I am a "happy camper"! I can now fill my fuel tank right to the top in a matter of minutes! After the first click off, I can only add less then 1/2 gallon before I have fuel standing in the neck of the filler. May have to watch those big truck nozzles thou, might flow to well and kick back strongly when full, will know more in August when I go out for the last ORR of the season.

The original location of the filler in the middle of the tank made no sense at all, plenty of room above the tank for the 90 degree street el and that will allow the fuel to go right in the top of the tank.



Well worth the effort, all it cost was some very sore muscles.

Great job Ed. Thanks for the update. What was the total cost? What parts did you replace? Total time spent? What was the difficulty rating on a 1-10 scale? 1 being the easiest.

Watch it now Ed. If you fill it during the coolest part of the day and then park it, you could have fuel running out of the "check valve vent" or "fuel filler cap".

If I happen to fill the right tank to the click, I always run 10 miles or so on that tank to draw down the fuel level. Before I wized up, it would expand and stink up the coach for a while. I always attributed it to the overflow, and since becoming diligent about not leaving it full up, I've never had any more problems.

Cost for the repair was about $20, this was for a length of 5/8 fuel hose misc hose clamps and pipe thread sealant. Only replace the hose clamps. time estimate was about 1 day, did a fair amount of running around in between so hard to give an exact time. Wasn't a hard job but was physically demanding, some thought was required to insure that what was changed did not interfere with other things and also how to make the installation easier then the extraction. Probably a "5".

I normally fill completely when traveling and will travel at least 30 miles before shutting down. When I return from a trip I do refuel but the lowest cost station is over 30 miles away so I haven't had an issue with fuel expansion.

I wrote up a more detailed description of what I did and posted it on my website here:

Fuel tank filler relocation

I have just finished reworking the entire steering system and will write a report for posting later. Making good progress to fix things that NEED fixing!

Hi Ed,

Nice write up on the tank fix. I have the same issue with filling (mine is a 100gal) and am hoping to have your luck with a bung already on top. Can you see up there with the tank still bolted up? I haven't yet crawled under my rig because it won't stop raining! UGhh!

Anyway, I have a theory on why Spartan did the "half way up" fill thing. I'll bet the feds required it on large displacement tanks so they won't easily drain completely if in an accident and flipped upside down. It's one thing to have a 20 gal tank empty out, but 60 or 100, whew!

Despite that, I'm still going to do the fix.

I saw some discussion on who, Spartan or Barth, put the tank in. My vote is most definitely Spartan as they built these chassis to be drivable until the bodies are installed.

Corey

HI Corey

If you would use a small mirror, you may be able to see up above the tank. My tank is about 5 inches below the bottom of the floor, but I didn't even think to look first, I was committed to putting in a new bung so the thought that there might be one up there didn't cross my mind.

Don't think there was any Gov regs that would cover the amount of fuel the tank could be filled to, (trucks carry and are filled with much more) but you would never see this type of filler in a marine or other closed area, when the fuel is above the filler location, that means the filler tube (rubber) always has liquid fuel in it until the usage takes the level below the filler.

I am fairly sure that Spartan put the tank in as they carry the replacement tank and is a Spartan part number. Barth probably hooked up the filler tube but I am sure there is a Barth engineering drawing that would show the assembly tech where and how to route it.

Have just returned from a 2000 mile trip and can confirm that the relocation of the filler to the top of the tank has, for the most part, fixed my filling problem.

If I use a truck stop with the high flow filler it will click off at about 4 gallons from the top and I have to wait or slowly fill the remaining because of foaming, no where near as bad as before. If I use the regular auto capacity fillers it will go to about 2 gallons from the top and can top off fairly fast.

I think that if I would have rotated the tank 180 degrees, to shorten the filler hose (thought about that but would have had to redo the supply line to the engine) it would be even better with less area for the fuel to foam during filling. If I get ambitious this winter, I will try that.