Auxiliary fuel tanks

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
I looked into an auxiliary tank. However, the misses and I have to make pit stops long before the truck needs fuel. Plus it gives me time to stretch the legs and let the dogs water the grass. Besides- you get to experience novelty items local to that region that you would miss if you kept on trucking.
 
Hanr3 said:
I looked into an auxiliary tank. However, the misses and I have to make pit stops long before the truck needs fuel. Plus it gives me time to stretch the legs and let the dogs water the grass. Besides- you get to experience novelty items local to that region that you would miss if you kept on trucking.

Your travel plan mirrors ours exactly, right down to needing to give the dogs a break and I agree, but we have traveled in many places where fuel stops are few and far between including planning a trip to Alaska and Canada so having the extra fuel is a plus.  Also it may give the option of not stopping for fuel at a more expensive stop when a less expensive option may be just ahead. 
 
lone_star_dsl said:
I have a 105 gallon auxiliary tank in my truck. It makes a world of difference not only in range, but I can now take my time when shopping for diesel so that I can get the best price. For every penny cheaper I can find fuel, I save $1.00 on the total fill up. It really pays to search for the cheapest fuel. When we go to the beaches in California, I can top up everything and not have to pay the state's huge fuel prices.

When towing, my truck gets about 8 mpg leaving me with about 220 miles of usable range. With the auxiliary tank, I can push it to the limit, pull over to transfer fuel and stretch legs, then get back on the road. Over a day of driving, this can save me 20-30 minutes.

Did you ever try to figure out if hauling an extra 700 pounds or more of fuel weight decreased your mpg to rob you of a good portion of that savings?

I recently asked a buddy about putting an auxiliary tank on his F350.  He hauls for a couple different RV manufacturers out of northern Indiana, putting about 60,000 or more miles on a year.  He said he can fuel up and be in and out of a truck diesel lane in less than 15 minutes plus he has to stop every 3 or 4 hours anyway. 
 
lone_star_dsl said:
I have a 105 gallon auxiliary tank in my truck. It makes a world of difference not only in range, but I can now take my time when shopping for diesel so that I can get the best price. For every penny cheaper I can find fuel, I save $1.00 on the total fill up. It really pays to search for the cheapest fuel. When we go to the beaches in California, I can top up everything and not have to pay the state's huge fuel prices.

When towing, my truck gets about 8 mpg leaving me with about 220 miles of usable range. With the auxiliary tank, I can push it to the limit, pull over to transfer fuel and stretch legs, then get back on the road. Over a day of driving, this can save me 20-30 minutes.
What does that extra 700 lbs of fuel (plus the tank) do to your available Payload?
 
grashley said:
What does that extra 700 lbs of fuel (plus the tank) do to your available Payload?

It will reduce the payload capacity as will any added weight, but the OP's signature indicates a DRW 1-ton which has considerably more payload capacity than a SRW.  I do not know the OP's specific numbers but having general knowledge of weights, capacities etc. I would hazard a guess he would be ok.  This is a good case for not selecting a truck with only enough or a small margin in payload capacity.
 
I use a Transfer flow 75 gallon auxillary tank and love it.  Moved it over from my 2007 Chevy Diesel.  I did have to get a new brain for the system from Transfer Flow.  Since I'm pulling a TT, I don't have a problem with load capacity.  With 110 gallons on board I've been able to fuel up when its convenient and try to use Gas Buddy to save some $ whenever possible.  It really was great on our Alaska Trip.  We were able to save some big $ by planning our fuel stops.
 
I have a 60 gal gravity feed reserve diesel tank in my 2017 F250 short bed with an auto slide hitch, gives me a 1000 mile range when pulling and 1500 miles if just running the highway. Fill quick in the truck fuel lanes that have the wide mouth nozzles, love it, much peace of mind!
 
grashley said:
What does that extra 700 lbs of fuel (plus the tank) do to your available Payload?

With a FULL trailer (water, toys, etc.)and a truck full of kids, my weights are:

Front axle: 5,200
Rear axle: 7,740
GVW: 12,940

According to Ram, my truck has the following capacities:

Front axle: 6,000
Rear axle: 9,750
GVWR: 14,000

With the fuel at an added 700 lbs, I'm still 360 lbs under the GVWR and well under the axle ratings.
 
FL-Joe said:
Did you ever try to figure out if hauling an extra 700 pounds or more of fuel weight decreased your mpg to rob you of a good portion of that savings?

I recently asked a buddy about putting an auxiliary tank on his F350.  He hauls for a couple different RV manufacturers out of northern Indiana, putting about 60,000 or more miles on a year.  He said he can fuel up and be in and out of a truck diesel lane in less than 15 minutes plus he has to stop every 3 or 4 hours anyway.

If there is a MPG penalty, it doesn't make itself noticeable out to the second decimal place.

If I were hauling commercially, I would want to take as much fuel as possible for economic reasons. The savings really add up when you can buy cheaper fuel in bulk. It can sometimes be $5-10 a day when you get away from fueling at the large truck stops. $100+ dollars a months in fuel savings really start to add up.
 
We have a 55 gallon (under bed cover) auxiliary tank in our F450.  This gives us a total capacity of 103 gallons.

This is the second tank we have gotten from Aluminum Tank and Truck Accessories, https://www.attatank.com/, and they work very well.  They have what they call the Freedom Fill System which is plumbed into your tank lines and your gauge wire from the tank.  When your factory tank gets to 3/4 of a tank -- a pump comes on automatically and fills the tank from the auxiliary tank.  There is a gauge on the auxiliary tank that tells you how much is in there.

Great instructions.  I have put both of these tank in our trucks.

As has already been said -- it gives you the freedom to pick when you get fuel -- not being held hostage by the fuel gauge. 

With a 103 gallons I can travel wherever we need to go before I get fuel. 

Great investment.

bigdon68

2017 F450
2016 DRV Mobile Suites 38RSSA
 
FL-Joe said:
The first year we were full time in our fiver our small tank on our F350 made some planning interesting out west.  We never had any issues but I found I had to run my tank lower than I wanted to.  Started looking at options.  Didn't want to spend a ton of money.  Didn't want to consistently haul an extra 150 to 250 pounds of weight when not needed.  Plus I didn't want to give up any more room in my PU bed than I had to.

Ended up using four 5-gallon diesel cans with easy-pour spouts.  They fit nicely in my tool box and I only filled them when I knew the extra capacity was going to be needed.

I'm also looking at adding fuel capacity and like this option because of payload limits and cost.  Are there no safety concerns with the tanks in the bed of your truck?  Or do you keep it in the storage area of your RV?
 
WannaBeRVing said:
I'm also looking at adding fuel capacity and like this option because of payload limits and cost.  Are there no safety concerns with the tanks in the bed of your truck?  Or do you keep it in the storage area of your RV?


There are no safety concerns if you are using approved storage tanks.  It will be a PITA pouring from the fuel tanks though - in bed aux tank is way easier and if you don't want to pack around extra weight when you don't need it, don't fill it.  I always fill from the aux tank into my main tank.  This keeps the fuel in the aux tank fresh and since I have a water blocker filter on the line coming from my aux tank I get clean fuel in my main tank.
 
I have thought about adding an aux. tank but with my Ford I now have a 48 gallon fuel tank and it does just fine.  With my RAM and the 30 gallon tank I was wanting the aux. tank but with the short bed I just didn't have the room for my hitch or if I wanted to put one of my 4wheelers up in the bed.  I could do the aux. tank in the Ford but I just don't see the need at this point in time.  If things were to change and I was spending more time on the road then yeah I would certainly consider it. 
 
1blue78 said:
There are no safety concerns if you are using approved storage tanks.  It will be a PITA pouring from the fuel tanks though - in bed aux tank is way easier and if you don't want to pack around extra weight when you don't need it, don't fill it.  I always fill from .........

I like the option and flexibility of having some extra gas, and I use a couple 5-gal plastic tanks also. I don't like using the pour spouts, though, to xfer from those tanks into the RV's gas port, so I have a HF gasoline transfer pump/stick (costs like $8, runs on two D-cells) that I can rest a 5-gal tank on the RV's rear bumper and squirt the gas cleanly into the RV.

 
I bit the bullet and brought my truck in to have a Titan 55-gallon replacement tank installed.  Can't wait to have the extended range, especially since we will be heading to Alaska late spring.
 
Gizmo said:
I bit the bullet and brought my truck in to have a Titan 55-gallon replacement tank installed.  Can't wait to have the extended range, especially since we will be heading to Alaska late spring.

I look forward to hearing how it goes. Where are you having it done?
My truck is only the 6?6? bed so I think can only get a smaller tank than yours. Next will be a dually which I think is only an 8? bed if crew cab.

I wonder how the electronics will learn the tank capacity for estimating remaining range? Maybe it is a service computer setting that can be changed?
 
Lynx0849 said:
I look forward to hearing how it goes. Where are you having it done?
My truck is only the 6?6? bed so I think can only get a smaller tank than yours. Next will be a dually which I think is only an 8? bed if crew cab.

I wonder how the electronics will learn the tank capacity for estimating remaining range? Maybe it is a service computer setting that can be changed?

Back from having the tank installed it went well only hiccup is when I went to fill up the tank and the pump stopped at $100.00, so had to run a second fill to completely fill it up.  I also purchased and had a tank bash plate that Titan offers.  I had it installed by Vision Diesel Performance in Aurora, OR near where we are currently located.  They install all kinds of diesel products and accessories and I believe also perform regular maintenance and repair services, I found them from the Titan website under dealer locator.  There is no adjustment for the fuel gauge to read correctly.
 
Gizmo said:
Back from having the tank installed it went well only hiccup is when I went to fill up the tank and the pump stopped at $100.00, so had to run a second fill to completely fill it up.  I also purchased and had a tank bash plate that Titan offers.  I had it installed by Vision Diesel Performance in Aurora, OR near where we are currently located.  They install all kinds of diesel products and accessories and I believe also perform regular maintenance and repair services, I found them from the Titan website under dealer locator.  There is no adjustment for the fuel gauge to read correctly.

Titan makes a great product ive sold lots of them - my current Ford has a 181 liter tank which is 47.8 US gallons. you will love the extra range especially when some place are more expensive than others . Congrats
 
steveblonde said:
Titan makes a great product ive sold lots of them - my current Ford has a 181 liter tank which is 47.8 US gallons. you will love the extra range especially when some place are more expensive than others . Congrats

Good to know and thanks.  I am really looking forward to that extra range, especially for our upcoming trip to Alaska and because of our travels in the west.
 
Good to know and thanks. I am really looking forward to that extra range, especially for our upcoming trip to Alaska and because of our travels in the west.
I'm currently thinking about adding a 40-50 gal. gravity fuel tank in the bed of my 2008 Ram 3500.
Looking to find one that is under the bed rails for my gooseneck clearance. My problem is I cannot find a steel one available that will fit. I did find an aluminum one built by RDS. THE QUESTION...does anyone use an aluminum fuel tank without any issues of it cracking at the seams of weld?
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
131,749
Posts
1,384,226
Members
137,520
Latest member
jeep3501
Back
Top Bottom