Gas Tank Removal Questions

[Jim85IROC]

I've got to pull down one of the gas tanks from my 87 GMC 3500 pickup. The rear hanger has rotted half away, and the tank is moving around a little bit. I did a search and some say that it's easiest to remove the bed first, and others say it takes 20 minutes from underneath. That's quite a vast difference in philosophy there.

Anyway, I got underneath and started looking around. Where the hanger is bolted to the frame, it looks like a ridiculously tight fit between the frame and the gas tank for me to get a wrench up there on the nuts. Plus, the nuts are rusty as hell and look like they'll break as soon as I try to turn them. This is starting to look like it's going to be a much bigger project than I had anticipated, so I want to get some advice from guys that have done it before.

What approach do I take here? Even if I remove the bed, I don't see how that's going to help me get the front strap off... that's under the cab. Is there something obvious that I'm missing here, or do I have to get some sort of extra long wrench and try to get it on those nuts between the tank and frame and use a ratchet to try and turn the bolt on the inside of the frame? That just looks like a recipe for disaster to me.

Anyway, any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks