Long range fuel tank - which material?

[LukeH]

Great little vehicle but the wife madee replace it with a unimog doka.

Holy cow you chose well!
And I'm not talking about the Mog.
With a wife like that anything is possible.
I think she should come and have tea with mine a few hundred times, some of it might rub off!
What a pity you live so far away.

Tanks; my old Iveco Daily 4x4 had 2x 130 litre aluminium diesel tanks bolted straight upwards into the body. That way they were isolated from chassis flex. I couldn't live without that 2000km (road) range now, the current truck will end up with more.(i'm aiming for a tonne of diesel or veg oil)
The reason ALL commercial aluminium tanks are rolled and mounted with straps is to allow some movement when the chassis twists. Even road vehicles have twist.
Personally I'd prefer to recover tanks from a breakers yard than custom build, but then that's not so easy on a smaller vehicle where there's always something in the way. (like a wheel)

 

[dinoevo]

It was a lot of work, but finally the second fuel tank is mounted.

http://dinoevo.de/2011/04/auxiliary-diesel-tank/

Thanks for your help.

@lost1 Yep, it is for a Delica. I also know you from delica.ca Haven't seen you there for a while. Would be great to see more mog photos in your thread.

 

[Bogo]

not so true. look at every fuel cell in any baja truck. all are rectangular or square with sharp edges and get put through more abuse than most anything we will ever put out tanks though

Know any baja trucks with 50k miles on them? Yeah, I didn't think so. Go with the rounded corners. It is because of stress loading from the sloshing fuel. It is especially important in an accident. That is when the greatest loads are put on the tank structure.

 

[Bogo]

All vehicle tanks I have ever seen use a steel band mount. I am pretty sure there is a good reason for that...

Steel bands provide a wide flexible support. Also steel is cheap, easily worked, and works nicely in tensile situations like the bands use. Note the end attachment and tightening methods used. They are tried and true designs that have had most of the failure modes designed out of them.

 

[alan]

In the land of Oz they are all 2mm aluminised steel with square edges, brackets.

www.longrangeautomotive.com.au

 

[dinoevo]

Loving the long range so far. Now 1300km (City+Hwy) is not a problem