does the framerail tank make her tailhappy?

[uk72step]

Hey guys.
Thinking of doing the frame rail tank on my stepper while doing a rebuild. Was just wondering, does the framerail tank make the truck tail happy or does it just balance out nice?

The truck rides better when loaded I know but wasnt sure about all taht weight of say a full tank acting as a pendulum behind the rear wheels.

What are your experiences?

Cheers
Lee

[COBRO]

With my 72 C-20 it balanced it out - I installed a 38gal tank out of a suburban and with the tank full it rides much smoother now.HTH::::CB

[67chevemall]

You can fit a 38gal tank under there?
I put a 18 gal but after a while I put it in the bed.
Once I take my bed off again I want to put something between the rails.

[Bamm]

Hey Cobro, can you post some pics of your 38 gallon tank installed? Any major difficulty in the installation? Thanks, .......Jerry

[COBRO]

Sorry cant do pics at this time - not an easy install compared to a blazer tank as more crossmembers have to be removed and rear mounts have to be fabbed up for retaining straps that hold the tank in. And yes a 38gal.tank will fit but just barely as the rear of the tank comes out even with the end of the frame rails.I have an older and very heavy step bumper (3/8" thick steel) which ties the frame rails together so I didnt worry about looseing any strenght after removing the crossmembers,I wouldnt recommend this if you have a standard rear bumper or some of the newer light sheetmetal step bumpers.
The second hassle of this is the suburban tanks filler hose comes in on the pass.side so I had to weld in the fuel door panel from the suburban into the rear panel of the bed on the pass.side. This is a square door off the suburban but think a round door off a S-10 could be used with a few mods. A hose cover out of a Blazer was used to cover the opening I had to cut on the inside of the bed for the filler hose comming up to the new door/cap location.
Would have done the Blazer tank if this would have been a cruiser or an everyday driver truck but Im building this for mainly towing a travel trailer since I work mostly on the road and with a 9mpg 454 I needed more range than the 20 gal.tank allowed. HTH:::CB

[Russell]

With a C20 longbed, the 38 gallon tank to rear pumpkin clearance is fairly close, but if you bottom the truck out, it will not hit the diff. Biggest issue I've come up against is exhaust routing, it makes things pretty tight. The tank also sits down a bit lower than a smaller one would. Other than that, its pretty much the same install as the smaller one, just takes up all of the room out back, while the smaller tank left a bit of room (I didn't even have to take off the brake line bracket when I stuck a smaller blazer tank in )

[67ChevyRedneck]

Thats the same location blazers had their tanks from the factory.... My truck's rear gets REAL happy unloaded in the rain, so any additional weight back there would be nice. Think of it this way, a 20 gallon tank will hold around 120 pounds of fuel.... thats like having a 120 lb girl sittin at the end of the bed, truck won't even notice she's there.... I hope to do this install next year.

[cdowns]

usually what makes a trucks rearend "GET HAPPY" is a large right foot not a gastank

[67chevemall]

Dam that right foot!! And who invented Curbs??