Long Range Fuel Tank

In a nutshell No. There are some savings to be made on buying fuel at discount locations then bypassing the expensive servos but really that is far offest by the cost of the tank, the need to carry the additional weight & having to fit a swingaway carrier for your spare tyre which is a pain when accessing the back of the car. Springs too would need to be beefed up to carry the extra load.
In reality fuel stops are around 200km apart, 500 at the most so unless you are tackling some remote area trips then range wont be an issue. If needed you can always carry a couple of Jerry's at $60 anyway. If you had a petrol Cruiser then a bigger tank may be more useful but the diesel's range will be fine.
Cheers Craig..............

Hi Clint,

A 4.2 landcruiser (NOT a patrol) used about 16-17 litres / 100 towing a van of about 2400 kg sitting on 90 kph in level country. Depending upon water carried and wind direction.

So say your range is 600 kilometers, you do not need a long range tank.

There are not many places where it is handy. Mt Isa to Three Ways, Accross the Nullabor, Down the west coast.

We could by pass Camooweal and Barkly Homestead on the run between Tennant Creek and Mt Isa. This reduced our fuel bill by $90.50 but how many such by passes would you need to get back the tank cost.

It does however give you a good feeling to have a long rang tanks and you cannot put a value on that.

Dont waste your money I never bothered and only time I took extra fuel was when Woolies had a big discount and I had 2 Jerry cans in the back.

Never ever needed any more capacity than standard.

If you work out your fuel stops carefully you will be ok.

Occasionally you may need a topup at a roadhouse and it will cost you more but not worth worrying about.

A fitted LRT will cost about $1500 so dont bother

Clint,

I did some homework and although I only tow a small camper trailer came to conclusion it's not worth the money. Recently did the Canning not towing and carried 7 plastic jerries on the roof with 150L. Only needed to top up with 97L between Wiluna and Halls Creek at the community near Well 33 and had 20L left so used 230L for this leg of my trip @15L/100KM.

Clint & Chell

We fitted a Brown Davis long range tank to our Patrol, for the simple reason that we were doing the Canning Stock Route, and needed the extra fuel.
Carried 340 lts diesel between the camper and the 4B.

Other than that, I would have never have brought one.
And now that I have one I would never go without one.

Talk about a "catch 22" situation.
But It can allow you to go that bit further, or not have to stop for fuel, all the time, when towing.

if you can afford one, then get one.
Cheers
Bucky

In general I would say a long range tank is not requied. I've had them in the past (petrol Jackaroo) and I would say if you do get one you will wonder how you lived without one previously. But for the $1500 I would need a good reason to get one again in the first place. I know this sounds odd but thats the way it is. I loved filling up once a month and not having to always be on the lookout for fuel when travelling long distances. The issues tend to be the new tank being lower even though the glossy sayes it won't be, weld/bracket/fixing failures. Some of this is due to the extra weight. Suspension changes because of the extra weight at the back. In addition if you add 150l you decrease the load you can legally carry by 150kg. Currently if I think I need extra fuel I put a few jerry cans in the back. $1500 vs $150 for 4 jerries. So the answer is if you think it will be helpful because you are going places where servo's are a long way apart (particularly given a few like Hell's Gate have closed over the years) then it will likely be a good investmet and you will never question why you did it (until it costs $300 to fill up !!). Otherwise don't bother.

Steve

My experience with my long range tank, 170 plus the 90, is it's great to drive past the outback servos, charging up to $1.95 a litre.

Just recently, filled up at Birdsville at $1.55 and got back to SA 1430 k's later without having to top up at the servos the other cars stopped at.

Another time Adelaide to Alice Springs 1800 k's.

Would I install a tank, probably not, I was lucky the LRT was in my 100 series Cruiser when I bought it. It also came with a rear steel bar & dual wheel carrier on the back from Kaymar.

Another good thing about them, just before we leave for a big trip, I use the shop a dockets with Motormouth to find the best price, then spend the $5 in store to get the extra cents off (0.08).

Recent example $1.38 everywhere, Motormouth found 2 servos at $1.17 with .08 cents off bringing it down to $1.09 per litre.

My tanks were empty so had to use 2 dockets with the 150 ltr limit.

So this works out to be a huge saving, once you factor in the local cost and country cost against $1.09 a ltr by 250 - 260 lirtes.

Cheers from Geoff