JimWPB

I'm looking around for good options to help me carry 5-10 gallons of spare gas for going off road in a 2-door JK.

If I just need to go from the gas station back to the house with a couple of cans, I'll use a standard hitch mounted cargo rack, but for off-road use, that obviously is not a good option.

The little Rotopax mounts seem easy to mount in different places, but the cans are so small that I would need a lot of them.

I was thinking of mounting a traditional 5-gallon Jerry can or two, but where? The mounts that I see for the spare tire carrier seem like they might add too much stress to an area that may already be a bit marginal from a structural perspective. Building a custom bumper with real Jerry can mounts seems legit, but it also seems a bit involved & maybe expensive. Is there a good double Jerry carrier that plugs into a receiver hitch? Are there other good options? What are you guys doing? What works well?

resharp001

Not cheap, but if I was going to carry jerry can full worth of fuel, I think I'd give the MORryde mounts that go on the side of the fender behind the front wheels a strong consideration. I don't think I'd want to be carrying fuel off a receiver hitch due to the location and that being pretty low-hanging fruit while wheeling in regard to climbing/departure angles.

https://www.morryde.com/products/jer...ssengers-side/

JimWPB

Thank you for the suggestion. Structurally, that seems like a viable option. I'm a little put off by having the gas staring me in the face like that. Proximity is the issue. The same was true of having the gas tank under the seat of a CJ-2 & having it behind the driver's seat in a '73 Dodge pickup, and having it between the seats in a Fiero. In the event of a wreck, I want a little separation between me & the fuel.

The receiver hitch idea I was considering fabricating would involve structure coming straight up from the hitch, then fanning out & going parallel to the bumper. I was thinking that Jerry can mounts might straddle the area between that strut & the existing bumper. It's still just a pretty loose concept. I'm hoping to find an off the shelf option that I like before I break out the welder. Last night I saw a mall crawler with 2 roto cans slung over the spare tire using 1" straps. That was something I hadn't seen before. New concepts are what I'm trying to find right now. I'd like to casually consider options for a while then buy only once. ...yea, I know, not wanting to continually upgrade is a sign that you shouldn't own a Jeep.

Sixty4x4

Lot of Jeeps use a roof rack with fuel strapped in. Seems to work and rack carries other items too.

Alanymarce

A key question is "how often, and for how long, will you need to carry extra fuel?".

On our trip around Canada in our JK (53,000 km) we needed no extra fuel at all - range was at least 700 km and we saw over 800 km several times. I realise that "off-road", particularly in dunes, consumption increases, however I'd still be surprised at a range of less than 400 km.

On trips where we needed more range than the standard tank could provide (Simpson Desert, SW Bolivia, Okavango) we bought plastic fuel cans, filled them at the last fuel station, transferred the fuel as early as possible, and gave away the cans when we no longer had the need for extra range. We had roof racks on the vehicles involved, and mounted the cans on the racks. This way we didn't have the cans any longer than necessary, and didn't have the wind resistance and wind noise, nor the extra mass on the roof (although with plastic cans this is not much).

Now, if you're going to be travelling a lot on trips where you need more than 700 km range you do need a "permanent" solution. Mounting fuel cans on a roof rack is a good option, I believe.

JimWPB

700 Km at least? That's like 435 miles. 800Km is close to 500 miles. If I could get that, I'd be real happy.

My little 2-door v-6 isn't seeing that kind of range. Filling up when I still have a 3 gallon reserve, I'm struggling to get 300 miles. That requires me to do the vast majority of my driving on the highway & be gentle about it. Typically I'm looking for gas after 250 miles, or sometimes less.

My MPG is in the range of 16-20 (7-8.5 Km/liter or 4.2-5.2 miles/liter), depending on how I drive. My tank is said to hold 18 gallons (70 liters). Do you have a bigger tank?

Grand Umpah

Don't know if this tops Jim WPB's story, but in my new '12 JKUR, I treated myself to a solo trip from California to Glacier National Park. On the way home, before I left Idaho, I made the mistake of not topping off my tank. In Eastern Oregon I hit a junction where I could either stay on pavement or take a good graveled path. The map showed a town just across the border in Nevada and I was sure there would be fuel. I plugged in the GPS coordinates, set off on the graveled road, and the 430N unit kept telling me to take various turns that clearly weren't the correct route. I had the radio on and Prairie Home Companion was on, and one of the skits was a couple trying to drive north to the Canadian border, the husband was clearly lost and the wife was on his case because he was running low on fuel. I eventually made it across the Nevada border and while the town had a post office and a small casino, no gas station. I had something like 100 miles to go to hit Winnemucca Nevada, the next town. I slowed down to 35 mph and coasted on the downhills. I made it to Winnemucca and when I filled the tank, it was something like 21.8 gallons, so had no more than 0.2 gallons left! Now I have a 2 gallon Rotapax and always, without exception, top off the tank when I can.

JimWPB

A close call for sure, and thank you for answering one of my questions. Apparently some JKs had a 22 gallon tank. That's 4 gallons more than my tank claims to hold. That's enough to make a difference.

I wonder of an extra capacity tank exists for a 2-door JK. The old CJs had aftermarket tanks available that held like 22 or 24 gallons. I think that the stock tanks were like just under 15. The granddaddy CJ-2 only held 5 gallons & that was right under the driver's seat. Not my first choice.

JimWPB

Back to my original question - Where do you carry the Rotapax?

Grand Umpah

It's pretty much like the one in the link. It mounts on the tailgate hinge and is sideways to the tire
https://www.amazon.com/Westin-59-890...352711&sr=8-41