Steane Klose
Range anxiety is a term that owners of EVs (that’s electric vehicles) think of daily with their current limited battery range and there’s plenty of ICE (that’s internal combustion engine vehicles) owners who get pretty nervous as well when their odometer trips 500-600 kilometres. That need not be the case because now there’s a certain smugness in the knowledge that you can sail on beyond 1,000 kilometres range in your Colorado or D-MAX, thanks to those clever people at ARB.
With the fitment of one of ARB’s new 140 Lite Frontier fuel tanks you’ll have diesel fuel in abundance and maybe, just maybe, with some conservative driving you might be able to eke out a trip on the highway from Adelaide to Sydney, or Melbourne to Coffs Harbour, or in the bush where it might really matter, Mt Dare to Birdsville… twice or three times with a tailwind and firm sand!
As an owner of a D-MAX, I’ve really appreciated the range my big tank has given me, but sadly I’ve not been so happy with either its durability or weight!
You see my Isuzu was built up just before the advent of ARB’s Frontier range of fuel tanks and I had to settle for a steel version. In the durability stakes steel is not an ideal material for a fuel tank despite what you might think. Its main drawback is that it is rigid.
Over corrugations and those moments when a bit of flex is called upon when truly off-road, the torsional forces that a chassis imposes on componentry stored within it creates plenty of opportunities for a steel tank to crack and that’s been my experience. Watching that precious fuel dribbling from a fissure makes for anxious times and effecting a repair, temporary or otherwise isn’t easy.
The other downside is weight.
Payloads in a typical 4X4 are small, and any weight savings to be gained are something to be cherished. When you start adding those essential accessories and see your payload rapidly gobbled up, the 40kgs (steel) versus around 20kgs (plastic) is a no-brainer equation; plastic is best.
The Frontier tank is strong. In case you haven’t seen it have a look at what our buddy Rob Emmins at Melbourne 4X4 did to a Frontier with his WW2 vintage Centurion tank. Getting run over by fifty tonnes of war machinery might ordinarily get you pretty bitter and twisted, but it’s a testament to the Frontier’s cross-link polymer, and it’s 7-9mm thickness, that it can cop abuse beyond anything you’re likely to dish out under your fourbie.
Expect to pay $1,215 (depending on your location) plus fitting (or DIY). Click here for more info from ARB.
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