Dear Mr Flounder
Thoughts about the fuel cell...
We have a similar cell in Tinkerbell (#25 red/white frogeye) yes it hangs
low. however we have never had any bad problems with ground clearance, except
the time an RCCSA member backed it too close to a curb during a car show.
The main criteria should be...if for whatever stupid reason, both rear tires
get pissed off and go flat, the tank bottom should be no lower than the rear
wheel rim hieght at your cars normal, loaded, ride hieght. If this tank meets
this...then in my humble opinion. BUY IT!. I use Tinkerbell on the street and
have yet to have a serious problem, ok a few scratches on the bottom from a
dead possum. When we fitted a cell/tank to Tinkerbell no such ATL cell existed
and we went with a cell from Fuel Safe. Ours is an 8 gal with center fill. we
fabricated a set of elbows such that we still fill from the original location.
We also fabricated the alum. tank shell and saved a few bucks. May i also
suggest getting the somewhat innacurate but very worthwhile gage and sensor
assembly. Ok..so there i was..sitting next to a corn field..out of gas..."Yes
dear...i thought it was full"...(like stated, I and the rccsa use the car
regularly).. and since we enjoy the enduros...the gauge is a plus..of course
now i have to fake running out of gas by the cornfield.....but thats another
story. as far as the center of gravity goes...yes as always the lower the
better..what handles better on an exit ramp?...a how low can you go formula
ford....or a tractor trailer?..the tractor trailer wants to tip over, to
simplify high school physics, the more wieght that pushes horizontally on the
bottom of the tire compared to the top. the more force will act (push on )on
the bottom and not push over the top..or the less likely of the tire to want to
"tip "over and lose traction...or something like that..
low good...high bad.....and tinkerbell has been lowered approximatly 1 1/2"
front and 1 3/4" rear with the offset rear 3 leaf softer springs. the lower
c.o.g. the tank provides is very helpful...just so its within reasonable
clearance. However..this tank does not allow us to have the conventional rear
"across the chassis" panhard rod..instead we run the diagonal "tunnel to
spring" locator rod (works great). do what you feel best... i think you will be
happy...and IF your trailer is built such that you have clearance loading the
cars..
Robert racerx Kansa
Southwind Racing/RCCSA
#25 frogeye
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