Quote:
Originally Posted by DDixon1000
As a Deputy Sheriff I have never seen one of the in cab tanks blow but I have been to several accidents that involved tanks mounted under vehicles blowing when rear ended. In my experience odds are you will blow up much quicker if rear ended this is why ford has put an fire suppression system in our patrol cars because of the risk of the tanks blowing when rear ended.
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But how many accidents involving pre 1973 trucks have you been involved with? Since they haven't built a truck with in cab tanks since '72, and eveything that has been built since has tanks under the vehicle the overwhelming number of vehicles have under the vehicle fuel tanks. The odds are probably 10,000 : 1.
It all boils down to personal preference. If you feel safer with the tank out of the cab, then take it out.
GM put the tank in the cab because it was the least expensive place for them to put it from a cost of installation on the assembly line perspective.
Just think about it: Long bed, short bed, step-side, fleetside, didn't matter, all the tanks were in the cab... it was easy and made them more money due to minimized labor to install.
There was very little emphasis on "safety" when designing cars and trucks before the mid 1960's.
In 1967 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) introduced the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 301, “Fuel System Integrity” [NHTSA Part 571.301] to reduce deaths and injuries occurring from fires. Initially the standard only applied to passenger cars, however, in 1977 light trucks were also included. GM no doubt saw this standard lurking on the horizon and redesigned the fuel tanks outside the passenger compartment. As far as GM's Safety vs. profit record they actually did a study on this subject in 1973:
At the heart of GM's resistance to improving the safety of its fuel systems was a cost benefit analysis done by Edward Ivey which concluded that it was not cost effective for GM to spend more than $2.20 per vehicle to prevent a fire death.
While this was certainly done in response to the side mounted tanks that were used on the "new" 1973 models, it shows that safety wasn't job one at GM, profit was.