Empty, spare tire space

[OldHaggis]

Tried searching for this with no luck. Now that I have a spare tire carrier mounted on the back of my R50 there is now this huge space underneath that is empty. Even has a little chain hoist in it. What, if anything are people doing with this? I’m thinking I would love to be able to put another 10 gallons of fuel somewhere and I’m wondering if this might work and if so, how to do, it. Or maybe a place to store my tools and stuff I don’t use often. What are peoples thoughts?   If this has been covered before, I’d really appreciate it if somebody would point me towards the discussion.

Edited November 17, 2023 by OldHaggis

[Strato_54]

I've been planning out the last few weeks, days even an on board air system. Lots of systems/kits use that spare tire hoist as a mounting point anyways. I don't have a spare under there, nor a tire carrier so I have lots of room for activites! I was looking at the Viair Quarter Duty kit on amazon. Still have to meassure and make sure everything will fit properly for that kit, but it should at only a 1.5 gallon tank. 

 

A drop down tool box is a sweet idea! Even just bolting two metal tool boxes onto a frame then droping it from the chain hoist would be great. The fuel tank on the WD21 was in that same spot, so that could be feasable.  

[hawairish]

I had a set of 2x 6-gallon "Trail'd" tanks that are designed to be hoisted up in that space, but I personally never got around to using them.  However, my buddy does use them on his QX4.  The hoist plate opening is intended for slightly-larger Toyota applications, and the factory hoist plate will work fine, but I did make an aluminum adapter plate that increased the hoist's footprint a little for some piece of mind.

 

Other notable here is that if you have a considerable amount of lift (my buddy's truck has 4" of rear lift, while I have 6"), then the chain is too short to lower the tanks fully to the ground.  You can carry around some 4x4 blocks to lower the tanks onto them so you can work the hoist plate through, but keep in mind these sort of tanks when full weigh about 50 lbs each....bit hard to lift both and manipulate the hoist plate through if the tanks aren't fully on the ground.  In this particular case, I took the chain from another Nissan hoist and used it to extend the existing chain.  The chain size isn't common, hence another Nissan donor.  To extend the chain, I made a cut in the end link, twisted it to open the link, put it through the other end link, twisted it back, and welded it closed.  Plenty of chain now to lower to the ground and drag it out from under the truck for better access.

 

I did once try to mock up some sort of dual jerry can tray that would use the hoist mechanism.  It's tight space, but seemed like just enough.

[Slartibartfast]

That Trail'd can is a cool idea. Their site says in a few places that their cans are for water, not fuel, though that may be an EPA thing rather than a materials thing. That said, I'd be a little nervous about suspending twelve gallons of gasoline over the road in a container it's not supposed to be in by a single chain hooked to a twenty-year-old hoist designed to raise and lower a spare tire. A secondary strap or even a skid plate to catch it if it falls would make me feel a lot better about it. And, yeah, accessing those in wet weather would not be a good time, though I don't imagine you get much of that in AZ.

 

If you're planning to use the extra fuel often, I would consider mounting a permanent tank in that space instead. You might find a writeup somewhere like Expedition Portal, or wherever the Cannonball guys hang out. You might look at how Ford did it, too--they built a lot of dual-tank trucks, and I'm told some of them even worked right. Trouble is, the dual-tanks I've seen have a second filler neck, and I'm guessing you'd rather not attack your quarter panel with a hole saw. There's probably a way around this. Whether it's less work than fetching cans from under the truck, I don't know.

 

Whichever method you go with, I would come up with a heat shield between the fuel tank and the muffler, and consider installing a trailer hitch (if you don't have one already) to protect the fuel tank from a rear-end collision. I doubt the unibody was designed to protect the spare tire the way it would've been to protect a fuel tank.

 

8 hours ago, Strato_54 said:

I was looking at the Viair Quarter Duty kit on amazon. Still have to meassure and make sure everything will fit properly for that kit, but it should at only a 1.5 gallon tank.

 

I'll bet the tank off one of those oilless pancake compressors would fit in there real nice.

[Strato_54]

13 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

I'll bet the tank off one of those oilless pancake compressors would fit in there real nice.

 

I didn't even think of those! Just getting a compressor would be a lot cheaper than the full kit, and my fabrication skills do the rest. I would just run the air fitting to a welded plate on my bumper, or on a bracket some where tucked under for easy access. Not sure if I would run a fitting to my engine bay too, but that could be easy. 

[OldHaggis]

That Trail D is very much what I had been thinking about. That’s a really a great concept. I got to have to look at that compressor as well. Thanks for your replies everyone.

 

[adamzan]

One of my friends installed a 2nd fuel tank where his spare was. Granted this is on an Xterra, but the concept is the same:

 

https://www.thenewx.org/threads/auxiliary-gas-tank-install-completed.244585/