Auxiliary Fuel Tank or Jerry Cans?

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Fuel System

  • Jerry Cans (80L)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Rear Auxiliary Tank (100L)

    Votes: 4 100.0%

  • Underbody Tank (40L)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    4
  • Poll closed .
ac3bf1

ac3bf1

New Member
Posts
104
Location
SW19 - Wimbledon, SW London
Was pondering on this yesterday and I cannot find an answer... The options are as follows:

Option 1) Get 4 Jerry cans (90 L total) and fix them in the back of the landy or the roof rack
Costs:
Cans - £86
holders - ~£60?
TOTAL £146.00 (more or less)

Option 2) get a large tank, a fuel transfer pump, an electric valve and use a switch to enable transfering of fuel from auxiliary tank to main tank (through vent pipe or thereabout...)
Costs:
Tank (100L) - £80.00
Pump - £30.00
Fittings, pipes etc - ~£30.00
TOTAL - £150.00

Price-wise they are similar... not much difference, and if you do on a per litre basis they are the same-ish... Nonetheless with the Jerry cans system, nothing can "break"... with aux tank there are "more things that could break" but it's MUCH cooler! :p:cool:

Also, under-car tank (40L-ish) or stored in the back (100L capacity)?
P.S. I have a double cab so smell, NOT A PROBLEM :D

Any feedback? :)
 
Last edited:
there is no answer...

Its personal choice.

Lots of variables, you have pointed out the main ones above. I would imagine an in built tank would cost you more though. It would need to have a guard for a start, cradle, mounts, fuel filler and 2" fuel pipe is not cheap.

jerry's are pretty faultless but your weight is up higher (not down between the chassis rails), can be messy, time consuming. Dont put these on the roofrack. bad bad bad.

You say you have a DC so you could get a small inbuilt tank for the wing which would be about 40L and then supliment this with 2 more jerry's. you can also get a bigger tank in place of your original or even fit an underseat tank like those on a 90. out of the way, low down weight is what your after.

G
 
all very good thoughts... confirm some of my points... and I think this time I will avoid messing about, and just go with the faultless solution:
Jerry cans... Yes a bit of messing about, but nothing goes wrong with them and I save space in rear cab... cheaper too...

:)
 
Aux tank, if you can do it, no questions. You can always add jerrycans even if you have an aux tank, but can't do the opposite...

BTW, if you go this route, you better use a 6-port valve (Pollak or other) and a switch on the dash to select the tank you want to use. Transferring fuel is always a chore, and it's easy to mess it up (been there, done that...)
 
Kano said:
BTW, if you go this route, you better use a 6-port valve (Pollak or other) and a switch on the dash to select the tank you want to use.QUOTE]

you could always keep it simpler by using a transfer pump and pumping it from your Aux tank into the factory tank. This means you are not messing with the factory set-up. If your pump fails you lose the aux tank. what happens if a Pollak fails? no fuel from anywhere.

G
Click to expand...
 
If a Pollak fails, unless it fails right in between positions, you have fuel from wherever it's set... which leaves you siphoning fuel from the other tank, which is exactly what you'd do if the transfer pump fails.
 
Kano said:
Transferring fuel is always a chore, and it's easy to mess it up (been there, done that...)
Click to expand...

What you mean leaving the pump running so that all your auxiliary fuel all flows out through your main filler cap :D

So what I do now is leave the main tank till the needle hits the red, then flick the switch on the dash and 10 minutes later my main tank is fill but not over fill.

There is nothing more easy or painless, and I really like the idea of being able to fill up on the go, never would have made that campsite at Ceuta by 12pm closing if I had to stop and dick about with Jerry cans. ;)
 
Kano said:
If a Pollak fails, unless it fails right in between positions, you have fuel from wherever it's set... which leaves you siphoning fuel from the other tank, which is exactly what you'd do if the transfer pump fails.
Click to expand...

fair point.

12v fuel pumps are however found on most older motors so gaining a replacement in the middle of nowhere is more likely.I have read that quite a few pollak switches fail, these seem to be copies, not originals but have been sold as genuine pollaks. quite hard to tell the difference apparently. Thats what put me off using one and why I have gone down the route I have.

Booger, if you use a Y piece filler like mine, it simply flows back down the filler into the back tank. no overfilling to worry about. 60L in the back of mine.

G
 
Griffdowg said:
fair point.

Booger, if you use a Y piece filler like mine, it simply flows back down the filler into the back tank. no overfilling to worry about. 60L in the back of mine.

G
Click to expand...

Unfortunately mine has a separate filler, and then pumps into the main filler pipe, but pumping it all out was something I only did once :D
 
Griffdowg said:
12v fuel pumps are however found on most older motors so gaining a replacement in the middle of nowhere is more likely.
G
Click to expand...

You're right. You can get an old Toyota pump in almost any village in the bush, and jury-rig it is just a matter of judicious use of a piece of old wire, Leatherman tool, and common sense. On the other hand, depending on the vehicle you have, replacing an in-tank pump requires dropping the tank.

Having said that, in remote areas you often use the aux tank, and it's much more convenient to just have a switch on the dash. A failure of the system (whatever system it is), while a possibility, is unlikely, and is not a "Where You Stop You Stay" event. Nothing you can't solve in the middle of nowhere.

When preparing for an expedition, often people go to great lengths to set-up systems that seem to answer the "in case of in case" question, to the detriment of plain ease of use and convenience.

Anything that can be fixed will be fixed if need be, but everyday convenience is something you do appreciate when you actually use it everyday!

Where I work, we leave town with 180-250lt of fuel per vehicle and often spend weeks without seeing a petrol station. Been fooling around with hoses, foul taste, home-made funnels, transfer pumps, overflowing tanks, fuel fumes and other niceties in many cars for years. Can't describe the pleasure one derives from seeing the gauge going from "Empty" to "Full" at the flick of a switch... Especially when it's ****ing rain like the Niagara falls, and mud on the road reaches the bumpers!
 
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Yea read Griffs sticky on aux tanks and do it properly :D

By the time you have bodged that water tank to fit you will wish you just did it properly,

and when all your diesel runs out through that broken tank in the middle of nowhere, you will wish you just did it properly,

and when your land rover explodes and burns your face off, you will wish....(you get the picture :D)
 
I totally get your point Booger...
I was hoping to get more fuel in a tank in the back, but that would mean less storage too... ahhh... SOOO hard to decide...:rolleyes::cool:

at 25 mpg these are my calculations:
91 litres - 500 miles
120 litres - 660 miles
215 litres - 1180 miles

this is NOT taking into account the extra weight, which should slightly decrease the values... but not by that much...

point is... will I ever need 1180 miles of fuel on top of my standard tank?
but 500 extra miles could be handy on a 91 litre tank...

P.S. I found proper fuel tanks on eBay now here
 
ac3bf1 said:
at 25 mpg these are my calculations:
91 litres - 500 miles
120 litres - 660 miles
215 litres - 1180 miles

this is NOT taking into account the extra weight, which should slightly decrease the values... but not by that much...
Click to expand...

you have to remember that a ltr of fluid weighs approx 1kg. so 215ltr = 215kg plus weight of containers.so will easily add upto to almost 1/4tonne
 
ac3bf1 said:
...true...
what's the rear loading capacity on a defender 110 Double cab pickup?

:p
J
Click to expand...


On a SIII with tired suspensions, springs bottom out at 26-28 bags of cement, that's 1300-1400kg... Then you can still add some, but you have to be careful with the potholes or you'll break something.

BTW, average specific gravity of fuel is around 0.70 for Avgas, 0.73 for Autogas, and 0.85 to 0.90 for Diesel. If you run Avgas at 700g/lt, you'll save yourself 30% on the weight...! ;)
 
Kano said:
... that's 1300-1400kg...
Click to expand...

Thanks for info! I assume that is a "heavily loaded" figure... so will try to keep way below that :)

Kano said:
BTW, average specific gravity of fuel is around 0.70 for Avgas, 0.73 for Autogas, and 0.85 to 0.90 for Diesel. If you run Avgas at 700g/lt, you'll save yourself 30% on the weight...! ;)
Click to expand...

can you run a diesel defender on avgas??
plus yes, you save the weight, but for the same litres, you get less mileage with avgas, which means you need more litres of avgas, which in turn balances out the weight... so for same weight you get same milage as diesel I assume... or thereabouts...
 
we did all the way to mongolia and back via the middle east in our 110 with a standard fuel tank and 2 jerrys and we never ran out of fuel even in mongolia.
 
easiest solution for a 110 is what they did for the Camel Trophy vehicles - series fuel tank with under seat filler, but they did have them so that the fuel line and fuel guage where switchable via lever at the base of seat box. Myself when I prepare mine for expedition will be fitting a series fuel tank with electric transfer pump to main tank,empty it it into main tank when guage tells me that main tank is below half and can easily top the front tank up via the 2 jerry cans I will be carrying.
 
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