alum(.179 thick) plate.

I am using a bulkhead fitting in my factory Poly gas tank to some AN#10 fitting in the Alum tank and AN#8 for the vent out the top to the factory vent line.

With this extra tank, my range is now 343-429 miles.

Some people may say this is a lot of work for only 4.6 gallons, but my labor is free and I like a challenge.

Once the fittings are here from Jegs, I will show more pictures of the hose install.

 

[muskyman]

:clapsmile thats very sweet, great job.

Have you thought about replacing the stock tank with a larger one?

 

[RonL]

I didn't go through the rear floor, it is about an inch below the floor. That gives me room for all the vent hoses and wiring to the back end.
The tank hangs off of the corner bumper support.

If my rear bumper was stock and I had not cut the fender off, I could have got a lot more capacity, but with my rear bumper design I lose a lot of room.

The welds are a thing of beauty, I did the design work and I guy I work with did the welding. It is so pretty, it is too bad no one will see it once installed.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Nice work! I'm very curious to see the connection to the factory tank. Do you think something similar could be done with a tank between the wheelbase? I was looking at it, but wondering if it could be done without a pump. There are some tanks that mount there, hold a LOT of fuel, but require a pump and complexity. I don't see why it couldn't be gravity fed in a similar way?

I'd also like to see how you make the connection to the filler neck.

Did you use Cardboard Aided Design or some other method?

The only improvement I might suggest would be to bond some stainless steel sheet to the bottom and wheel facing sides for extra protection. Even some 18ga SS sheet, simply fastened with a high quality 3M double-sided tape will give some extra abraision protection.

 

[05LR3AZ]

Aux Tank

Wow, very nicely done. I'll follow this thread as some of the technical questions posed above are answered. :coffeedrink:

 

[RonL]

R_Lefebvre,

No "extra protection" is needed, I removed the rear inner fender sheild to do fit-up. I will re-install it after the tank is plumbed.

I am hoping that it will fill from the bottom, through the 5/8" line. If this does no work well, I will add a Y fitting to the filler neck an drop straight in the the side tank on the way to the main tank.

Yes, "CardBd Aided Design" is my friend. I have a couple of different computer CAD packages at work, but since I don't have the Rover modeled up, it is hard to do real layouts with.

 

[jrose609]

Beautiful! Another nice thing is a little but more weight lower on the truck. I know it's only 4.6 gallons, but anything that lowers the center of gravity is good in my book.

Congrats!

Jason

 

[R_Lefebvre]

I am hoping that it will fill from the bottom, through the 5/8" line. If this does no work well, I will add a Y fitting to the filler neck an drop straight in the the side tank on the way to the main tank.

I'm sure it will fill from the bottom as long as you have a vent line T-ing into the fill pipe. That is what you're doing right?

 

[Root Moose]

Great stuff!

I've always wondered if doing something like this would cause a check engine light on an OBD-II system. I figured that between unknowns about proper venting and loose gas caps throwing codes... Obviously not if you haven't had any problems with it.

Screw long ranger, I'm guessing I can get ~10 gallons behind the transfer case in my Jeep.

 

[RonL]

Yes, I am venting back to the factory vent line. I don't see a problem with venting issues, but it may take awhile to fill thru the 5/8" hose.

 

[benlittle]

That's pretty sweet. I'm curious to see how it turns out.

 

[dubl_t]

Man RonL, That IS a thing of beauty! And congrats for thinking outside the box. Your speculations of how your tank works are correct, it's been done before. There's some aux tanks in the Diesel world that are setup in similar fasion. And if it does fuel too slow for your tastes, just add another 5/8" line.

 

[stolenheron]

awesome job.

when you're done making this badboy for a D1, you need to design one for a D2 :drool:

 

[jrose609]

So, Ron......before you install yours, why don't you copy it and sell me one? I'd love a little extra range.

 

[James86004]

Nice work. The 5/8" line may cause you some anxiety at the filling station, but it may be just fine.

I was thinking about putting something like this in our Dormobile:

It looks like it intercepts the filler hose. I can't decide if that is a good idea or not.

It is a 46 liter tank, which is about 12 US gallons: http://safari-equip.co.uk/index.php?page=76

It is definitely not as pretty as yours.