The Lone Ranger – Bronco II 23 Gallon Tank Swap

Since with the doubler in place, I cannot use the stock “coffin” tank that the rangers use. Here it is for a size reference:

I picked up a tank from Rock Auto for a fuel injected Bronco II. Fed-Ex beat the snot out of the thing before I got it, but it still showed up at my door pretty quickly.

I cleaned up the tank some and threw some rubberized undercoating on it:

After grinding off the rivets on the rear cross member, I then cut some slots in it for the fuel tank straps. I also took a guess at its mounting location:

Threw together a quick front support:

And stuck the tank in:

I liked how high up the tank was sitting, unfortunately, it was going to cause me some bed issues with the minimal body lift that I’m running. If one were to run a 3” body lift, this wouldn’t be an issue.

So back out the tanks goes, and I cut out the tacked in supports. With those out of the way, I notched the frame:

And placed the rear support back in, this time with some 1.5” spacers (the very back of the support is about 34” from the axle centerline):

Whipped up another support for the front:

And put the tank in its home:

With the tank lowered to its final height, I shouldn’t have any bed clearance issues, and my tank is still tucked up fairly high. Or at least, its not hanging any lower than it did on my Cherokee. From the lower horizontal surface (on the left hand side of the photo), the tank hangs down approximately 8”

I just need to add a skid, and get the fuel lines/power run to it now.

Long term note: I never had issues hanging up on the tank while wheeling, and the extra size was appreciated.