Auxiliary Diesel Tank Gravity Feed vs. Electronic pump

2naEagle wrote:

Grit dog wrote:
Looks like a clean install, but why is that necessary? How is the fuel going into your xfer tank any dirtier or more water than what’s pumped into the Oe tank?
Unless maybe you don’t have adequate filtration on the truck and you run all the fuel thru the aid tank first.

I run all my fuel through the auxiliary tank. When the truck tank gets low I just open the valve and fill up. Put more fuel in the auxiliary tank when it gets low.

That's nice, but didn't answer my question as to the necessity of it, other than you don't fill your OE tank directly, so you've just eliminated whatever quantity it holds as actual capacity.
I love the paranoia around diesel fuel and water. You said it yourself or someone did, in years and years, you've found 1/4 cup total of "water." In years and years, including plenty of fill ups out of bulk tanks or slip tanks, I've never cracked the water valve open.
Lucky? Maybe. Normal? More likely.
I'm all about good filtration, I have a 3rd gen that ate a set of injectors prematurely on OE filtration. I now have a real filter inline.
But the mfgs specs now accomplish what's necessary.
Double or triple filtering fuel to the same level, or as some do, installing a better filter upstream of a lesser filter is akin to putting on 2 or 3 rain coats before going out in the rain, just in case 1 get ripped and the other stolen before you get back inside!

LanceRKeys wrote:
I just got finished with my first long trip since I added a 40 gal in bed gravity fed rds tank. Best modification I have ever done to a truck! Fuel and where to get it is now one less thing to worry about.

Any way you do it these things are just great to have. Absolutely love mine.

I put a 51 gallon gravity feed tank in my dually last fall and I LOVE it. I can now by pass the truck stoops and get to most of my destinations and then go off the interstates where fuel is much cheaper. I put an 12v electric valve on mine, wired to my upfitter switch in the cab so I can add fuel as needed. Second best mod I've ever done to the truck.

I just got finished with my first long trip since I added a 40 gal in bed gravity fed rds tank. Best modification I have ever done to a truck! Fuel and where to get it is now one less thing to worry about.

Many years ago I worked in a boat yard with a fiberglass tech . we made fuel tanks for boats . I have since made three diesel tanks for my trucks , all were gravity feed . Two of the trucks had to pass D.O.T inspections for my Jack Rabbit jobs . They probably should not have passed them , but they did . No DOT numbers on the tanks . Ain't nuttin wrong with gravity ,

I, too, run all the diesel used by my F250 through the 91 gallon RDS tank in the bed. When I'm ready to get more fuel from a station, I top off the Ford's tanks and then I pump more fuel from the station into the auxiliary tank. Doing this allows me to filter all the fuel going into the Ford's tanks, so they stay cleaner and so does the factory fuel filter which has an easier job assuring the engine never gets bad fuel.

Grit dog wrote:
Looks like a clean install, but why is that necessary? How is the fuel going into your xfer tank any dirtier or more water than what’s pumped into the Oe tank?
Unless maybe you don’t have adequate filtration on the truck and you run all the fuel thru the aid tank first.

I run all my fuel through the auxiliary tank. When the truck tank gets low I just open the valve and fill up. Put more fuel in the auxiliary tank when it gets low.

Looks like a clean install, but why is that necessary? How is the fuel going into your xfer tank any dirtier or more water than what’s pumped into the Oe tank?
Unless maybe you don’t have adequate filtration on the truck and you run all the fuel thru the aid tank first.

I really really like being able to stop when I want to stop instead of having to stop.

I also have a fuel filter water separator on my tank under the bed of the truck. All my fuel goes through it. I can easily drain and check for water before it goes to the tank.




P.S. In 11 years of have this set up I have only gotten maybe a 1/4 cup of water.

What I've discovered on our inaugural summer 70 day trip is that we can go a bit over 400 miles on my 48 gal factory tank. But I tend to not wait until the needle gets past the 1/2 way mark when I'm in a remote area. On the interstates it's not so much an issue if I'm in areas with high populations.

But what I found is there are vast swaths of this country that area sparsely populated. And I need to make sure I've got a full tank of diesel before heading out.

On this latest leg of our journey, I left with 380 miles of range according to the gauge. We had to traverse a national forest where there'd be no fuel for the next 150 miles. I figure no big deal. I've got plenty of fuel. Well, by the time I went up and down a couple of mountain passes, my fuel was going down quite a bit faster than I anticipated.

I made it to our campsite with 150 mi left of range so I was ok, but there's no fuel outside of this town for quite a distance.

So yeah, I'm going to think long and hard about installing an aux tank next before we head out for our long summer trip next year. We'll be heading up to the southern part of the Yukon and I'm not going to take the chance of not having enough fuel.

I'm not sure I need to do anything more than a gravity fed aux tank though.