fuel tank removal

Our truck has two 150 gallon fuel tanks, but we can never get much more than 1/2 tank of fuel without going over weight on the steer axles. Is it possible to remove the passenger side fuel tank without any problems? It would cut weight a bit while providing space for an APU and/or toolbox, as well as having only one portion of unusable fuel(approx 8 gallons) at the bottom of the tank instead of two(16 gallons).

 

2012 Volvo VNL 780 with the D16. I believe the front axle is rated at 14000, but the tires are 12350. We bought the truck with almost brand new tires, so I don't really want to change them until I've got a fair amount of use out of them. From what I can remember while bobtailing, it was 11800 with like 1/8 tank. When we run light loads and empty, I think we can get around 3/8th tank before nearing the tire's weight rating. When we run heavy we can get more fuel, but run the risk of bumping up against 80000 total weight. The fifth wheel is set all the way back, so we can't even make adjustments.

I don't see much point in keeping the other tank attached if we can only ever use 150 gallons. The extra space would be welcome as well, since we don't even have room to hang chains down there. We've got to keep our cables in a toolbox on the back.

 

Well I also want to switch from 24.5 to 22.5 when I get new tires, so I'm going to want to change them all out when I decide to. We still make it work with what we've got, so I don't want to buy new steer tires if it gives us minimal benefit.

Fuel is cheaper where we start, but we always have loads that are heavy going out so we couldn't get more fuel even if we wanted to. If we fueled up on the return trip, which we are always light, we would pay more for fuel as well as running into having too much fuel to take a heavy load out.

We can always put the tank back on if we start pulling overweight loads or running different routes.

 

It's slid all the way back already. I could try moving the whole unit back on the frame, but then I'd have an even larger gap between the truck and trailer.

I'm not seeing a benefit to having more than 150 gallons in my situation. Right now there is no room for anything along the sides of the truck, so removing the tank would give me that space without hurting how I run. I would like having an APU down there after I swap out my tires.

I'm more interested in the negative effects of removing the tank. Would the fuel gauges need to be changed, or would I need to change the way I read it? Is the passenger side tank hooked up to anything else, or does it just feed the main tank? What sort of trouble could I run into if it were removed?

 

That does sound simple enough. The digital gauge I would probably have to divide by 2 if it's based on one sending unit. The analog one should actually be more accurate right after fueling, too.