I've been thinking that the only thing I wish the prius had (dispite even better fuel economy) would be a larger fuel tank. I'll grant that I only have to spend around 25-30 bux to fill it up even with the current $3.00 a gallon, but my dad's 17 gallon accord V6 and my friend's 23 gallon Buick Roadmaster have the same range as mine. I want more range. I would like to have closer to a 15-20 gallon fuel tank, I do realize that fuel weighs around 8lbs per gallon so it would be an additional 40-80lbs but I can deal with that. With a 15-20 gallon tank my range would be around double what it is now (should be 600-800) instead of the 400 it is now. I was thinking possibly a tank somewhere in the trunk, or removing the spare and putting a tank there (my z06 corvette don't have a spare so what's the big deal right. Or putting some sort of external tank in the trunk, it seems like 5-10 extra gallons would not take up much space, the only issue would be integrating it with the current tank which I know is a bladder. I know how to work with steel tanks, even plastic, but bladders.... eww.. Any aircraft folk around? My Corvette Z06 even has a larger range than the prius. It has a 18 gallon tank and can get up to around 30mpg.
I agree that the tank should be at least 3 gallons bigger but I don't think I'd go so far to add to it. Does your Z06 get that kind of mileage on everyday driving (i.e. stop and go traffic, city and short trips) or just on straight drives like to Vegas or something? I would imagine it's the latter.
It gets pretty good every day driving, maybe 22 around town, 30 highway. HOWEVER, if you get agressive on the gas that your average can turn from 26 down to 19 in seconds. It'll drink gas if you make it. And I can't help showing off when people gawk at it. But i'm sure an all freeway trip like vegas it would do pretty well, some get as high as 34. I think that's in normal vettes though, the Z06 gets slightly less.
Actually some companies make auxiliary fuel tanks with switches to change from one tank to the other. They are mostly used when people put racing fuel in them and just hit a switch to change from regular fuel to racing fuel. I've always thought about this.
I would DEFINITELY buy a larger or auxillary fuel tank, so long as it didn't mean losing something else. I have a very lengthy daily commute and my girlfriend & I already weigh several hundred pounds between us, so I'm not going to worry about few extra pounds for the gas if it means definitely not refilling more than once per week.
I added a 40 gal tank to my Peugeot once. But it took up most of the trunk. More than doubled my range though.
Maybe a fuel cell or something in the rear? Or an additonal bladder. I just don't get how to tie it to the other tank. I'll look into it more and let you guys know what I find.
I've found some external fuel cells which would hold an additional 8 gallons, or 15 gallons. Check them out: 8 gal http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.a...15&autoview=sku 4 gal http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.a...15&autoview=sku 3 gal http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.a...15&autoview=sku 15 gal http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.a...15&autoview=sku The only problem is these would have to go INSIDE the car and be filled from the trunk or something like that. I'm not sure how safe it is but my main issue would be it smelling like fuel in the car. Maybe the stock tank can be modified to hold more fuel? Maybe by removing the bladder and adding more tank... I don't know. I'm still doing research. Even if it did go inside the car there is still the issue of getting it from there to the main tank. I'm sure you could use a small pump to just pump it down to the tank when the main tank was getting low... That gets kinda complicated, I wanted more of a clean design.
A few members here get higher mileage tanks, both by techniquies to fill the tank fuller and better mileage. Ray Moore comes to mind. You might not want to do all the tips, but a few of them might help get the range you're looking for.
