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What's that bar for under my gas tank
We were on our Coast trip and one side of the bar under the gas tank of our Pace Arrow wore through the bracket on one side and then touched the pavement making sparks until I could get stopped. What is the purpose of the bar? Is it for safety to catch the gas tank if it comes loose from it's own brackets? Is it to make sure any obstruction can't touch the gas tank? There is another bar up toward the front of the tank which also has to have road clearance and both bars do not touch the gas tank. Any ideas?
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Permalink Reply by Harry on -
I would guess you are right, it is to catch the fuel tank in case it comes loose from its hold-down. Since one of the brackets broke, I would have it re-welded or add a new bar and bolt it into place.
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Permalink Reply by Ron Buckner on -
Thats exactly what it initially was supposed to be. If its located to one side of the tank than it might've been holding somekind of plastic plate in place to protect it from rocks thrown off the tires. If its located behind the tires then it was put there to help with ground clearence and bottem-out issues. In which case there actually might've been two of them. Check for a broken weld. where another bracket might've been there on the otherside. In any event, don't do much traveleing without getting it fixed. You might be speedbump away from a disaster
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Permalink Reply by Jim Sweet on -
Thanks for the input. I have made and drilled steel brackets that fit into the original welded brackets. I used #6 half inch bolts (3) for each bracket, both sides, and then discovered that the bar was made too short and when factory installed it, it was just overtightened to make it fit. This is what caused the bracket to tear and then wear the hole on the one side until it dropped down on the road. I solved this by using an allthread 3/4" cut to length for the extra width and lock washers and nuts on all sides. The bar is now back in place with lock washers and nuts on both ends. This seemed to be the best method as no welding had to be done right next to the gas tank. I did weld a turned up skid on the new bracket before installation so the blunt edge was eliminated on both sides of each bracket. Now on to the bar at the front of the tank.
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Permalink Reply by Ron Buckner on
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Yeh, now that you've put in the time. You'll never have an issue. You might want to try it out and "ease" into a staged ground clearance issue to see just how necessary (and affective) this really might be. There might be a possibility the coach is prown to this kind of problem and the reason the bar was gone was because the tank had to be replaced by a previous owner.
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