Side-mount Jerry can holders

[Pushrod]

Jeff
I'm sure your head is full if ideas and I see a real need for a spare can of fuel traveling to AK even at the price of being called a tourist. You may come across a stranded traveler that didn't have sufficient fuel to make the next fuel stop for many possible reasons. I would not want to leave this person stranded due to only having just enough fuel to get myself to the next available. Another idea you may have already thought of but not persued yet, for a receiver in that location, is for a vertical tool mount for shovel & ax. Keep your creative juices flowing and don't be discouraged by people that don't like that particular design. That receiver design has a lot of potential.

 

[BlueGerbil]

Personally I find it more than questionable to hang any amount of combustible fluid on the outside of the vehicle at all, especially at a point that low and that near to passengers. On the rear of the vehicle, somewhat higher, perhaps hidden between spare wheel and vehicle: oh well...

Nevertheless, very popular amongst the Land Rover Defender crew are these side mounts which the company I work for is selling over here in Europe - perhaps something somebody want´s to adapt...

They are manufactured by the south africa based Frontrunner company.

http://www.frontrunner.co.za/fuel-s...ers/defender-side-mount-jerry-can-holder.html

 

[jscherb]

Jeff
I'm sure your head is full if ideas and I see a real need for a spare can of fuel traveling to AK even at the price of being called a tourist. You may come across a stranded traveler that didn't have sufficient fuel to make the next fuel stop for many possible reasons. I would not want to leave this person stranded due to only having just enough fuel to get myself to the next available. Another idea you may have already thought of but not persued yet, for a receiver in that location, is for a vertical tool mount for shovel & ax. Keep your creative juices flowing and don't be discouraged by people that don't like that particular design. That receiver design has a lot of potential.

Thank you. As I posted the other day, I've already done a concept photo/drawing of putting RotoPax containers on those receivers, and I've also some some design work on a Hi-Lift carrier to also mount in the receivers. Mounting a shovel and ax there is another good idea.

One more idea I had for an alternate use for the receivers would be to use them for an "over the roof" rack system; similar receivers would also be bolted to the rear of the frame for this application:

 

[postalWagon]

Looks like you could pop that rack and frame off of the truck and use it as a ground tent frame. Cool idea, as usual.

 

[Desert Dan]

That is a very nice hard top!

I have had a vehicle with gerry cans on the side but always worried about a side impact or what would happen in a roll-over/sliding wreck on pavement.

 

[dumprat]

I run a single steel jerry can on the drivers side. Much higher than the OP's set up. It works fine. It has also saved the door from several major tree impacts. Steel cans are tough. Don't screw around with the plastic ones, they crack,leak and hold a static charge.

 

[Rbertalotto]

Not in a million years would I put anyone I loved in a vehicle with side mounted Jerry cans whether steel, or plastic. Especially if they were filled with gasoline. A side impact would be horrific! Even low mounted rear cans scare the hell out of me. I've witnessed the aftermath of a few too many crashes that involved an ignited gas spill. And an impacted Jerry can with a gasoline "spray" is just to horrible to imagine...........

 

[redveloce]

I have been considering roto-pax myself. I don't like the big swing out gates either and I am considering a fender mount. They are much thinner and lighter that the NATO cans.

I use a side mounted RotoPax for a water/methanol reservoir. I bit the bullet and drilled through the tub, but it would be easy enough to do like how jsherb did his bracket. I just looked through my pictures, and I can't believe that I don't have any that show it. I'll have to take some soon.

 

[jscherb]

After owning both blitz holders(almost 100% sure that is the one shown for this build commonly red in color) and real mill-spec holders(commonly olive drab in color) there is very little in common as far as quality and steel thicknes goes. Blitz is very thin. The military ones are " BETTER" but at times more expensive and harder to locate. Both new surplus ones,& older vintage ones are stamped with numbers either on the front or bottom. Blitz has no stamp anywhere. if you plan on a lot of off highway travel I suggest spending the time and money locating real military holders especially if it is mounted using only the backside, not bottom mounts and you use a 20L not 10L military style jerry can.
Blitz Holder is 1/16"-3/64 thick
Real Military Spec is 5/64"-3/32" thick
That is a big difference. Thought I'd share this info with anyone mounting fuel cans anywhere on a vehicle that will be cruising the backcountry rough/bumpy roads.

I picked up a couple of military surplus jerry can holders today, and for the record, I measured the thickness of the red "Blitz" ones I used on the prototype installation, and the military ones:

The red ones are 0.055" thick. Accounting for the red paint/powdercoat, that makes them 17-gauge, which is actually thinner than 1/16" (1/16=0.0625).

The military ones are 0.082" thick, which, accounting for the very thick finish on them, makes them 14-gauge - about 5/64", and they're lots more rigid then the commercial ones.

All of the stuff I got today was NOS (New Old Stock), never used. The jerry can holders were still in their original plastic wrap. I'll be using the military holders in my final implementation.

 

[jscherb]

I did a final test install of a side-mount jerry can carrier on the passenger side this morning. Since I posted the prototype photos, I decided to raise the position of the can above the flare extension. The prototype version positioned the can even with the bottom of the tub and required the flare extension to be removed - now the receiver bracket goes around/above the flare extension so it doesn't have to be removed. Installation is a quick bolt-up of the receiver mount to the Jeep's frame; no holes need to be drilled in the Jeep. The can/bracket doesn't contact the body of the Jeep in any way. Here are a few photos...

 

[jscherb]

A look at the receiver when the holder and can are not installed:

 

[jeffjeeptj]

Not everyone will agree with all ideas. I personally find Jeff's work of excellent quality and well thought out. I occasionally fabricate things. Used to have a lot of tools, but have down-sized due to moving halfway across country. I am envious of his skills.
An anecdote about sufficient gas. Used to work 65 miles north of Bismark, ND. Had a company truck that was "loaned" to two young staffers. One afternoon, during a snowstorm, they were "discussing" whether there was enough gas in the truck to make the round trip home to Bismark and back. It was about 20 below zero F and blowing quite hard (normal for ND). They thought it was too nasty to get gas from the outdoor tank at the jobsite. It was outdoors and not well shielded from the weather. The truck had two tanks, one was empty, other was less than half. Needless, they got a lecture about winter weather, distances, barren territory, sparse population, freezing to death. They filled both truck tanks with gas and had a safe trip. I'm fairly sure the light bulb lit on the way home after dark.

I'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and ...

Good looking brackets, Jeff.

 

[jscherb]

Racks in final paint and ready for final installation; one for each side of the Jeep...

 

[redveloce]

Looks good!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[jscherb]

It's been a few weeks since I posted photos of the completed side-mounts for my jerry cans... right after I posted those photos I removed them for final paint and didn't get around to doing the installation of the painted parts until today. Anyway, here's a photo taken today of the 6' 6", 225-lb. gorilla test of the mount:

There's no movement of the can mount at all with the 225-lb. gorilla aboard, so I think they'll be fine. I'm planning a multi-state road trip in about a month that will include some off-road driving, so I'm going to take a jerry can along on that trip to do a good test of these mounts in on-road and off-road conditions.