Is this idea totally insane? I've heard of motorcycles using the frame as an oil tank, how about a car frame for a fuel tank? You could use heavy-wall (3/16") rectangular tubing, mitered corners, and a really skilled welder. Thoughts, opinions, wild accusations?
Where would the pickup be? I would think that with a long thin "tank" like the framerails you propose, anything less than completely full would be a problem. Lets say you have the pickup by the engine. Going up a hill all the fuel would run to the back of the frame and starve the engine. Thats the biggest problem I can see.
yeah.. i think fuel capacity and control would be a big problem... I think your better off squeezing a small tank somewhere...
This question comes up a lot, suffice to say its not a good idea. Oil is a different question all together.
Probably wouldn't be worth a **** around corners either. I was thinking more of safety issues, this didn't occur to me. I am planning to use my frame for my "Gold Chain" air bag suspension setup.
Sounds wild to me. I think since they try and put fuel tanks to the inside of frame rails I would think about safty aspect of a front, side or rear collision. I'm not saying your a crazy driver but it is the other guy to look out for. Keith in Missouri
don't forget about rust- water condenses in there, rusts from the inside out, pretty soon your frame breaks in half, and, well, you know the rest....... I wouldn't make any structural part of the car contain brake fluid or fuel
"And a 2X3 heavy wall tube frame is weaker than a sheetmetal gas tank how?" there was a post on this a while back and I'm paraphrasing one of the responses I remember above. I think the slosh/pickup problems s****ped the guys plans.
As far as using the frame rails as a fuel tank; have to agree. (unless you stopped at every other gas station!!) But; our Bonneville LSR uses the frame rails to "pipe" coolant from the engine back to the water storage tank. (left side OUT of the engine; right side BACK to the engine; NO radiator) As far as rust goes; a bit of anti-freeze in the coolant has prevented ANY rust! The 2 x 4" .125 wall rectangular frame tubes should last - let's see ... about 300 years!
I used to use the lower frame rail in my dragster ch***is as a ( fuel line & tank expander ) the problem is & will always be ( RUST ). Now if you were up to building the frame out of 304 SS , you could make that work if you really spent the time to figure out all your flow & volume problems.
I have run coolant through frame rails too. **** always will a stainless liner in side the 4130 or DOM 1020.
Just be sure to tell the guys at the muffler shop when you take it to get new exhaust put on it. I could imagine what would happen when they went to weld a tab on for a hanger
i remember reading that don garlits last top fuel dragster, the one with the canopy and single wing strut , ran nitro thru the ch***is. i know that doesnt really help ya...... Mark
fuel in the rails has been done forever. biggest problem is size of the tank and sloshing. look at a new buell they have fuel in the frame and oil in the swingarm
A bad idea ..... AND also the implications of an owner on down the road getting hurt as a result of drilling or welding the frame is added worry.......NO.
Most of these arguments are valid, but I don't see how rust could be an issue. My original steel 16 guage tank has lasted 50 years with no rust through, how long would it take for rust to work it's way through .125" steel due to moisture in the fuel?
You have to remember the frame/"tank" would need to be vented and the length of the rails would allow the inside to be bare at times when the tank was low...it is bare steel after all and not Galvanized steel like a typical tank....the bare stell would condense moisture easily..... sealer might help that -BUT STILL.......I feel the safety issue is foremost on this topic.....
Just a thought, but could you come up with some type of bladder that would slide into the rails? It could hold the actual fuel and just use the space inside the rails. There maybe some sort of flexable tubing that would already work for this. Also maybe it could be made to compress and squeeze the fuel towards the feed line as it was emptied. Sort of like those baby bottles with the plastic bags that can be drank from any positon. Then when you went to fill up it would just expand back out. I'd have to think there is a lot more space in a long frame rail (or 2 rails) than you'd expect.
2" x 4" x.120 (1/8") wall frame rails - which is all that's required - .187 (3/16") wall frame rails are overkill. Capacity would be lacking. If you could use 96" of the frame for fuel storage you'd have about 3 gallons per side. Arrange your frame so you can build tanks between driveshaft and frame rails, ahead of the rear axle. You'll want a driveshaft safety loop front and rear in case you brake a U-joint. There's room to build a 7 gallon tank on each side if you plan ahead.
Well your crazy... Funny nobody mentioned this but since you only going to have an aprox 7 gal supply like C9 said what happens when you go up or down a good hill and you only have a little under half a tank of gas? So in reality you only have about 3.5 gal of fuel since the pickup would have to be mounted in the center orit would just be worse if it was move foward or back. I'm guessing if you really wanted to do this you pretty much have to do some means of baffling inside the rails.
What if you need to weld on the frame in the future or add something to the frame like a bracket with screws?
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