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Mid ship fuel tank

Got ya, like I said the research aspect is not my thing but to have and pile of parts sitting in front of me I can put that in haha. I’m 99% sure it’s still an option to have it on mine but still not 100%


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Yep, it's an option. You've got what I've got. I ordered mine with the 52/22 gallon dual tanks.

I also have an 85 gallon 5th wheel aux tank on the front of the bed so my range is epic but the trip to the fuel stop can be pretty painful!
 
Yep, it's an option. You've got what I've got. I ordered mine with the 52/22 gallon dual tanks.

I also have an 85 gallon 5th wheel aux tank on the front of the bed so my range is epic but the trip to the fuel stop can be pretty painful!

Yeah I get that! I had a 108 galling tank in the bed but it took up way more space than I was ok with, so after about 7 months I got rid of it…..but miss having the extra range while pulling the camper. Which is what brought me to this quest to add the 22 gallon tank…..kinda give me the best of both worlds.


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@ebtksutton I've been heavily distracted with other parts of my build since my truck has arrived, but I've been working on this in the background and I think I have 90% of it figured out. To the point that I've started ordering parts. Stuff will be showing up over the next couple weeks and I'll let you know how I make out..
 
Interesting things are starting to arrive - I have the tank, heat shield and straps here. Fuel pump module and hardware will be here Monday, and various tubes will be showing up over the next couple weeks.

IMG_5229.jpeg

I also have the wiring figured out, but @Jimmy07 if I could trouble you to check my work and also for some connector/pin advice..

What I have worked out is the truck is wired (and even appears to have the fuses in place) up to the XY960A and XY965A connectors on the left frame rail (2022 4500). The rear harness from there however is only wired for the rear tank. The rear harness appears to be unobtainium and even if it wasn't, north of $500 so I'd rather just hook up the couple of wires I need.

It looks like I need to do the following, as the "tank 1" will become the midship 22 gallon tank instead of the 52 rear tank, and then the 52 will be "tank 2".

XY965A - Move pin 22's (dark blue/white fuel level signal 1) wire from the rear tank to the mid tank. Then hook pin 8 (dark blue/grey, fuel level signal 2) up to the rear tank in its place. Also splice the return signal from the mid tank into pin 7 along with the other return, it looks like the return is shared.

XY960A - Move the wire on pin 25 (dk blue/orange fuel pump) from the rear tank to the mid tank. Connect pin 19 (dk blue/yellow transfer pump) to the rear tank. Pin 25 is a heavier gauge wire/connector as the main fuel pump likely runs much more constantly than the transfer pump, so I need to move the wire, not just re-pin the connector. Hook up ground on the mid tank fuel pump module.

Then do the appropriate AlfaOBD settings I found in another thread.

Does that sound right?

And beyond that, is there any hope of being able to buy the correct pins and seals to add into the factory XY960A/XY965A connectors or should I just bypass them for these wires and do my own weather tech or deutsch connector?

If I can find the pins I think I would need the female for XY965A pin 8, and on XY960A the smaller female for 19 and mid sized female for 25.

Thanks in advance if you have the time.
 
Just ran into an unexpected wrinkle.. For whatever reason, Ram routes the rear brake lines differently if you have a the rear tank only vs. the midship or dual tanks. The brake hard lines I have run under the crossmember (so does the wiring harness, but that's easy to move) whereas mid or dual tanks it needs to go through the crossmember so the tank can snug up against the bottom.

Why is completely beyond me, they could just go through the crossmember for all configs. Oh well, in for a penny in for a pound, ordered new hard lines..
 
Still waiting on parts. I ordered the wrong part for a couple of fuel lines, and a couple others were damaged by the seller when they decided to fold up the hard lines to fit them in the box they had. :rolleyes:

Getting there though. I am pretty sure I am going to use weatherpack connectors and tap into the frame harness ahead of the XY965A/XY960A connectors. That way I can make the two tanks reversible electrically at least, and if I figure a way to have access to the top of the fuel modules with my bed on I could theoretically carry a few flexible lines to allow me to switch to just the rear tank. Might be useful if I'm in the middle of nowhere and the midship tank pump gives out.
 
I finally have all the parts (I believe). Don't ever order from Mopar Parts Giant..

Here's the parts list if anyone is interested. This is specifically for a 2022 4500/5500 84" CA. If you have a 60" CA some of the fuel lines and the brake lines will be different part numbers. If you have a 3500 60" CA the fuel lines will be different and you (apparently) don't need to replace the brake lines. If you have an older model year some of the lines will also vary.

DescriptionPart NumberQuantityNotes
HOSE, PURGE (22 gal)5032258AB1Connects rollover vents on 22 gallon tank
STRAP, FUEL TANK (22 gal)5031013AA1
NUT, HEX FLANGE LOCK M10x1.50 (22 gal)6104717AA2
STRAP, FUEL TANK (22 gal)5031015AA1
TANK, FUEL (22 gal)68496625AB1
SHIELD, FUEL TANK HEAT (22 gal)5031027AC1
TUBE, FUEL VAPOR52029544AA122 gal vapor tube, does not match drawing, includes filter
STUD, DOUBLE ENDED M10x1.50x60.006508830AA2
CAP, FUEL FILLER52013994AB1
TUBE, FUEL FILLER5031041AF1
TUBE, FUEL SUPPLY68193570AA1Goes from 52 gallon to 22 gallon aux port - needs rear section
TUBE, FUEL SUPPLY05146908AA1Junction Block to 22 gal fuel supply
TUBE, FUEL VAPOR05146916AA1Junction Block to 22 gal fuel vapor
TUBE, FUEL SUPPLY68193999AA1Rear portion of transfer tube
COVER, FUEL PUMP ACCESS52014009AA1
MODULE KIT, FUEL PUMP/LEVEL KIT (22 gal)68569543AA1Comes with O-ring and cap for aux port
FUEL TANK LOCK RING04721916AA1
Right Brake Tube05146632AB1
Left Brake Tube05146633AB1
Rear wiring harness (2022 with surround cameras and dual tanks)68525916AB1If you'd prefer to swap the rear harness instead of modify your existing.

It's around 2 grand in parts. If you do order play with the shipping - these Mopar sites have crazy glitches in their shipping calculations. One site can be literally $12, another $400.

If you order the brake or fuel lines from an online place expect them to arrive bent/broken.. I had to order the brake lines from my local dealer at twice the price.

Beyond all of that you also need a 5/16" cap for the vapor line on the rear tank. You can either get the Mopar one for $20-60 for a tiny bit of plastic or get one off of eBay like the link below:

Edit: The cap is not needed, you can repurpose the one that comes on the aux port on the rear fuel module.

For the wiring I opted to not get a new rear harness, I am going to modify mine. For that you will need a connector for the new fuel pump module, I bought the one below:


And you'll probably want a tool for the lock ring unless you just want to hit it with a screwdriver. The proper tool is inexpensive though.


I'll be working on installing this over the next week or two, I'll keep updated on how it goes.
 
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I finally have all the parts (I believe). Don't ever order from Mopar Parts Giant..

Here's the parts list if anyone is interested. This is specifically for a 2022 4500/5500 84" CA. If you have a 60" CA some of the fuel lines and the brake lines will be different part numbers. If you have a 3500 60" CA the fuel lines will be different and you (apparently) don't need to replace the brake lines. If you have an older model year some of the lines will also vary.

DescriptionPart NumberQuantityNotes
HOSE, PURGE (22 gal)5032258AB1Connects rollover vents on 22 gallon tank
STRAP, FUEL TANK (22 gal)5031013AA1
NUT, HEX FLANGE LOCK M10x1.50 (22 gal)6104717AA2
STRAP, FUEL TANK (22 gal)5031015AA1
TANK, FUEL (22 gal)68496625AB1
SHIELD, FUEL TANK HEAT (22 gal)5031027AC1
TUBE, FUEL VAPOR52029544AA122 gal vapor tube, does not match drawing, includes filter
STUD, DOUBLE ENDED M10x1.50x60.006508830AA2
CAP, FUEL FILLER52013994AB1
TUBE, FUEL FILLER5031041AF1
TUBE, FUEL SUPPLY68193570AA1Goes from 52 gallon to 22 gallon aux port - needs rear section
TUBE, FUEL SUPPLY05146908AA1Junction Block to 22 gal fuel supply
TUBE, FUEL VAPOR05146916AA1Junction Block to 22 gal fuel vapor
TUBE, FUEL SUPPLY68193999AA1Rear portion of transfer tube
COVER, FUEL PUMP ACCESS52014009AA1
MODULE KIT, FUEL PUMP/LEVEL KIT (22 gal)68569543AA1Comes with O-ring and cap for aux port
FUEL TANK LOCK RING04721916AA1
Right Brake Tube05146632AB1
Left Brake Tube05146633AB1

It's around 2 grand in parts. If you do order play with the shipping - these Mopar sites have crazy glitches in their shipping calculations. One site can be literally $12, another $400.

If you order the brake or fuel lines from an online place expect them to arrive bent/broken.. I had to order the brake lines from my local dealer at twice the price.

Beyond all of that you also need a 5/16" cap for the vapor line on the rear tank. You can either get the Mopar one for $20-60 for a tiny bit of plastic or get one off of eBay like the link below:


For the wiring I opted to not get a new rear harness, I am going to modify mine. For that you will need a connector for the new fuel pump module, I bought the one below:


And you'll probably want a tool for the lock ring unless you just want to hit it with a screwdriver. The proper tool is inexpensive though.


I'll be working on installing this over the next week or two, I'll keep updated on how it goes.
Outstanding!
 
A few more things I forgot to mention..

The majority of the cost is the tank, the fuel pump module and the skid plate. Around $1100 + shipping for those alone. There aren't many, but there are a few used midship 22 gallon tanks listed on car-part.com for around $250. If you go that route maybe you'd get lucky and get the fuel pump module and/or skid plate included.

I did not buy the filler kit, this is the brown bag of hoses that comes with every chassis cab to extend the fill neck once you put a body on it. This is basically a few rubber hoses and hose clamps plus a few other small pieces. Part number is 52121693AF if you want it. It runs $210-250+. Me, I will just source some appropriate fuel hose and clamps.

Last, I know @ebtksutton was interested in doing this on a 3500 60" CA. Here's my best guesses on the differences, but this is definitely unverified since I don't have one of these trucks.

Brake lines - not needed. 3500 CC appears to have a single rear brake line that runs through (not under) the crossmembers no matter the tank config. This will save you $150-350 which is nice..

Fuel lines - The supply line looks to be in two parts. 57008750AA is the front part, and I think may be the same for all tank configs but I am not positive. The rear part of that supply line that goes to the 22 gallon tank looks to be 57008734AA. The vapor line to the 22 gallon tank looks to be 57008755AA. The transfer line from the 52 gallon tank to the 22 appears to be 68527500AB for the front half and 68193999AA (same as the 4500/5500) for the rear half. This would all be in place of the 4 fuel supply and fuel vapor lines in the table above. But your milage may vary - this is based on the drawings on TechAuthority and I've found that those can be misleading.
 
Wow, that stuff gets pricey through service parts. Seems like the factory option was less than a 1/3 of that cost. So I'm guessing the dual tanks weren't an option on the bigger trucks?
 
Yeah, $695 from the factory. I ordered the dual tank option with my truck, but I ultimately abandoned that truck when it got delayed for months. The truck I found on the lot only had the rear tank.

I don't know if it's worth the money to be honest, but it's one of the features I really wanted so I'm going to have it. If someone went the route with the used tank that could make it very worthwhile.
 
Ahh yeah that rings a bell now. You already told us that part.

I was worried about the dual tanks and the automatic transfer feature but so far so good. And the gauge is remarkably accurate as well, imo.
 
Glad to hear it. I very much like that the transfer pump is just the standard in tank lift pump, repurposed. I plan to make the wiring swappable between the two tanks and if I can work out a hose or two to keep in my emergency kit I'd potentially be able to swap over to running off of just the rear tank if the 22 gallon tank pump dies. Could be very handy when I am in the middle of nowhere.
 
Man this is awesome, my app is giving me hell trying to get on to read everything, but have you completed this? It all work correctly? I’m gonna start ordering parts slowly from your list.
 
Not yet, I’ve been finishing my air suspension control system - should be done with that tonight. Tomorrow I’ll dive into this, starting with the wiring modifications. Hopefully I’ll have it done by the end of the weekend.

Other than the wiring modifications it’s pretty much plug and play. It’s unfortunate the rear harness isn’t available/affordable as then it would really be plug and play.
 
Quick parts list update - the fuel line cap with the eBay link is not needed. You can re-use the one that comes on the aux fuel port on the rear tank. I thought the size was different but nope, it works fine. So I edited the post above and crossed it out.

Anyway - the install is going well, it's getting close to done. Should have it done Saturday night or Sunday. I thought I'd start updating with some details and pictures.

Step 1 - Electrical

BIG EDIT: When I started this I was unable to find the rear harness for my truck, and it looked like even if I could order it it would be $500-600. It looks like the part number for a 2022 3500/4500/5500 Chassis Cab with surround cameras is 68525916AB, and it's around $260. So if you want to skip all this and just replace the rear harness, get that and skip to step 2 with the brakes.

I'd start with making the electrical modifications because it doesn't require any Mopar parts, it's "reversible" and if you aren't comfortable with this part you shouldn't try this modification. You'll be rewiring both fuel pumps and fuel senders so you need to do a quality job on the splices, otherwise you'll find yourself stranded sooner or later. This isn't necessarily going to be a step by step, but I'll do my best given a lot of these pictures are of black parts against a black frame rail. I'll try to provide diagrams where I have them.

There are two big connectors in the left side frame rail right about where the tank goes. One has a blue handle (its connector name is XY965A if you want to look it up on Tech Authority) and one has a grey handle (XY960A). We'll need to modify some wires on both of these connectors.

Here's the general overview - all trucks are wired for both tanks up to these connectors. However on the rear side of the connector, if your truck is a rear tank only truck the wires for the midship tank are unpopulated. On top of that, for a rear tank only truck the rear tank is "tank 1", however for a dual tank truck the midship tank is "tank 1" and the rear tank is "tank 2". More details to come on how this all works later when I go over the plumbing changes.

So what this means is not only do we have to provide the wiring for the midship tank, we also need to reverse both the fuel gauge sending unit wiring and the pump wiring so the rear tank becomes the second tank.

I don't have access to whatever type of wiring pins these connectors use, so I don't have the option to rearrange the pins as needed and add the wires/pins to the rear connectors. If you do great, but what I opted to do is cut these particular wires before and after the connector and bypass the XY960A/XY965A big connectors. I made two new connections using Weatherpack connectors that I had on hand. If I were doing this from scratch and didn't already have this stuff I'd probably use some kind of Delphi connector, they're good and easy to obtain. I made the connectors reversible so each tank is on its own weatherpack connector and each uses the same pinout/gender. That way I can swap the tanks between tank 1 and 2 both for testing and maybe in the future if I come up with some jumper fuel lines if the midship tank's fuel pump dies on me.

Whatever you use you'll need enough to make two 3 pin connections, one for each tank. I had some 4 pin weatherpack's so I used those and put the proper plug in the 4th pin.

You'll need to start by carefully removing the fabric and electrical tape from the first few inches on each side of each of the XY960A/XY965A connectors. Be very careful, if you damage a wire you're going to be in a world of hurt. My advice is take the outer wrapping off but leave the inner wire loom and/or cloth covering intact so you can re-use it. In the example below (this is the rear harness disconnected) I peeled back about to where the first zip tie is in this picture.

IMG_5329.jpeg

Once you have all 4 of these cable bundles peeled back, you're going to need to mark the wires you need to cut. I usually mark mine with little bits of blue tape before I start cutting anything.

Blue handle (XY965A) - forward connector:

Pin 7 - Black - Fuel Sender return signal (this is common between both fuel senders)
Pin 8 - Dark Blue with Grey stripe - Fuel sender 2 signal
Pin 22 - Dark Blue with White stripe - Fuel sender 1 signal

IMG_5332.jpeg

Screenshot 2023-08-11 at 20.39.18.png

Grey handle (XY960A) - forward connector

Pin 19 - Dark Blue with Yellow Stripe - Fuel Pump 2 (aka transfer pump in a dual tank setup)
Pin 25 - Dark Blue with Orange Stripe - Fuel Pump 1

IMG_5333.jpeg

Screenshot 2023-08-11 at 20.40.28.png

<continued..>
 
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Blue handle (XY965A) - Rear connector

Pin 7 - Black - Fuel Sender return signal
Pin 22 - Dark Blue with White stripe - Fuel sender 1 signal

Screenshot 2023-08-11 at 20.43.37.png

Grey handle (XY960A) - forward connector

Pin 25 - Dark Blue with Orange Stripe - Fuel Pump 1

Screenshot 2023-08-11 at 20.44.22.png

IMG_5331.jpeg

Once you have them all identified, cut them with about 1" to spare from the connector. That gives you a chance to reconnect them with a butt connector if you change your mind. On the connector side, seal up the wire stubs with some electrical tape if you want to prevent any chance of corrosion.

Now, on the forward side, we need to extend all of these wires. You're going to want at least a foot of wire for each connection, and maybe a bit more (can always trim it later). I suggest using similar wire colors if you can. I don't have a selection of striped wire like the factory, so I just went with similar solid colors. I used 16ga for the two fuel pump wires and 18ga for the sender wires. I also used solder stick type butt connectors on this, I've been wanting to try them so we'll see if that ends up being a mistake or not.

One big note - for the pin 7 black sender return wire, I mentioned that it is common for both fuel senders. We need two black wires coming off of that single wire so we have one for each fuel tank. I just attached two wires with the appropriate butt connector to the single one on the truck.

IMG_5335.jpeg

IMG_5336.jpeg

Once you have those extended you can re-loom the wires and tape them back up. I suggest Tesa tape or a fabric tape like that, but vinyl electrical tape will work too.

IMG_5338.jpeg

<continued...>
 
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Now for the rear side connectors. There are only 3 wires here we care about because the rear wires for the midship tank don't exist yet. Do similar to the above - cut them about 1" from the connector, tape up the stub, but in this case instead of butt connectors and a wire extension you can connect your new plug directly to these wires. In the picture below you can see I've crimped weatherpack terminals on to the three wires.

IMG_5337.jpeg

After that tape them back up and make things pretty. Install your 3 terminals into your connector of choice and this is now the rear tank's connection. I marked it with a big silver R on the plug.

Next we need to finish off those extensions we put on the front harness. Unfortunately I missed taking some pictures here so I'll try to describe it as best as possible. You need to reinstall the XY960A/XY965A harness in the truck and get them reconnected, but when you do that make sure you re-route the rear half of the harness so instead of going underneath the crossmember it goes through the crossmember. If you don't know what I mean here, there is a picture in the brakes post below. You'll have more harness than you really need, but you can add some S curves and make it work. I would not tie it all down solid yet as that will cause you problems with the plumbing to come later, but get it run through the crossmember and plugged back in.

Figure out how long the extensions need to be to connect to the plugs on the rear half of the harness and trim to length. At this point you should have 6 wires extended - you need to separate them into two groups of 3, one for the midship tank, one for the rear (so one fuel sender signal, one of the black return wires, and one fuel pump wire). Take each set of those 3 and wire them into your connector of choice. Use the same pinout for the 3 that you used when making the rear connector above so everything matches and is interchangeable.

Here's a couple pictures of these connectors mostly done, again my apologies for not enough progress pics.

IMG_5339.jpeg
IMG_5340.jpeg

As you can see I marked the connectors 1 and 2 to signify which tank number they are for.

For now, plug the tank 1 plug into the rear tank plug. You can test the truck at this point - it should still work exactly as it did before. The rear pump should run and the fuel gauge should work.

We're almost done with the wiring, just one more thing to make in the next post.

<continued...>
 
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Now we need to make the harness for the midship tank since it doesn't exist. This is pretty simple. If you get the ACDelco connector in my post above it has wire leads long enough to use as-is, no further splicing needed (except for the ground). I bought another cheaper connector off of amazon but the leads were short and also of smaller gauge - I recommend spending the $20 on the quality part.

So here's what we are going to make (spoiler alert - the plumbing is already swapped in this picture):

IMG_5354.jpeg

Here's the pinout for the fuel tank connector:

Screenshot 2023-08-11 at 21.05.37.png

Pin 1 - Ground (chassis ground)
Pin 2 - Fuel sender return
Pin 3 - Fuel sender signal
Pin 4 - Fuel pump

In a nutshell you need to connect pins 2, 3 and 4 to one of your connectors (Weatherpack in my case) with the same pins that you used on the other connectors you built. Then you need to extend pin 1 to a chassis ground. The nearest one I found was rearward over the axle.

Loom it up, plug it it, attach the ground, and here's what you'll have when the plumbing is done and all the wires are zip tied and tidied (I don't recommend doing any of that till the plumbing is swapped though):
IMG_5355.jpeg

On the right you can see the grey connector we just made ready to plug into the midship fuel pump module along with the fuel lines (which I will cover in a future post). If you are ready to continue the install you should also swap your fuel tank connectors at this point - so that fuel tank 1 is the midship tank and fuel tank 2 is the rear tank. If you aren't ready yet leave it as is and the truck will still work as long as you tie up the wiring at least temporarily.

This was the most complicated part - the rest is pretty much plug and play.

It's getting late here, I'll continue tomorrow with the brake line and fuel line changes. As you can see from the picture above I've finished all of that, and the next step for me is getting the tank itself installed.
 
Step 2 - Brakes

In Ram's infinite wisdom they have special rear brake hard lines for the rear tank only 4500/5500 trucks. These lines go underneath the frame crossmember (along with the fuel lines) instead of through the crossmember as required when a midship tank is present. This is because the midship tank snugs up to the bottom of the crossmember right where the brake/fuel lines are in a rear tank truck.

Why they did this I don't know, maybe ease of installation but I don't really buy that argument. Either way we need to swap to the brake lines that go through the crossmember.

If you have a 3500 Chassis Cab they appear to only use 1 rear brake line and it goes through the crossmember in all configs, you can skip this part. If for any reason your brake lines go through and not under the frame crossmember you can skip this. However if you have an 84" CA 4500/5500 you will need part numbers 05146633AB (left brake line) and 05146632AB (right brake line). Good luck getting them from Mopar undamaged.

This is a pretty easy swap - the hardest part is opening up all of the clips that hold the brake and fuel lines to the inside of the frame. These guys are buggers at first but once you get a couple open it's a bit easier. My suggestion is use a small flat screwdriver, a pick and a good source of light so you can see the side of the connector. There's a little triangular tab you can pry open with the pick and they will reluctantly open. I was able to get them all open without breaking any. You might as well open all of them now, you'll be replacing the fuel lines next. By the way - a few of the connectors have a push pin (fir tree) connector in the end of them that the wiring harness is attached to. If you haven't already, you need to remove those before you can open the clips.

Once you get those open, disconnect the brake lines at the junction block on the frame rail behind the cab and also from the bracket where they connect to the hoses going to the axle. Swap in the new ones that go through the crossmember and bleed the rear brakes at the calipers. I'd do one at a time so you don't accidentally cross the right and left sides. The toughest part here is getting the old brake lines out - removing the rear shock may help, but I was able to wrangle them out without doing that.

Here's the after picture - you can see the brake lines now go through the crossmember instead of underneath where the fuel lines still are in this picture.

IMG_5300.jpeg
 
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