Home » Public Forums » GMCnet » Lifting fuel tanks when alone (A simple and pain free method)
| Lifting fuel tanks when alone [message #174745] |
Wed, 27 June 2012 09:06  |
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Matt Colie
Messages: 8547
Registered: March 2007
Location: S.E. Michigan
Karma:
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I have learned how to lift GMC fuel tanks into place alone and without even hard work.
As a result of a strange set of circumstances, I have had to have the fuel tanks down more than I might have liked. The tanks are not heavy, but they are quite unmanageable.
Remember to mark the fuel and fill vent connections as they are the same size and are easily confused.
I lift my coach with a combination of a 7k# car lift and a floor and support it with jack stands. Problem - My barn only has a 10' ceiling and so the amount I can lift is limited. But what I have worked out will work anywhere and is particularly good if you are working alone. Getting the tanks down is easy, gravity is on your side. The biggest problem I had there was getting out from between the tank and the creeper so I could get your's truly and the tank both out from under the coach.
I tried the floor jack to lift tanks: Problem - the floor jack ends up where you need to be.
I tried combinations of three and four scissor jacks (talk about slow)and stacks of wood but it only took hitting one with the creeper to make me abandon that plan.
As a sailor, I am used to rigging lines to do things and was hoping I could rig to lift the tank from overhead. But, sailors do lots of things that the rest of the world has no need to understand. This is an operation called a load hammock.
To lift a fuel tank, you need a pair of cargo straps. Look at Harbor Fright 90984. The set is 4 ea 15' straps with ratchet tensioners. You just need two of the long straps. You don't need the ratchet parts at all. They are usually on sale for 10$. Get a set if you plan to change out you rubber fuel lines. Actually, get a set unless you plan to pay someone to change your rubber fuel lines because all information is that you will soon be doing it.
We are going to lift the rear (main) tank first, so, slide under the coach and look. You see the J-bolts hanging down. Put the hook through the hole outboard of the J-bolt and take it forward to the matching hole in the next floor beam. Now take it one more floor beam forward trough the matching hole. Pull the loose strap down so it is on the floor for most of the tank length. Put the other strap in the same way, but leave it tight for now.
Drop your main tank onto the creeper and roll it under the coach. You will need a long something like a broom handle (or got around to the other side) to make the hanging strap get under the tank, but that will not be difficult. Pull down the near strap and do the same.
Now, because you used the creeper to move the tank, you have to slide in on your back just forward of the tank. Pull either strap tight and hitch it off to the standing part of the strap.
Definition time:
Standing part - a piece of straight line than may even be under some tension.
Hitch - to wrap a line around something and under itself so it is held.
Bight - the middle of a piece of line worked without getting to an end.
OK - You have tension in one strap and an hitch holding it until you let go. If you take the bight of that strap and use it to make another hitch tight to the first, it won't let go. You use the bight here so that all you have to do is pull the free end to release the locking hitch.
Now do the same for the other strap. Both are tight and locked.
Take either strap and pull out the locking hitch. Pull down on the middle of standing part over you. The tank will lift. Slide the hitch back and lock it up again and do the same at the other. The tank should lift off the creeper.
You should be able to reclaim the creeper at this point. The tank is hanging somewhat rear down, but it is hanging under the coach. Slide under the rear edge and push that up. It will roll in the straps but stay where you left it.
Now you can roll in on the creeper and connect the electrical (2), fuel line and fill vent both at the sender, the vapor vent off to the side and fuel line for the APU (genset) and you can do it without juggling the tank and/or straining any of the lines.
Take the tank up, just like you lifted it off the creeper. You can stop any time you feel like it (or need to). You will have to go the the rear (J-bolt end) and roll the tank to get the rear up first. When it gets close, fiddle with the J-bolts enough to get them through the holes in the strap and a nut in each a thread or two only at this time.
Pull up the straps enough more to get both of the tank straps to hook over the frame. Now, go pull once more so the angle at the tank front is up against that frame. If you did not take the fill pipe down, this is the time to pull the tank sideways enough to get the fill connected to the tank side. Now you have to mussel it up the rest of the way, but it is not real tough, and if you have to let go, it won't go far. The straps won't quite lift the tank so the bolts go into the angle. But, one bolt is all it takes to hold the empty tank.
Swap the washers onto the J-bolts and run them up, put in the other two front bolts in the angle iron and you are done with the rear tank.
Don't bother taking the lifting straps out yet, you have to do the same for auxiliary (front) tank. Same drill, but you have to use the torsion bar frame and work around the exhaust pipe.
Why did I use HF cheap straps instead of some nice small working line I have plenty of around here? Simple, any round line will be too large to fit some of the places it has to be. Besides, the cheapest line I have handy is about 1$ a foot and junk if it gets greasy.
Sorry I don't have any pictures, but it is really tough to get the job done under the coach and take pictures at the same time. Maybe if I get to help someone else, I can bring a camera. I hope the word picture is clear enough to help someone do this job without sweat.
Matt
Matt & Mary Colie - Chaumière -'73 Glacier 23 - Members GMCMI, GMCGL, GMCES
Electronically Controlled Quiet Engine Cooling Fan with OE Rear Drum Brakes with Applied Control Arms
SE Michigan - Near DTW - Twixt A2 and Detroit
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