Hey guys,

I'm looking into designing and having gas tanks built to fit in the spare tire location of our 3rd gen 4runners. I'm at the very beginning stages of doing this, and just wanted to see who might be interested. If there doesn't appear to be much interest, I'm going to make a one-off just for me. Here's what I want to know:

1) What would be a reasonable price for the tank, mounting brackets, and all necessary hardware to make it an easy bolt on product?

2) How many gallons would everyone prefer to have?

I've already got a design in mind that tapers towards the rear of the 4runner, leaving a great departure angle. Plus the dimensions I'm using right now work great to be able to make two tanks per sheet of 4x8' sheet of metal. But, if the consensus is to have more capacity or whatever, I can easily make adjustments at this time.

Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Chris

 

Take a look at what Downey charges for their aux. tanks for a starting point.

 

Expensive is about all I can say, aren't they? Have you ever thought about doing it?

Chris

 

1) How many gallons will it hold?
2) Will you be offering some way to switch between the two or are you talking about removing the other for this one?
3) Material?

I'd be interested, but I'd like to know more!

 

I have a 2nd Gen, but yes, I've thought about it.

 

The one I've got designed right now is around 19 gallons.The whole purpose of building this tank is to remove the low hanging stock gas tank to help the ground clearance underneath our vehicles. It's not going to be an auxilary tank.If everything goes as planned, it will be made out of steel, and coated with an awesome material to totally prevent corrosion and leaking. I'm in the process of finding out all the details as to the coating I plan to use and it's effectiveness in the application I plan to use it for. If it will work, I'l probably have two options as far as coatings go, and as far as material thickness, I haven't fully decided yet. I'm thinking the bottom will be 1/8" thick, and the sides and everything else will probably be a tad thinner to save some weight.Any other comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Hey Cebby, I'd be starting to build these specifically for 3rd gens at first, but eventually possibly branch out into 1st, 2nd, and 4th gens too, but not right now.

Chris

 

check out http://forum.plushfab.com/ mark is the owner of the shop, he has done mostly nissan stuff up to now but is getting into other stuff and has a full blown fab shop now. i know that custom fuel cells were something that he was looking at making. his shop is in columbus, ohio.

 

I haven't decided totally what I'm going to, but I'm going to complete the design using CAD, then I may or may not build them myself. I'm hoping to have one of the two companies build them, and the other company do the special coating and then just minimize my profit down to $100/tank for my design time and shipping time. I'm hoping the finish product will cost less than $400, but we'll see. Like I said, I'm at the very early stages of making this happen.

Chris

 

$400 sounds good, are you going to be able to get the factory pump/pickup to work and will the gauge be accurate?

 

Yes, all the factory equipment will be used, plus some additional wiring and tubing, of course. There will be modifications made to the factory equipment, but nothing anyone on here couldn't handle.

Chris

 

sounds good man, good luck with this project.

 

I might be interested, but only if it used the factory pump and sending unit and the gas gauge would read correctly.

 

Why, toyota couldn't make it read correctly. I never got the FSB done for mine, and it is always about 4-5gal off. So, I imagine if mine is off now, and I put it in another tank, it's not gonna fix itself somehow.

 

You will have to make a slight modification in the sending unit's arm that will make it shorter so it will fit i nthe shallower tank, but that's about it. Everything that comes stock with the 4Runner will be reused, plus some additional wiring and tubing, of course.

Chris

 

I would decide after I see yours trail tested for a few months. I know it would take some abuse!

 

I understand completely, and wouldn't expect any less.

Chris

 

and the price comes down a $100 ......

 

Compared to any other tank out on the market, I'd be lucky to get it to the price point of $399, let alone $299. If I can farm it all out, then the price will be the lowest. If I have to make some part of it, then the price goes up for sure.

Chris

 

I was just playing .. $400 would be a good price .. but $300 would be a great price!

takes some pics of how it would fit in there, I already have my 2.5 air tank back behind the rear axle, so for this to work for me, it would have to work around that. I don't know well see ... good luck with this ... hopefully this will come together a lot quicker for you, then that rear bumper, right?

 

What about a Bronco II gas tank? Would that fit?

The Bronco II gas tank fits stock iin the rear end. The tank holds 23 gallons, but the only problem that I forsee is on the filler neck and the sending unit holes. And you get the gas tank skid plate, you can get rear ended at about 25-30 mph and the skid plate won't bend... or use it as a slider.

http://store.ineedparts.com/store/co...idProduct=7479