At 9:00 PM -0400 4/2/00, Martin Jagersand wrote:
>  > Many people have dreamed of this including me. It could be done but it
>
>Bob Hoover built saddle tanks and installed them in the space outside
>each frame rail. Westy's have the propane tank on the drivers side,
>but one 10gal extra tank could fit on the other side -- would even
>improve weight balance.

Yes Bob had a good idea there, and it was very funny watching the gas
station attendant's faces when he'd casually put 30 or 40 gallons of
gas into his splitty.  As it was, Bob Hoover's tanks leaked fuel all
the way to Inuvik and back, and while he didn't seem concerned about
this, I have to say it kinda freaked me out.

His were wonderfully overbuilt, and I'd sure want saddle tanks to be
very, very tough, especially if I had a gasoline-powered bus--the
tanks are pretty exposed down there. I'd also want skid plates to
protect the tanks.  The only reason I'd ever want that much more fuel
capacity would be for real long-haul type journeys into remote areas.
And in such areas, clearance problems or potentially damaging road
hazards would be fairly likely.  Dumping fuel isn't just a fire or
environmental hazard, but it could also strand me, and that would
suck.

T.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tobin Copley   Bowen Island, BC, Canada              tobin.copley@ubc.ca

'82 westy 1.6L NA diesel ("Stinky")
'97 son Russell                                   =============
'99 daughter Margaret                            /_| |__| |__|:| clatter
1995: 'Round US, Mexico, Canada 15,000 mi       O|.           .| clatter!
1996: Vancouver to Inuvik, NWT   7,400 km        ~-()-==----()-~
Previous buses: '76 westy deluxe (Daisy), '76 westy standard (Mango)
http://www.sfu.ca/~tcopley/vw/