73-87chevytrucks.com
73-87 Chevy _ GMC Trucks => Fuel Systems and Drivability => Topic started by: Stephanos on April 16, 2010, 09:57:00 PM
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A link to the Jalopink website on a new post about the old issues with side saddle fuel tanks. Not sure if anyone here has seen it or read it, so I though I would post a link to it.
http://jalopnik.com/5513303/your-gm-pickup-could-explode-and-kill-you
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so whats a good way to avoid this issue, a fuel cell? how do you maintain usage of a bed.
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well i think i just might sell mine now ;-). no but i think most of the cars and trucks out there can but like the crown vics in the 90s? if they got rearended hard enough they also would burn and when they had the tank in the cab with the driver i think on the side ain't a good place but its better than in the cab. i kind of don't see why they didn't put them like the blazers but i guess that was due to trying to make people happy and give them bigger tanks to haul more unburned gas around that would drop the mpgs a little bit but at least they wouldn't have to fill up every 150 miles
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http://forum.73-87chevytrucks.com/smforum/index.php?topic=7131.0
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ah well i dont usually use the side saddle tank anyway.
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A link to the Jalopink website on a new post about the old issues with side saddle fuel tanks. Not sure if anyone here has seen it or read it, so I though I would post a link to it.
http://jalopnik.com/5513303/your-gm-pickup-could-explode-and-kill-you
Ralph Nader and his lobbying organization beat this to death even after NBC lost the lawsuit lodged by GM for model rocket engine fueled fire in their "news" show. With his claim of 1800 deaths Ralph has very little credibility left... Other consumer advocate organizations figures vary so much that they are all questionable IMHO.
Several engineering schools did studies on this. They found the deaths were not out of line with the other 2 major manufacturers from 1973-1991... A neighbor of ours burned to death in her 1990 Dodge Ram because of a defective fuel shutoff device. Pickups and Suburbans don't fare well in side impacts. Even 3500 Suburbans fold up in a rather unpleasant manner in a side impact. This does make a good case study in how media campaigns can take on a life of their own.
In any car or truck you are sitting on at least 10 gallons of a highly flammable liquid. You also have a quart of sulfuric acid, and 1-2 ounces of phosgene producing flammable refrigerant in front of you. Cars are dangerous. Relax... Or don't. I refuse to be that worried.
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Myth busters dis a clip on when a car falls off a cliff it usually wont burn up. They had to add Ace to it to make them go boom
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Ive said it before! All Poppycock! ::)
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It is. If the tank was inside the frame it could just as easily be shredded in a T-bone. These trucks aren't by any means up to todays safety standards so anyone who is concerned about it just hand me your keys and I'll take it off your hands.
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Lol Vile. Come over to Illinios. :D
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This "supposed" outer tank "problem" does not deter the theives one bit.
Be secure---don't make it easy for the theives.
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How about the millions of people that drive these trucks everyday and the hundreds of thousands of accidents these trucks have been in over the years? The media is not saying anything about that, just reporting on the worst. When it's your time it's your time.
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I found this video on YouTube the other day. It’s a partial clip of GM defending itself against Dateline NBC’s
fraudulent crash test involving the C/K-series pickups. Just goes to show, you should never believe everything
you see on TV.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEkc_DlvN9Y
Also found this awesome crash test of a 1992+ Ford F-Series Ambulance. Its gets
broadsided by a 1981+ Chevrolet C-30 crew cab. Notice how well the cab of the
Chevy holds up as it snaps the ambulance in half. Can you say safe? ;D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CA1-WhZ55k&feature=related
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Is there more to that 1st clip?
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Unfortunately no, not that I find. I’ve also tried to find video of the November 1992 Dateline NBC program
"Waiting to Explode?" which featured the falsified crash test.
But I fear we my never get to see that footage again as NBC doesn’t want their old dirty laundry to continue flapping
in the wind for people to see. They would rather it be forgotten and buried.
I suspect if anyone ever did post video of that episode and NBC found out, it would be quickly removed.
Here is a old news report:
Quote:
DETROIT, Feb. 8 PRNewswire
General Motors (NYSE: GM) today filed suit against the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), charging that its "Dateline NBC" program rigged a car-truck crash with incendiary model rocket engines to irresponsibly portray that GM's 1973-1987 full- size pickup trucks are prone to fires in side impact collisions. GM also said the program was part of an orchestrated campaign by plaintiff lawyers and others to create a "poisoned" public and litigation climate in which an objective engineering evaluation and fair assessment are very difficult.
The November 17, 1992, "Dateline NBC" segment, "Waiting To Explode?", featured a crash said to be at "around 30 mph" of a passenger car into the side of a 1977 Chevrolet pickup. A fire was ignited. But a second crash, said to be at "about 40 mph," failed to produce a fire. That truck, a 1980 Chevrolet pickup, was also equipped with rocket engines which were ignited at or just before the moment of impact.
The on-camera reporter for the "Dateline NBC" segment, Michele Gillen, and an NBC news producer were at the scene of the crash tests -- a rural road near Indianapolis, Indiana -- on October 24, 1992.
"The 11 million households that viewed the program were never told that NBC used remotely controlled incendiary devices to try to ensure that a fire would erupt, seemingly due to the collision," said Harry Pearce, GM executive vice president and general counsel at a media conference at GM's World Headquarters. "And they were not told that the fuel that was ignited came out of the 1977 Chevrolet pickup's open fuel filler neck after the impact knocked off an ill-fitting gas cap. NBC and the organization that conducted this faked test -- The Institute For Safety Analysis (TISA) -- are guilty of a blatant deception of the American public under the guise of supposedly fair and balanced news reporting.
"We cannot allow the men and women of GM, the thousands of independent businesses that sell GM products, and the owners of these pickup trucks, to suffer the consequences of NBC's irresponsible conduct and deliberate deception."
"The bias in the 'Dateline NBC' program is evident in NBC's selection of TISA and its chairman, Bruce Enz, to stage the crashes," said Mr. Pearce. Enz routinely testifies for plaintiff lawyers against General Motors and other automotive manufacturers. Enz was prominently assisted by Byron Bloch, another paid "plaintiff expert." Neither Bloch nor Enz has an engineering or technical degree.
Mr. Pearce also said that the Institute For Injury Reduction (IIR), an organization founded and funded by plaintiff lawyers, takes credit for suggesting to "Dateline NBC" that it employ TISA to conduct the televised crash tests. Mr. Pearce showed a letter dated January 25, 1993, from IIR President Ben Kelley, in which Kelley solicited funds from IIR supporters in order to conduct new tests with a "modified design further enhancing the likelihood of a real world impact resulting in a fire." The letter said the same contractor used on "Dateline NBC" would be hired and stated this "GM Pickup Truck Fire Test" would be for "public dissemination and litigation use."
"GM has been damaged and we must speak out because it is impossible for Americans to reach valid conclusions if the source of their information is biased and flawed," Mr. Pearce said, emphasizing this lawsuit was not brought to divert attention from genuine safety issues, but to "demonstrate how far these people have gone to poison the public and litigation climate."
End Quote
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Oh well, we all die at some point, I'd be happy dying doing what I love most, driving my truck haha
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A similar issue nearly killed light airplane manufacturing in this country as well: Billy Joe would fly into IMC with his forty-something Cessna, find the cloud stuffed with granite, and his family would sue the manufacturer...
Covering several decades of your old production creates an enormous liability cost, especially when folks will sue at the drop of a hat... even KNOWING that the driver/pilot was at fault. No excuse for poor design, but I think after this many years... heck. I knew about the tank issue when I had my ol' '74, and I was incensed at NBC for besmirching my old rustbucket.
My '86 lacks the left tank now (was missing when I bought the truck), and I'll likely try to find a Blazer tank, or even a bed mounted fuel cell, or a toolbox/tank combo. Then I can build tool storage into the old tank space.
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lol. found it stuffed with granite... thats a new one.
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last tiem i check saddle tanks ARENT a problem..
look at you meduima nd heavey duty rigs... anywere from 40-200gl haning off on side.
if your worreid about pick up a blazer or burb tank and mount it in the back
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look at you meduima nd heavey duty rigs... anywere from 40-200gl haning off on side.
That's a good point. I witnessed an accident that involved a small car (ran the light) burying its nose in a big rig's side tank. Banged it up a little, but it didn't leak and the aftermath certainly didn't look anything like this:
(http://westfallfire.com/WebPages/Archieves/TractorTrailerFire1.jpg)
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I remember when all Dateline stuff that happened. I was driving a beat up old, red primered, 77 short, wide and Chevy sent me certificate for $300.00 off on a new truck. WOW! I didn't know what to do! I couldn't even afford PAINT, much less a new truck back then. The media gets a hold of something they know little or nothing about and turns it into a big ole to do.
When I die I want to go peacefully in my sleep. Not screaming like the other three people in his car! ;)
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Man, I really know how to ruin a good joke..
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last tiem i check saddle tanks ARENT a problem..
look at you meduima nd heavey duty rigs... anywere from 40-200gl haning off on side.
if your worreid about pick up a blazer or burb tank and mount it in the back
I've spent most of my adult life driving around with 100-400 gallons hangin' off the sides.
Like jet fuel, diesel isn't nearly as volatile as gasoline... though I still wouldn't go plowin' into one.
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I like that one of the replies said she searched craigslist and saw the ones for sale still go for thousands in some cases and are still 'special interest' even though they are death traps... Mine has a cell mounted in the bed, where you would have to crash through the bumber, and about a foot of frame to even hit it. I won't sell mine... I have seen so many of these truck, all I can say is, just be careful driving. A fire can happen in any crash.
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Come this next month, I will have a 70 c10 with the tank in inside the cab and a 78 c10 with the tank on the right side of the bed the next month. I agree just a bunch of bull.
Oh and i have a 78 grand prix with tank in the rear between the frame rails, So thats kind of like what yall do with these trucks and the grand prix was in a pretty bad cash before i got it, So either way i think we are pretty safe.
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I always carry a cold beer or 20 in my cooler in order to put out the fire after a side collision. ;D If that doesnt work and I cant get out, then I will reach for my pistola. The frist 5 are for the azzwhole who just hit me and the last is for me. I aint gonna burn alive, thats for sure. lol
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Remind me not to crash into you...