Auxiliary Gas Tank Build

Love the idea and have sub'd the thread

 

Steel tanks will need to be lined internally to protect from rust entering the pickup caused by ethanol in your fuel. Haven't driven in Washington in a couple of years myself but I do recall seeing ethanol tags on most gasoline pumps that we stopped at. If the state has changed it's policies and no longer authorizes selling ethanol mixed fuel and you never intend to buy fuel outside of state for that tank then no worries.

If you want to keep costs down with the welder you can add foam baffles which work very well but may require inspection as some fuel mixtures break the material down. Another option is the ring baffles such as the type that Alltech offers. One caveat with the ring baffles is that your pickup will require shielding to protect the mechanism unlike with welded and foam block baffles.

 

Can't wait to watch this build, wouldn't need one personally, but love the idea, more power to you!

 

Makes sense.... No permanent changes.

I'm in it for the good project aspect myself. I'm looking forward to seeing your project move forward.

 

How much ground clearance will the tank have, if you are going to go off roading with it? There was a post on Expedition Portal (I think?) about a guy who installed an Isuzu fuel tank in the spare tire area (I'm unable to find the article ATM, so no link... sorry). I believe he stacked the spare below the tank and had decreased ground clearance, but had the extra 15 or so gallons.

But this type of thing makes me nervous, since you can just drop the rear end of the truck off a ledge and land almost squarely on the tank. Could you put a heavy skid under it? I'm not that nervous about dropping my truck on the spare, but with 17 gallons in place of the spare...

 

I'm planning on doing away with the spare tire guide bracket things so the tank should sit higher up than the spare also I don't do that kind of off roading. However, that could change. If so I'll have a thick skid plate made that would mount to the frame.

 

..what happened to this project?

 

yeah i wondered if he gave up on it. id really love to see a larger fuel cell option for my 99.

 

Reviving this thread from the depths of dead good ideas.... did it ever get done?

 

OP has not been on TW in over 3 years.

If you are interested in additional fuel capacity look up LRA tanks in the search function. It's an aftermarket gas tank specifically built for the Tacoma and gets you from the stock 21 gallons to 34 gallon capacity in the stock location. I've had one for a while and it's awesome range.

 

Probably the best option. One tank engineered for this exact purpose.

Since my last post in this thread I added a 19 gallon 1990 Ford F150 tank where the spare tire used to go on my 03 Tacoma back in 2015.

I think I spent about $200 on parts and a weekend welding a bracket to hold it.

It uses the stock ford fuel pump and sending unit for its own fuel guage.

It’s worked really well for the last 80,000 or so miles on trips all over the western US.

With all that said, yeah, these are super nice
https://longrangeamerica.com/?s=Tacoma

 

Don't forget jdfabs aux tank mount as well

 

I have looked into the LRA. I like it but 3 issues. 1 more taco lean, 2 cant be shipped to Cali do to stupid laws, 3 its a direct swap of the OE tank and wont pass Cali bullcrap smog. my needs are pretty much limited to a removeable or hide-able aux tank which JD fab aux setup fits the bill, but the bill is dam expensive and i spoke with them about their build and its not a bolt in kit. its a weld-in kit and you gotta still do a buncha guess work on sourcing a tank.... I like OP's og idea of bolt on fuel cell with a separate filler maybe add a few QD fittings and manual valves so the tank can be dropped when smog time comes around. eh.... it was a shot in the dark on this thread but eh.