If you don't mind the little bit of gasoline smell when you first get in the truck, behind the seat is not such a terrible location. The tank is already sort of "between the frame rails" there, and being up high protects it in many sorts of crashes. It's also better protected from some kinds of rust (and worse protected from others).

I've been t-boned into the driver's door in one of these trucks, by a car going fast enough that it flattened up to the firewall - the other people were okay, although I thought they must be dead when I first saw their car.

There was no fuel/fire issue in my truck.


I understand the impulse for safety, but I don't think the original factory location is actually that bad. OTOH, I'm eventually going to put reserve tanks back in mine, in the same unprotected positions that Travel Tank did back in the '60s, so my level of risk aversion might be suspect.
-Kle.