| Custom Under Truck Jerry Mount |
| This page is about my new custom jerry can mount under the truck, located in the same location as the old stock spare tire. |
| After removing the rear tire rack to improve the front/rear weight distribution, I no longer had a good place to mount my 5 gallon jerry fuel can. For a few weeks, I carried it in the bed, under the deck, in the same area where I relocated the spare tire. This worked, but it took up a lot of space, and was less than easy to access. I decided it would also be safer to relocate the gas can to the outside of the truck. But where? I then noticed the vast space I had available under the truck, where the spare tire used to be mounted years ago. After several attempts, I was finally successful in building a safe and sturdy mount for the gas can in this location. At first glace it may seem like an less than ideal place to mount a gas can. For starters, what if it hit the ground while off road? Well, ground clearance is not a problem. It's mounted very high. The only situation that it might potentially hit anything is if I dropped the rear off of a ledge several feet tall. It's in no more danger than a permanant auxilery gas tank mounted in the same location on some trucks and Land Cruisers. My main concern was making sure the gas can didn't fall off of the new mount and onto to the highway or trail while I'm driving. The mount is very sturdy, but it's backed up by two or three nylon straps for extra safety. It's also easy to access when I need it. |
| This is what the old tire rack and gas can location used to look like. It was very strong and functional, but I couldn't see out the rear window and it put way too much weight on the extreme rear of the truck, so I removed it. |
| This is the basic under bed rack in the closed position, but jerry can not mounted. |
| The mount in the open position.. |
| Here, the Jerry can is lifted onto the brackets which temporarily hold the can until the bracket is closed and locked. The gas can weighes about 30lbs full, but is not too difficult to lift up into the mount. |
| Here, the Jerry can is mounted and the bracket is closed. |
| The latch for the bracket and a back up pin mounted to make sure the latch does not come undone. |
| A triple back up system. Here heavy duty nylon straps are wrapped around the gas can and the rear crossmember, ensuring that even if the mount failed, the gas can would not remain attached. |
| Ground clearance is nearly unaffected. Here you can see that it hangs down less than a spare tire would. My bumper is mounted much higher than the stock bumper. If the stock bumper were in place you wouldn't be able to see the gas can at all. |
| Click on images for larger view. |