Saddle tanks

[tdkosta]

Where these an aftermarket dealer option? Has anyone set up a clean looking gas guage for them?

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/pts/2254163694.html



I have some already mounted under the bed, luckily it looks like the boxes weren't comprimised.

[old man jimmy]

Not a dealer option, But a lot of 4 X 4 parts suppliers use to carry them. They also had another tank that layed flat on the floor behind the rear seat that came with a rubber mat on top. Kinda like a raised floor. Plus a 42 gal tank that had tubes welded through it to run long bolts. Went in stock location and bolted thru the floor. Was also heavy gauge steel and was it's own skid plate. That's the one I opted for. Dick Cepek out of Calif. use to be the bigest supply house when these trucks came out, and carried tons of do-dads for them. Doubt if it's still around though.

[bouncytruck]

I have them too. Manufactured by off-road racer Vic Hickey's company Hickey Enterprises, Inc., in the 70s. They also made other accessories and ran some desert race trucks. Reportedly, Hickey owned the first Blazer made for promotional at races. He also created a off-road buggy called the Baja Boot and

Mine are hooked in with a switch on the floor to change between the main tank and the side saddle tanks. It draws from the one side first then the other. Unfortunately, the gas gauge doesn't work.

Some dealers did installs, but the were not factory.

There is/was a board member who owned the 69 Hickey race truck. He came up to my place and measured my tanks because he was planning to make reproductions. He was building a reproduction of Hickey's Blazer pre race runner. I don't know what happened to him.

This is the Hickey Race truck.


This is the board members truck at a pre race in Las Vegas a few years ago shown with the Baja Boot.


Old Ad for sidewinder wench.

[bouncytruck]

Here's some photos of my tanks

[Cap'n Hook]

This is a '72 Jimmy I owned about 6-7 years ago. It had saddle tanks on each side just under the front seats, under the cab. It had a rotary switch that you selected the tanks, located just under the driver seat by the door where the factory jack had been. Whenever you selected the tank you needed with the fuel, the fuel gauge would register the amount of fuel in each individual tank!

As far as I know, it was a dealer installed option. Wish I still had this truck!

[GI Blazer]

I have those type of tanks as well, plus a 40 gallon main in the stock position. I looked around for a while to put in a sending unit for each one. I found adjustable units at JC Whitney. They also hava multiport valves that would transfer the sending unit signal to your dash as the different tanks were selected. It started getting pretty complex though as you need a supply line, tank vent and a return for each tank, Plus the sending unit. It would require lots of plumbing underneath the truck. Since I like 4 wheeling, decided more stufff underneath is more things to snag. In the end decided to go with a simpler setup.
I went with just getting a 4 port valve and plumbing both tanks so they gravity drain into the main tank. Once the main tank is below 1/4 tank it will easily hold the contents of both the saddle tanks.

[tdkosta]

Great idea to have your saddle tanks drain to your main tank. I wish it would work easy to set up my tanks that way too, but mine are below the bed.

[GI Blazer]

Well you could put in an electric pump and tee them together and pump it into the main tanks. It would be slow going probably and might be hard to tell when the transfer is complete. I have a low volume electric pump setup on mine now, which sends gas to the engine. When it runs out of fuel it gets very loud leaving no doubt that it is running out of gas.