Question about fuel transfer tanks on trucks....

[leeinmemphis]

I have a 1997 Ford f-superduty with a flatbed that I have fixed back up that use to be a delivery truck for our office. It has just over 200k miles on it and I am trying to decide on whether I want to mount a fuel tank on the back of the truck to fill up my tractor/trackhoe/dozer. I have a 110 gallon tank with a 12v. transfer pump on it currently mounted on a 5x8 trailer and it is ok but I seem to think that having it mounted on the truck may be a better option for me. Moving the trailer around when the tank is loaded is a problem because I can't push it around by myself. I usually have to fill it up 2-3 times a year but I could probably just keep it 1/3 or so full most of the time. I'm a little concerned about carrying too much fuel on the truck in case of a wreck or something like that. I also carry a gooseneck several times a year with this truck so I will need to keep from the center of the bed to the rear clear. I was curious what everyone is doing for carrying their fueltanks on the trucks. Would I maybe be better off just mounting the tank on a heavy built skid to off load with a set of forks on my fel for the few times a year of fill up or is there any other options that I am missing????

 

[gordon21]

Here are some things to think about.

I assume the tank will have off road diesel in it. There is no reason to haul it around with you all day long everyday. It will hurt your mileage and you can't use the dyed fuel in your truck. It will also reduce the useable size of the bed.

The tank on the skid idea is workable if your FEL can handle 650-900# with the pallet forks installed. Your main worry here is securing it on the bed for the ride home. Hills, curves, etc. I would chain it at four corners minmum to the bed.

The simple and cheap solution is to drill a hole and mount a 2" hitch ball in the front edge of your FEL and move the fully loaded 5x8 trailer around with it. You can install or remove a ball on the front in a couple minutes without affecting whatever you have on the 3PT. All you need to move it is a little more power than your arms and shoulders can provide. You will be looking straight at it while you are backing the trailer into it's parking spot. If you have your own trackhoe and dozer, I'm guessing you have a box full of various hitch balls laying around somewhere.

 

[em14]

Personally I would not be hauling tractor fuel around other than to transport to the work site or for refilling. It's a lot of dead weight and it will always be in the way. There are exceptions to this of course! So I am only addressing the rather low usage rate of your situation. I would do as recommended by Lewis. For my local use of diesel I have a 50 gal. tank that I sling on my FEL and lift into the bed of my pick-up to move or to haul to the Distributor for refilling. I can haul the tractor on the equipment trailer (which is not a 5th wheel/gooseneck) without presenting a problem. This is the way I handled things when I had a JD 5220. Now that I am the owner of a 6420 I will have use this tank for jobs around here and will install a skid tank on the farm. That tank will be filled as need be by the distributor.

 

[leeinmemphis]

Thanks for the info. Right now I am not running off road diesel in my equipment because I have to drive quite a ways to get it and it isn't convenient or practical for no more than I am currently using. The tank can be mounted in front of the gooseneck ball so it won't be in the way of that at all but for some reason I am hesitant to have it permanently mounted. This truck is NOT a daily driver and will only be used on weekends to drive to/from the farm(100 miles round trip) and to haul my equipment when needed to be transported for repairs etc. I doubt I'll put 7-10k miles on it a year but then I guess you never really know what may come up

 

[shaley]

Make sure your tank is DOT approved for liability issues.

 

[Mahana79]

i have a 100 gallon tank/toolbox combo mounted in the bed of my dually. it stays in there all the time. is it always full? no my goosenecks clear it fine. have3 a 12vdc pump in it with filter for filling up the tractor, car, whatever. Most of the time it has BioDiesel in it. i fill up friends trucks and whatnot. i use it like a mobile fueling station.

 

[DieselPower]

Or you could do like a friend of mine did. He got two diesel fuel tanks off of school bus's and mounted them under the bed on the outside of the frame rails in front of the rear axle. School bus fuel tanks have super heavy duty high tensile steel roll cages built around them that are ment to take a side impact from loaded tractor trailer at something like 50MPH, much like the body of the bus. Next time I get down to my friend's garage (a bus contractor) I'll take the camera along and snap a picture or two of one.

 

[George2615]

Since your truck is not a daily driver I see no reason why you couldn't mount your 110 gal. tank toward the front of the flatbed providing it's an approved fuel tank. That way you could drive your truck to the tractor / dozer or whatever runs out of fuel and when it gets low you drive to the truck stop and refill. If you don't permanently mount it you could skid mount it as mentioned and secure the skid to the flatbed.

 

[firemanpat2910]

2 things to consider. 1 if the tank is mounted to the truck if the truck wont start,has a flat or is other wise unavailable you cant get fuel. 2 security $300.00 worth of fuel sitting on a open truck is temting, and if you only fill 1/3 there are condensation issues. I would mount the tank on a skid, then you can secure it to the truck,trailer, pickup, or whatever to transport. And you can leave it in a secure shaded spot when not in use. just my $.02 worth

 

[leeinmemphis]

thanks everyone. I think I have decided to try mounting the tank int he center behind the headache rack. My current pump doesn't have a fuel filter/water seperator but I called today to get the parts to have it added. Whether it is on the truck or not I needed to add it anyway. Thanks again.