Which fuel tank to use?

When I rebuilt my cub I reinstalled the old Stoddard 15 gal. aux tanks in each wing.......BAD CHOICE.... ...both are leaking now. I am going to remove the aux tanks this winter. I like the idea of having a bit extra fuel over the 36 gals though. Any advice on whether to put in a 23 gal Dakota or a 30.5 Atlee to replace one of the standard tanks or just pull out the aux tanks and leave the stock 18's? In the old days we would just carry a 5 gal. Jerry can in the back.......is that kosher these days?

cubdrvr said:

In the old days we would just carry a 5 gal. Jerry can in the back.......is that kosher these days?

Click to expand...

I'm not Jewish, but I do...

Dave,
A friend of mine is in the middle of a Murphy Moose project with wet wings, said he had a heck of a time sealing them up, (was pressure testing them). he ended up using some type of sloshing compound that was not highly viscous (took 4 or 5 guys to roll the wings around) and it worked.
I have also heard of some type of heavy bodied epoxy tank sealing compounds to seal up cracks in welds on the outside. I'll make some calls and see if I can find out what the stuff was.
Anybody else heard of these systems?
Wilbur

Dave,
If you wanted to save the present tanks, the product Murphy recomended was Sealpak CS3600 in wichita, $25/qt does a 40 gal tank, (the consistency of MMO) 316-942-6211.
Wilbur

Dave, I have installed the Dakota Cub tanks and realy like them especially over Dodge tanks. They can be installed in a covered wings but would be harder to do. Not familiar with how Stoddard tanks were built but have been able to slosh wet wings with good results as Wilbur has said.

Aux. Tanks

I have never seen a Cub with the auxillery tanks that would feed right. They also seem to screw up the air flow over the wing. They are a P.O.S. in my opinion. I would either go with stock 18 gallon Piper tanks with a Firman belly pod and stick up to 3 five gallon Septor cans in the pod if I had a long trip or spend the bucks and get Dakota's 24 gallon tanks. Forget the Atlee tanks, they are just too hard to deal with if you have to re-rig the wing in order to get it to fly straight and level. Any change in wing twist and the tanks will bind and crack. They are O.K. if you get them right, but they are harder to install then anything else. Besides who needs 61 gallons (366 lbs) of fuel on board in a Cub? Take a couple of $100 bills with you and buy some gas where you're at, their a lot lighter then 20 extra gallons of gas. Crash

I bought me a 32 gallon belly tank a couple of years ago and really like it. I hated to add the extra weight of the tank but like the added fuel and like it stored low, the tank has not cost me any speed. The installation was straight forward best of all I got those dripping stinking gas cans out from behind the rear seat.

I like the extra fuel capacity when flying the west side of the Alaska range there are few places to stop for fuel and the winds can cut a cubs ground speed in half.

Cub_Driver