NEW FUEL TANKS

Rock Valley Antique
Auto Parts, Inc.
Route 72 & Rothwell Rd.
Box 352
Stillman Valley, IL 61084

Phone: 815-645-2271
Fax: 815-645-2740

Toll Free Order Lines
(800) 344-1934
(877) 990-3673

I just got off the telephone with the owner of this company. I was very pleased to find that he has built replacement fuel tanks for many years of IHC trucks including the L&R. He builds the tanks out of 304 stainless steel and the tanks include two baffles and the mounting surface for the sender and fuel pick up. He is able to built the tank in both left original and/or the right side which was never available from IHC. The tanks are not inexpensive but when a person considers all of the options I did not find it all that bad. I got the impression that the R&L tank can be made longer for more capacity at an additional cost. I am not going to quote prices here, because it is not my business. I will/can say this, we will be buying new tanks form Rock Valley. It just makes good sense when I consider everything.
BTW: They do custom work.

Good to see that someone is making them.

I really enjoyed talking with the owner, He has a great sense of humour and a quick call turned into an hour of laughs. Did you hear the one about...................?
B72, you are an excellent welder, I was just thinking that this is something the would be easy for a guy with your training, experience and skill level. Maybe you could get the basic tank folded up and you could finish welding the tank. Just thinking. I would ask for 60% up front before starting a build. This should cover the cost of time and materials.

The problem would be product liability insurance. If someone managed to catch his truck on fire, or [God forbid] blow the darn thing up, the next 5 generations of my family couldn't pay off the judgement.

I considered welding up these tanks 5-7 years ago, but didn't for just that reason. I mean, you could just sell them to your buddies, but if a guy kills or injures himself and a jury believes your product was responsible, his widow and children won't be your buddies...ever.

At my age, I don't need that worry.

what a sad world it is that these are our worries <really really sad face>

My friend Patricia asked if she might borrow my chopsaw. I lied and said that I don't have one. I had to do this for all of the reasons listed. Apparently I'm responsible to make sure that she understands the machine and knows how to operate it. So says my wife's company lawyer. Sad.
But, she can buy a chopsaw at Sears, no questions asked and no responsibility to the store.

That's because Sears included a manual, and right up front it has a bunch of warnings like, "DON'T PLUG THIS IN!" and "DONT GET WITHIN TEN FEET OF THIS TOOL!" and "IF YOU OPENED THE BOX, TOUGH SH T !!"

Plus Sears has a bunch of lawyers on retainer that would cut her up and serve her for breakfast if she even tried suing.

I'll have my b'fast with toast and coffee, one egg over hard and a grilled tomato on the side. She is rather cute and I would really not like to see her with teeth marks on her thighs. (chop saw, that is) Her neighbour is a carpenter, so I suggested that she open a few buttons on her shirt and ask for help with makin' some sawdust.

There have been a few posts about the possibility of Tanks, Inc. reproducing gas tanks for the L, R, and S series. I live close enough that I'd take a tank to them as a pattern, if they would make them. I got in touch with them today and got this response:

"While we could make this tank we would need to be sure that we could sell enough tanks to pay for the tooling cost involved in producing a new tank. Since this tank is outside of our normal market we are not comfortable taking that risk. With that said if you had a large group of buyers interested in pre-ordering a tank we could possibly talk about having a tank produced. We are talking about somewhere around 100 orders for this to be feasible."

My thought was that it would be possible to reproduce the tank, but with the little hump and neck blanks on both ends, so that the same tank could be used for either driver's side or passenger side mounting, depending on which end the neck was welded, and it might increase the market. But unless they get about 100 buyers interested, it doesn't look like it will happen.

Thanks for following up on the tank situation. The 100 order situation was not mentioned to me when I talked to someone at that company, 5 years ago.
I am not likely to spend any more time on this problem. My priorities have changed with old age and all that goes with it taking over my life. I have been selling off some of the content of my shop. A few projects and the old IHC parts that make it possible may be next to go.