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Second fuel tank automatic switching.....

GeneralDisorder

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AKPacker

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Haha wow, I was just looking into these myself for the second tank I recently pulled from a parts truck. Our two trucks are going to wind up with a lot of parallels. I've been waffling between manual valves for reliability, and electronic valves for convenience/the ability to switch tanks on the go from the cab.

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GeneralDisorder

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Manual valve would be my preference on a non tilt cab truck. The classic six-way brass lever valve.... Not convenient with our trucks - I'm not running six damn fuel lines up through the cab pivot interface....

Not too concerned with reliability. This being a hydraulic cylinder control valve it should handle WAY more pressure than our fuel delivery system. And in any case of it fails you can just swap the lines and suck fuel through the side of the valve that is connected in whatever state it fails in.

I want the tanks separate for redundancy (in case one is punctured, etc) and for frame flex concerns on some of these huge long tanks that guys run. Seems like a stupid idea to me. And the fuel sloshes away from the pickup in the center so your effective capacity is reduced as you approach an empty tank. A solenoid valve potential failure point is a worthwhile trade off to me for not dealing with the large single tank drawbacks.
 

Ronmar

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As long as the valve can handle suction, many hydraulic valves are not very good at it...

Have always liked the buddy tank concept as it keeps the fuel system to a dedicated tank and no valves. The main tank is vented thru the secondary tank and a basic lift pump transfers fuel from secondary to main. Can be on a timer or even a float switch in the main tank to control the feed pump and any possible overfill will simply return to the buddy tank via the vent line... This of course doesn't help with tank damage but it is simple...
 

coachgeo

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for manual valve in a tilt cab.... mount it on a plate X large.. cut hole in floor of cab.. that is X minus a bit... but not minus so much the valves dont fit thru hole in cab floor. Put a seal on the plate that squashes as the cab closes. then again you have to accommodate for flexing too since cab is on shocks and mount surfaces below cab are not on shocks. hmmmm...
 
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