How to rotate/align fuel tanks?

I bought my truck used. My fuel tanks have always been a bit misaligned. My maintenance manual only says to retorque the fuel strap nuts the first 25k miles from new. There is no retorque interval after that, but I’ll guess that the next retorque is at 400k or higher. I’ll also guess that if the straps are removed for whatever reason, then they should be retorqued after 25k miles like when new.

Apparently all Freightliner trucks use two bolts per strap to prevent the nuts from loosening over time. And they are right about that. My reefer fuel tank straps only have one nut and I had to retighten the nuts because they were very loose. Now that I remember, I need to buy an extra nut to have the same setup as my truck straps.

 

Fuel tank were misaligned because they were removed and washed. 99% you truck had a bad fuel pump before. When there are metal shavings in tanks the dealer removes fuel tanks and wash them

 

If you had fuel tank shut offs you could shut one off and just run the other tank until it's almost empty.

Or run the truck until you have about a quarter tank of fuel or less and then just siphon into containers one tank until it's empty and fill the other side with them.

It is a lot easier to work with your fuel tanks when they're empty or just about empty.

 

Use dish soap as lube first! It wont hang around for a long time like grease will.

 

Some dude came wheeling into the Petro up near Gary in a 579 with one dangling by one strap awhile back.

 

My Classic was the same way. After running out for the last time, I finally put an old Truck tire under them, loosened and realigned each, before filling again. Lot of good ideas, Boxcarr’s vent idea, and shutoff valves, would make it a lot easier.

 

If you're hauling dry van, use a cargo strap. Loosen tank straps, wrap cargo strap around good and tight, lift on cargo strap to rotate tank.

 

I should add that to make rotating the tanks easier, it’s best to completely remove/unstick the straps, and then put it back together with the nuts as loose as possible without the straps coming off the mount.

 

Before removing tanks i mark them. ..i do marks on straps and on tabks