We took a 2000 mile trip last summer from Spring, Tx up to Dallas, then over to Roswell,NM and then up into Colorado. My TV is an 08 Ford F250 with the 6.4L. It gets about 12mpg pulling the RV which is about a 300 range, or really 250 with a reserve.
I spent the entire drive time watching the gas gauge like a hawk. Filling up every 200 miles. Worried about not being near a station, selling diesel, on those long West Texas and NM stretches. That discomfort drove me to look into Aux tanks.
I settled on the RDS model#71804 37-Gallon Capacity, $480 delivered from Amazon. I chose it because of the dimensions L x W x H (in.): 52 x 21 x 11 1/2. It fits well under my Bak flip cover and in front of the Pullrite Superglide. I could have gone with a bigger tank but it might have been a tight fit. Plus 65gal total equals a 780 mile range, which is well beyond my "bladder" range anyway.
Here are some pics of the install with the adjustments I made.
1. Materials
Tank arrived on a pallet with the locking gas cap broken. I bought a replacement nonlocking version from Napa auto parts for $6 after calling RDS for the part number. Amazon site says 32gal but it's actually 37.
For the connector kit I bought the Dee Zee Kit (DZ97960) specific to my Ford. I liked the shutoff valve better on the DeeZee version of the kit.
Also bought an electric Solenoid so I can shutoff the flow from inside the cab.
Lastly I engaged the help of my wonderful Father-in-law Bill to work with me in on the install. Install is much easier with two people. One in the bed, one under the truck.
2. Tank Install
Rather than have the tank sit directly on the truck bed, I used a heavy rubber mat that I found at Lowes, in the rug section. It's just recycled tire rubber made into a long door mat. I cut it into 4 sections to place under the tank.
The tank came with two side tabs and one center tab across the front. After placing and centering the tank, we drilled pilot holes through the tabs and the bed. Then I crawled under truck to check hole placement. Had to move the tank about an inch back from cab so holes didn't hit bed cross beams. After several test fits, we drilled out 5/8in holes for 3 bolts.
Before bolting in tank, Bill drilled a hole on the lower left side of bed and used a grommet to protect the feed hose.
Then we installed tank and bolted it down.
3. Feed line install
Next step was to remove the filler neck on the truck. I removed the 3 bolts holding the filler neck. I stuffed a rag in the neck to ensure I didn't drop a bolt into the tank.
Next I crawled under truck and loosened the 2 straps holding the filler neck and the vent tube.
Then used the new tube from the kit as a guide to cut down the filler neck.
Then we ran the 3/8 tube through the bed and gromet down to tie into the filler neck. Tightened everything up and zip tied hose.
Last step was to add the solenoid and a low pressure fuel pump beside the tank in the bed. Both are wired to the #3 10A Upfitter switch in the cab. So a flick of the switch opens the solenoid and turns on the pump. Pump only moves about 35gal/hr, but that is plenty to keep ahead of the trucks burn rate.
I did try just the gravity feed prior to intalling the fuel pump, but the gravity feed was very slow, slower than the burn rate.
In the future I would like to add a fuel level sending unit with a guage in the cab. Currently there is just a manual guage on top of the tank.
Entire project took about an 1.5 hrs with two people.
Total cost:
Tank $480 delivered
Connector kit: $56
Solenoid: $8
Fuel Pump: $55
Rubber door mat: $8
Bolts,wire etc: $20
Total $627
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