Thread: Front Runner 45Litre auxiliary fuel and water tanks

Originally Posted by simmo

I replaced my original springs because they were too hard. The only time they felt Ok was when we were fully loaded. 7 pax roof rack full etc, maybe at 700+ kgs load.

But other wise I clenched my stomach muscles when i saw a bump or pothole ahead.

I went for OME springs and dampers, 2" lift, medium duty, not quite range rover standard , but a big improvement. They seem to have lasted OK, I don't have any complaints, but i haven't done the cape run or anything terribly demanding in terms of corrugations . If I did one of those trips I 'd probably buy a new set of Rancho shocks or similar.

I have a sill tank it's only 42 liters made of 2 mm mild steel plate, it has few scratches on it , but that's about all. The car does tilt a little to the right when its full. I usually use it first on a trip. It means I have reasonable range without any fuel filled Jerry cans. Next year I'm planning to go from Birdsville to Ayres rock via the Simpson desert. Does anyone have a comment about leaving Birdsville with 120 liters of usable fuel in a tdi defender?

We used 110 litres from Mt Dare to Birdsville in a 300Tdi Discovery 1 auto last year.

I paid to have the job done by Opposit Lock and they pulled original breather from it's position and now with a full tank breather will overflow. was relocated now twice and still causes issue. not to happy about it.

Originally Posted by Steve223

I paid to have the job done by Opposit Lock and they pulled original breather from it's position and now with a full tank breather will overflow. was relocated now twice and still causes issue. not to happy about it.

Not good, you want your breather up high, just in case you get a deep water crossing, someone here injested water via the breather.

I cut the breather pipe tube from the main tank, and inserted a home made SS tube Y piece. ( silver soldered). Both tanks vent back to the fuel filler vent line of the main tank. I used Black reinforced rubber diesel fuel pipe for the job , 5/16" from memory, not expensive. I never had any problems.

cheers simmo

Thanks for everyone's responses. I'll add the fuel breather hose to the job to be done when I install the fuel tank.

Has anyone used the Nugget Stuff 4 port breather kit for the fuel line or is it better to run the air line up to the filler house?

Originally Posted by simmo

I replaced my original springs because they were too hard. The only time they felt Ok was when we were fully loaded. 7 pax roof rack full etc, maybe at 700+ kgs load.

But other wise I clenched my stomach muscles when i saw a bump or pothole ahead.

I went for OME springs and dampers, 2" lift, medium duty, not quite range rover standard , but a big improvement. They seem to have lasted OK, I don't have any complaints, but i haven't done the cape run or anything terribly demanding in terms of corrugations . If I did one of those trips I 'd probably buy a new set of Rancho shocks or similar.

I have a sill tank it's only 42 liters made of 2 mm mild steel plate, it has few scratches on it , but that's about all. The car does tilt a little to the right when its full. I usually use it first on a trip. It means I have reasonable range without any fuel filled Jerry cans. Next year I'm planning to go from Birdsville to Ayres rock via the Simpson desert. Does anyone have a comment about leaving Birdsville with 120 liters of usable fuel in a tdi defender?

I cannot comment on the tdi fuel efficiency. I can however give you my experience from the TD5 with the dual sill tanks (left and right side with Holley Red pump). We did a big outback trip in 2011 to see Lake Eyre and other places. Our route was Basically Sydney -> Broken Hill -> Innamincka -> Maree -> Lake Eyre -> Flinders Rangers -> Adelaide -> Sydney via Wagga Wagga/Wee Jasper... On two separate sections we managed 1400+ kilometers between fills and still had range (as judged by the number of litres filled up at the next fill we would always have at least 15L remaining). Having said that we had no roof racks, no trailer etc and traveled relatively light (45 litres of water + fuel plus three adults was the majority of the weight).

Most of my cross country desert trips have averaged around 13 to 14l /100 with the real tough sections we estimated up to 18l/100. If you are doing the main tracks French/Rig etc then fuel use will be nowhere near that high.
I have done Oodnadatta to Birdsville on ~90 litres.
300Tdi fully loaded

Martyn

Thanks guys for sharing your personal experiences re fuel consumption. The distance is roughly 600 kms, I'll be staying on the main tracks only diverting if there's something interesting to see. 110 liters Mt dare to Birdsville. I have about 122 liters in my tanks,( say 120 l usable) , that might be cutting it a bit fine IMV. I'm usually not in a hurry, and off road driving up to say 50 km/hr the roof rack makes negligible difference to the fuel economy anyhow. Currently my plan is west to east crossing , but I'm not absolutely set on that yet.
Looks like it might be worth while to carry one Jerry can as a contingency. tks simmo