Brown Davis Fuel Tanks

There's a LR tank thread further down the list.

Leroy

I had a Brown Davis tank in my old GQ and it developed a small split on the belly side, right where one of the internal baffles was located.
I now have a GU with a Long Ranger tank and it's going okay and has done a lot of hard trips over corrogations etc. I don't think I'd be getting another Brown Davis jobbie, but am happy (so far) with Long Ranger.
Cheers,
Roachie

I have found that Brown Davis do split as do Out of Town.

Will use neither again. Long Range Automotive are ok. Best order one direct and get 3mm in the bottom and front of tank and double welded baffles inside.

Brown Davis tanks have not been as good as they where a few years ago. Tank will split if they start to flex. Checking that the mounting bolts are tight is a must.

Out of town tanks would be the pick of the bunch. They also supply ARB with there tanks.

Wayne

My mate and i both in GQ's last year drove up the OTL and drove back down the bypass roads.... Each vehicle had a gas tank at the back and a Brown Davis belly tank... Each of our BD belly tanks split on the way back,,, it was uncanny because Richard stopped for a squirt and i saw his GQ leaking fuel to the road and upon inspection saw a long split along a seam.....

Then looked at mine straight after and it was leaking also.....

So to cut a long story short..... *THEY SEEM TO BE CRAP ON CORRUGATIONS*

I also had a Brown Davis tank and travelled the Canning,no leak problems but a rattle developed inside.
On our return I opened up the tank and found the surge tank around the pickup had come loose.
My only other comment is that the supplier needs to either take a customer relations course or not sell direct,pretty rude and impatient man.
Regards

I had a Brown Davis tank installed in my old truck about 18 months ago. No problems so far and I have been on some pretty nasty tracks. Maybe it was an early build. Time will tell.

The big problem as I see it and as we discovered in the late 70's and early 80's when we made our own auxilary tanks to fit in 40's, 45's and early hiluxes was that any tank that is bolted in (with mounting brackets) will eventually crack and leak due to the stress imposed when the body or chassis it is mounted to twists.
When we started mounting them using straps to hold them in place like factory tanks (funny about that) we had no further problems as the tank could move around on the strips of conveyor belt between the floor and the mounting straps and the tank. You also have to make them thick enough and with enough baffles to handle the weight of the fuel, if the sides can flex they will crack eventually.

Hi,

Not fuel tank related, but i bought a fridge slide from Brown Davis Automotive here in Victoria. The guy, which was the owner, said one week to build, maybe a couple of days more.

I picked it up after 3.5 weeks waiting. I had actually given up getting it by then, and had started looking elsewhere.

Well, I was mounting in on a piece of ply board, imagine my horror when I discovered it was severely not square. I went straight back, told the guy it was crap and demanded my money back. Cause it was a special ordered size, I was refused refund, after haggling he offered to plane either end to make it "look" square, but faced with a possible two week further delay, I refused told him I was unhappy, and left. As others have said, he definately needs some customer service lessons. He actually got quite aggro with me. For clarification, the sides were parallel, and the sliding tray was square, but the outside frame wasn't. It does slide properly though, just looks all wrong on the piece of ply. Plus I have worries about the actual strength on the whole unit. The whole unit was very shabbily welded and put together. I got have easily done better myself.

I was *very* unimpressed with their service, and the response I got when returning to his workshop. Unfortunately for others, he seems to be flatout at present, doing lots of dodgy stuff for others.

I will never frequent his establishment again, thats 100% for sure.

I have a 4WD Systems LR tank and some have stated that this is a Brown Davis unit.
I have absolutely no idea so can anyone enlighten me?

For the record I have had this unit fitted for 4 years and have traversed the Pilbara & Kimberley fairly extensively with no sign of failure whatsoever.

I have a BD fuel tank, and am impressed with the design and performance so far. Before I bought the tank, I tried to research the subject, and BD appeared to have the experience, expertise etc over everyone else. They've been in the tank game for nearly 30 years, and have made (and still do make) far more than anyone else, for the military, export etc, and if their product was really as poor as painted in this post, they wouldn't have such a big market. They do have failures, but so do all tank manufacturers. BD repair hundreds of tanks, and nearly all are from other manufacturers. Interestingly, few if any people seem to talk to BD about their problems, preferring to do their own fixes and complain about the product. Sometimes the problems are caused by other work in the area - eg people fit drawer systems into the back of a vehicle and use bolts that are too long and contact the top of the aftermarket tank. All the load of the drawers etc gets transmitted through to the tank and funny old thing, there's problems. I've damaged mine through some exuberant off-roading, but they will fix it and I don't expect further problems.
I like the idea of flexible mounting described above - makes sense.
As far as the BD man being arrogant etc, I haven't found him to be so. Confident and forthright, yes, but not arrogant. Some of his manner might come from many years of dealing with a variety of customers.....
I got the timing belt changed on my Prado at BD and they did a very good job. They think past the immediate issue, and fix/prevent related problems before they occur. They probably cost a bit more because of that, but it makes sense to me so I'll happily pay the money.
P.S. I am in no way associated with BD except as an occasional customer. They can hardly get on here and defend themselves, so I thought I'd point out some of the facts and my experience.