Fueling options for box truck

Mike Hughes

Former Board Administrator
How feasible is it to run your power washer out of your trucks main gas tank?

Maybe even take it a step further and mount a diesel tank under the truck for the burners also.........

I want to not have to get up into the back of the truck at the gas station.........I want them to be as idiot proof as possible.

How hard would this be to accomplish and what would it cost?
 
hi mike

tank,fuel pump that is wired to the key switch on your wash unit and a fuel return line,add a fuel filter and your done.
If you do use a second tank the savings from not paying over the road fuel tax will save the cost of the installation over time.
Then again you will need 2 places to fuel-up. 1 for home heating oil and one for over the road. For me it would'nt matter because i fuel up where they sell all types of fuel.
Kerosine will heat your water better in the winter and wont gel as bad.
If i fill my fuel tanks in the morning and run all day i still need 5 gal gas and 10 for the burner[in winter] . Summer i just need 5 gal.
One other thing you can do is mount a shur-flo pump inside your truck with a hole in the floor to run a small hose.
Then when you run out of fuel just use the pump to fill your wash units tank from the bigger tank.
I do know from a post micheal posted that tanks over a certian size are against the law. I think he said the tank's on the new fire cannon were too big.
If your thinking tailer[im thinking box truck] you should see the tanks on the custom equipment Ron Strickland sell's.
www.xterior.com
 
ON a lot of Fords, there is a plug in the fuel tank about a quarter of the wya up. It is set up to run generators on motorhomes. Just pull the plug, get a line to it, and you should be ready to go. It is a quarter of the wya up so that you always have some fuel in your vehicle, and don't get stuck somewhere.

If it is a big vehicle, you can go to a truck salvage yard and buy an old fuel tank there to hang off the frame. It is DOT approved, and easily plumbed to your heater.

Scott Stone
 
Its a 2003 E-450 that I'm looking at...............the plug would be convienent, however I have two washers........
 
Mike:

Once you have attached a fitting to the threaded hole in the tank, you only have to split the line so it can run to both washers. I would think you just need to assure you have sufficient size tubing/piping to supply both washers at the same time.

I like your idea! I wonder how I could attach two external fuel tanks to the underside of my 7x14 enclosed trailer. That would save a lot of time, and make things easier also...my washer is set up in such a way that it is difficult to access the fuel tank fill cap the way I have it sitting in the trailer.

Something to think about.
 
Hello Mike,

Both of our trucks carry duel 50 gallon fuel tanks. On our White truck we use the right hand side tank for K-1 fuel. We plumbed it into the box to run the engine (Diesel) and burner. Works great and we have several days of running with 50 gallons of fuel!

We use a off-road K-1. A local distributor set a tank for us at his terminal so we can get this fuel anytime. They say if burns cleaner than regular K-1, it's call Preimer.

We installed a 50 gallon Lp tank on the other side of the chassis to run a infrared heater during the winter.

This truck carries 3 different fuels since in has a 454 gasoline engine. Here is a picture of it working at the local coal mine this passed weekend.

Dave Olson
 

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