That surprised me: the tank has been continuously covered completely by the hood on the tractor, I mean for it's lifetime! When I filled it with gas it looked just fine, no cracks, no problems. Took 3 days for it to split, and it did that with hood closed, plus no exposure to sunlight, cool temperatures. Then when it started to split it went crazy, with cracks progressing and entire area breaking down, hard & brittle, then chunks falling out! Steeerange....

I guess I better check with Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Green Party and key Obummer advisor, and see if the new tank's plastic is approved in this fragile biosphere environment. Also thinking about plumbing the exhaust pipe to feed rignt back into the carburetor throat, that way I won't pollute the air ya know....sorta like a turbocharger but cheaper.