Increased fuel capacity.

[chemicals]

As the petrol LR disco lives up to its name as being somewhat thirsty, Im planning on increasing the fuel capacity of our truck.

WIth a big tank at the rear, I was told that U had to replace the rear swaybar which will effect the handling. Not good. The sill tank idea seems to have more merit . Would these tanks in the wheelbase effect ground clerance?

As they are fairly expensive, is it feasable to perhaps install some tanks say out another model say from the wrecking yards (porbably 2 tanks from a small jap car say 45-50 ltrs each?????

[Hellspawn]

Hey Chems

The hardest thing I've come up against when doing the planning of increased fuel capacity is fill points without hacking up the body too much. Getting custom tanks made is easy and quite cheap, my two tanks cost me $250 full baffled and ready to bolt in through a sheet metal mob. Premade ones cost double that for one :!:

I'm concealing my fillers as best as possible as to me noting looks worse than those aftermarket plastic filler caps, especially LPG, through the panels. It's like an after thought.... "right that's the tank bolted in... oops... no filler... just go through this panel here.. surely no one will notice". Few ways you could design your system however if you wanted to, use a transfer pump to fill the aux tank out of your main and one pump to return it, that way they could be quite remotely mounted. That way you solve the "how do I fill it ?" question. Perhaps others have some ideas... ?

Ground clearance will be lower on Hellspawn however no more so than the lowest existing point being the cross bar under the gearbox/transfer. The base of the tank is fairly solid steel so could take some punishment before rupture. I've still got 340mm of clearance which is more than enough to clear most urban kerbs or roundabouts.

Just be sure to use H/T bolts whichever way you go to hold the tanks in. Would make lovely fireworks if one dropped off and ruptured on the freeway.

[shaunp]

No thats not correct about the sway bar. It depends on what tank you buy. There are a couple of differnt long range rear tanks. I fitted one to a mates car I think 130L ARB and I just had to put 10mm packers under the sway bar mounts. You need to get the tank complianced as well.

[bigbugga]

One of the sill tanks I have seen have had to have the fillers located in the foot wells, wait till you spill some and the smell makes you giddy for the next hour or two.

This is something I have been wanting to do to my own V8, either this or hire a BP truck to follow me.

Is it not possiable to have the sill tanks conected to the main tank and fill and empty from the same point?

[LandyAndy]

Hi Guys
One of the main problems in letting them fill from one point is air gets trapped and takes time to equalize whilst you are stood at the bowser waiting for the filler to empty,if the air cant transfer around easy it wont fill.Transfering electrically can be done but a large pump would be needed if filling/transfering fuel at the bowser.
Hellspawn,having a series landy,you can basically fit the standard filler anywhere down the panel on either side and will still look "factory"Worst looking series fueltank conversion I have seen was a stage 1 wagon with series tanks fitted under both front seats,it had real sad looking fillers in each front gaurd,YUK.
How about going for the lightwieght method of tank filling???lift the seat base and fill 'er up!!!! Dont forget to put the lid on!!!!
Andrew

[Hellspawn]

Deliberately sniffing petrol eh big bugga ? Criminal offence you know !

I thought of that Andrew, the factory look but I'm not one who likes cutting up the body. Adding the snorkel was bad enough and I did it to her myself! That jigsaw on aluminium sound is worse than nails down a chalkboard. Felt guilty afterwards and gave her a wash to make up for it....don't think she's fogiven me yet....ops: Bit like giving the wife flowers after you forgot her birthday and you get that look followed by the attitude problem.

[agrojnr]

ARB sell a thing called an AUX tank and it holds about 40L if you find one to suit a defender then just modifiy it to fit a series but for the disco BB I thought ARB made a 132L for the Disco???

I have seen someone fit a van type tank one did'nt look to bad!!!

Andrew can't you hook up another breather from the second tank to the filler???


adam

[Hellspawn]

Better part of $1100 for the 130L long ranger replacement tank through ARB for the Disco fitted for BB. Over the counter would be $850. I guess ARB would be fairly conservative with restricting ground clearance, could possible go bigger custom made and not bash it too badly off road or just add a guard plate if it does scrape. Quiet sheet steel shop should do one for you in the mid twos........ hundred that is. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

Actually should we be considering uprating the springs if we're increasing fuel loads ? :?

[shaunp]

The one from ARB doen't hang much lower. The sway bar is 10mm lower due to packing the mounts and the back of the tank ends up level with a Hayman reace tow bar. But you do need some springs i reckon for when it is loaded and the tank is full. They don't ask you to change the springs to get the Qld transport mod plate however.

[bigbugga]

Originally posted by agrojnr
ARB sell a thing called an AUX tank and it holds about 40L if you find one to suit a defender then just modifiy it to fit a series but for the disco BB I thought ARB made a 132L for the Disco???

I have seen someone fit a van type tank one did'nt look to bad!!!

Andrew can't you hook up another breather from the second tank to the filler???


adam

A replacment tanks isnt a problem, I was looking at sill tanks because this would give me almost 190litres over all.

2 sill tanks at 50litres each
and the main tank that came with the disco at 89 litres