Roof Top Fuel Storage

not very safe, riases your center of gravity .... try to keep your heavy stuff down low and reserve the higher places for light weight stuff...

Hi Sarah

Also awkward to lift down.

What are your fuel needs? Where are you going where fuel supply will be a problem? A larger tank under the vehicle would be a safer option.

Motherhen

An excellent option for short term storage of fuel on a roof rack is to use a boat fuel tank. Rather than lifting the full tank down you just use the standard fuel line & syphon it direct into the tank.
Cheers Craig.............

when planning your trip you will be amazed at what fuel is actually available out there, dont factor in the fuel purchase price as the "be all, end all" as we see many vehicles way overloaded with fuel and for trips to places where fuel is available, fuel is very heavy to carry and also takes valuable room up, speed is the main killer of fuel and a lot of reports and even "blogs" you will find people have way over estimated fuel usage and comment how they did not need to carry all the "jerrys" after all, at about 20kg per jerry it adds a lot ....
Do up your "budget" based on the most expensive fuel for the trip and you can only win, if needed think about a small trailer as a RAV4 aint that big inside and you will need a fair bit of camping gear if you plan to go to places where fuel is not available, you can add extra fuel and water in the trailer and keep the "good" gear in the car, trailers can be made small but strong so dont over look them ...................
That aside ..... if you do go the cans on the roof, wait until you are absolutly certain you need them and then fill them, drive a bit slower of course, tie, strap, bolt them down so the filler is at the top and you can buy a "pump" that is a syphon as well and clip it on to the jerry while it is still on the roof, dont bother to un-tie it and it will syphon down into the tank ....... that is about the ONLY good thing of having them on the roof .....

Check your owners manual. Many vehicles stipulate the maximum weight you can carry on a roof rack, and for most vehicles it is very low. With petrol weighing just under 1kg/litre you may be very limited on how much you can carry.
cheers
Alan

With rollovers the number one cause of death in 4wd's I would never raise the C of G unnecessarily Sarah .

In America with 15 times the population and proper statistics there were 10,000 dead (just from rollovers) last year - and now cars are required to have a rollover figure like the fuel consumption ones we have its called the static stability factor SSF.

If you had to do it , then the last thing I would put on the roof is fuel.

Some points - fuel containers on roof will increase your need for fuel by around 10% anyway



We have a RAV4 also , and same as our Patrol , we use plastic jerries with single large fuel inlet (e.g. Supercheap), these go inside the car when full and usually in the first day are emptied into the car and empty containers go onto a purpose made bag we made which velcro's to rear spare wheel.


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I was once told to avoid carrying fuel on roof racks because if they leak then it is likely the fuel will run down and get into the window seals/rubbers etc and ruin them.

Cheers
Steve