Need help - want to fit long range fuel tank

[MarcoH]

Suggestions needed!

We are in the process of looking to fit a long range fuel tank to our car. We were told that we would loose 5cm of ground clearance by the spare wheel.
Now we want to try and gain the loss again, but are not sure how best to achieve this. We've tried overload leaf springs (but they broke after a few days) and can't afford a full OME suspension kit.

Would be grateful for any suggestions.

Cheers Marco & Vivian

[Family_Dog]

Bulldog has a "Marie Biscuit" type of spare wheel fitted as a spare under the LR tank. Compared to the full-size spare, I gain about 75mm in ground clearance. M rims are 15" with Cooper 31" STT tyres on, but the spare is a 16" rim with a far narrower tyre but similar overall height to the STTs.

If I really need the other spare wheel, I carry it on the rear bumper which has been adapted for this.


-F_D

[Mud Dog]

Hi Marco & Vivian. Firstly welcome to the forum We hope you find it beneficial to yourselves.

I bought my vehicle with a long range tank alteady fitted. I my case it is not an additional tank, but a replacement tank that is mounted 'midships' like the original, but it is shaped to use the complete area, even goes over the rear driveshaft with a heat-shield at the exhaust area. The point is that this was available and may still be. It would be an easier fit (no splitters, seperate breathers etc, etc.). Of course mine is an SFA model, but it might be worth your while to look around first.
If worse comes to worst, Eric's idea of a tail mounted spare is also comon practise.
Good luck and happy off-roading.

[Scooter]

MD, no one seems to make 'replacement' tanks anymore unless you have it made to order and then you will pay an arm and leg for it.

Marco, what rear bumper do you have on? You may find that the 5cms you lose isn't actually affecting your angles at all as the bumper may still be lower than the spare with the tank installed.

If the spare does indeed hang a lot lower than the bumper, then the only options are to move the tank or move the spare. As I said before I don't believe there are any replacement tanks and so I would fit the tank and not worry about the spare dropping slightly. I have not heard of anyone having any trouble with it.

It also depends on what type of travelling you are doing? One would assume overlanding, ground clearance is't as important with this as it is with trails and I don't reckon you would have any issues with it.

[Mountain Man]

Or put the extra tank in the bin like I did and that is so straight forward...no air locks, gravity fed to the original tank, easy to fill, only takes up about 120mm along the bin so don't loose much space, and it is more centralised so don't have the weight behind the rear wheels. Also don't loose any ground clearance.

[MarcoH]

Thank you all for your advise.
Mountain Man: extra tank in the bin
That is a good Idea, but we wanted to put a water tank there. SO unfortunatly that option falls away.

Scooter: It also depends on what type of travelling you are doing? One would assume overlanding, ground clearance is't as important with this as it is with trails and I don't reckon you would have any issues with it.
You may find that the 5cms you lose isn't actually affecting your angles at all as the bumper may still be lower than the spare with the tank installed.
We intend on doing a 3 month overlanding trip through southern africa, we unfortunatly have experienced Mozambiques sand driving and have 'beached' ourselves on the odd occasion. And as Moz beaches will be our main destination this will become a problem.

Family-Dog: "Marie Biscuit" type of spare wheel
Our vehicle already has a Marie Biscuit as spare wheele and we have a full sized spare on our roof rack. We do intend to keep two spares for our overland trip.
I'm not sure what bumper we have on, but I don't think the one we have will hold the spare one.

What are the options for raising the suspension? We don't have much money so OME is out of the question at this point in time. As said before we tried overload leaf springs, which broke.

[SuidWes]

Hi Marco, speak to Darryl at Mikem. He is busy building a custom set of leaf springs for my vehicle to accommodate the extra weight at the back. I also have a LR tank above the spare (31) and I have not had any issues with it and I've done quite a bit of sand driving.....The diffs will drag long before you get to the spare and on departure angle the std bumper catches before the spare does - Not sure if this will be the case with the IFS 8 )

[Scooter]

............I've done quite a bit of sand driving.....The diffs will drag long before you get to the spare and on departure angle the std bumper catches before the spare does - Not sure if this will be the case with the IFS 8 )

Marco, I have to agree with Jaco here. Pretty much the only time you will notice the lower tank position is on departure angles etc. And then if the spare is dragging, the bumper will be too.
I have also experienced heavy Moz sand in a 2.7 with LR tank above the spare and we didn't have a problem.

BTW Marco, I still have a LR tank for sale for the IFS. PM me if you are interested.

[Mud Dog]

Or just get a couple jerrycans .... you can fit them in the load body wherever there's space, or even have external mountings. Probably the cheapest option and less hassle (except at the pumps).