Auxiliary Gas Tank

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Need a little more range on the VLX to keep up with those bigger tanked bikes? Have I got a solution for you! All you need is one of these handy-dandy auxiliary gas tanks. I got mine from Ebay for under $30 delivered. Basically, it's a roto-molded plastic tank that holds an extra 2 gallons. The guy that sells them adds a sturdy (but ugly!) mounting bracket, a plastic petcock valve, about a foot of gas line, and all the necessary tees, and clamps to hook right in to your fuel line.

There are a few things to consider when choosing a mounting place. I wanted mine to mount on the sissy bar, since it looks like a bedroll, so I drilled holes through the bar itself (it's an HAC heavy alloy bar) and used some grade 5 bolts to mount the bracket to the bar. The tank is secured to the bracket by two large hose clamps, but since it was designed to be mounted to the front of the bike, the slits in the cover were in the wrong place. The solution was to use an x-acto knife to make two new small slits in the cover, so the clamps could be guided through them and secured to the bracket. Easy fix! The downside to my rear mounting method is the weight factor. 2 gallons of gas comes in around 15 pounds and it just seems like too much weight to be resting on 2 small bolts while bouncing around heading down the road. I'm going to reinstall my luggage rack (MC Enterprises), when I can find it in the shop, and rest the tank on top of it for extra support.

To hook it into the fuel line, I ran new gas line from the outlet in the tank, through the petcock valve and a filter, and cut the inlet line, right in front of the fuel pump for the tee. The fuel pump really isn't very strong on these bikes anyway, but it seemed to make sense doing it this way. The scenario works out like this - after filling both tanks, I shut off the petcock on the main tank, and turn on the petcock on the auxiliary tank. I ride on the aux. tank until it starts to sputter, then reach down and turn on the main tanks valve, and then turn the aux valve off (I haven't tested to be sure, but my suspicion is that gas would work it's way back up the line to the aux tank if I didn't turn the valve off). This way, I still have the main tanks reserve, just in case!

All in all, this was a very cheap project that solves the range problem and doesn't look too much like an add-on to boot! I can go 200-225 miles comfortably, and have pushed it to over 260 on one occasion.  No longer is it the tank that decides when you stop. Now it's your backside! LOL!

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