Move fuel tank to inside rail along driveshaft?

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by JohnC

The down side to that is, towing a good sized trailer the mpg drops to 5-6 MPG, so you would be looking at 330 miles @5.5 mpg.

Now when I switch out to the Cummins that in the 93 dodge with the same rear end ratio weighing more than my 85, I was pulling 20 mpg average, if I get 20 mpg out of it again, that will mean a range of just under 1200 miles!

towing I figure I can get 12-15, if we call it 13.5 mpg that is just under 810 miles. Thus the 454 is finding a new home in my 72 4x4.

BTW, im also going to run saddle tanks on my 72, im building them out of 1/8th inch plate. Not because im so worried about being hit, but because im more worried about rocks.

On that note, in a collision a fuel tank being smashed is not going to cause an explosion, it may cause the tank to leak, but not to explode. For the fuel to catch fire, you need a good spark, and the fuel has to be vaporized.

Remember, you can throw a lit cigarette into a 5 gallon bucket full of gasoline and it wont explode.

The reason explosions in the movies (and well the Dateline NBC special for that matter) is because they put a tank full of gasoline in the vehicle (often times 55 gallon drums full) then they use an explosive charge to set them off.

The explosive charge creates first the source of ignition, but it also causes the airial dispersion of the gasoline into vapor, thus the huge fire ball.

To have that kind of energy in a motor vehicle accident you are going to be talking about a big truck verses pickup accident at highway speeds or above. And if that is the case, it would have to be the proper angle of attack for the impact, and everything would have to be timed extremly precicely so as that the vast majority of the energy was transfered to the tank, but if these events were to transpire, you have more issues than just your fuel tank IE the insane ammount of damage the physical impact is going to do to you.

Thus I have no problem stating that the saddle tanks are well with in a margin of safety that I am comfortable with.