X-tra weight over the gas tank....

I know I have seen this discussed here but I had to take my tank out so I thought I would take some pics of the hunk of steel hanging over the tank....



just thought i'd share....

That is the 'counterweight' added to keep the rear of the van on the ground with a hard braking situation.

It's pretty heavy... I think I'm gonna need to borrow a tranny jack to reinstall mine!

The way i did mine was to use a trolley jack to get it under the van, and then use some long threaded rods through the 2 holes nearest the middle that are diagonally opposite each other. Stick some big washers and nuts on the underneathand the top and then just wind the bugger back up there. Once in place the holes either end are clear to put the correct bolts in. Remove the threaded rods and put the final bolts back in.
I used the same technique to remove as well....

Thanks Sy... two threaded rods are cheaper than a tranny jack!

Our vans are almost the same custom colour... who would have thought it possible? Okay, I'm done!

sasktrini wrote:It's pretty heavy... I think I'm gonna need to borrow a tranny jack to reinstall mine!

Got a love this forum. I would never have known. So Sasktrini since you're re-installing yours you obviously want it. Did you try driving without it? and if so did you really notice weight problems.
I replaced my 7.25 rear with a 9" and there was a substantial weight gain there. I pushed my 289 v8 back into the bed about 6". It was enough weight transfer my front end got 1" taller. I think I want mine out. I'll keep it in case it needs to go back. I'd be interested to hear if you have problems with it gone.

Brad

Dont miss mine been driving two years with out it. But i also put a heavy duty trailer hitch and dual batteries in back. Not putting mine back in

delraydoug wrote:Dont  miss mine been driving two years with out it. But i also put a heavy duty trailer hitch and dual batteries in back. Not putting mine back in

Thanks, I was thinking battery also. Dual benefit is a little extra lockable storage in the cab where the battery used to be. Did you just put them in a battery box in the bed or did you mount them under bed level?

I removed the weight on my first Econoline and installed a steel angle rear bumper that weighed about 100 pounds. Since then I have left them in.

I think I would leave mine in too unless there were some compensation which I do have plenty of. I have an older 88 Mitsubishi van also that has the same cabover design. Funny story; when I first got it I parallel parked on a down hill street behind another car. It wasn't like San Francisco steep. Just an average downhill street. The back of the van was empty. Later when I wanted to leave I had so little traction to back up I was actually stuck there on dry pavement! I could only go forward and there was a car in front of me. I had to knock on the door of the house I was in front of to ask the owner of the car to please move so I could leave. Got stuck a second time on dry pavement going into a driverway that had kind of a twist situation. The van was again light enough in back that a tire lifted. With no posi I was stuck again! Had my son get out and stand on the bumper to get out. Sure gets stuck easy when it's empty. Thank god it doesn't rain where I live I'd be stuck on every other corner. lol.

Scott wrote:I don't know if my 68 GMC has the weight or not, I've crawled all over that thing for the last six or more years and never looked. But I have had to jam on the brakes at 50mph. A slight pull to the right, pretty minimal considering how fast I was stopping, but when I checked my rearview mirror to see if I was going to get hit from behind it looked like the whole backend was floating back there.

Pretty freaky..

I think that's the day the brake job paid for itself..

AWESOME!!!!!! 

i removed mine a couple years ago. i couldnt stand the idea of lugging around all that extra weight. its my daily driver and have never had any problems with braking or handling and i have the larger rear drums (same size as the fronts) I did fabricate my own gas tank and it is considerably heavier than a stock one but still way less that the weight and stock tank.
i have only really locked up the back wheels once when a kid ran out in front of me and im pretty confident that it would'nt have mattered if i had the weight back there. IF you do have rear lock up problems you could always install an aftermarket inline proportioning valve to the rear drums

just my 2 cents

This Video was posted here a while back and stuck with Me I think the weight was put there for a safety issue when braking hard and for traction also..Watch at 1 minuet 30 seconds of this video.. I was Told GM did not need the extra weight on 1ST and 2ND Gen Chevy's I know the motor is in the rear of the Corvair not sure if the Dodge's have the weight also??? ..                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D1nqEqs0iY....

I have my batterys underneath as far back i could go. Bought these batt.holders out of some speed shop catalog . Bolted them between inner rocker panels and frame rails one on each side in frt. Of rear tires

Joe Van wrote:This Video was posted here a while back and stuck with Me I think the weight was put there for a safety issue when braking hard and for traction also..Watch at 1 minuet 30 seconds of this video.. I was Told GM did not need the extra weight on 1ST and 2ND Gen Chevy's I know the motor is in the rear of the Corvair not sure if the Dodge's have the weight also??? ..                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D1nqEqs0iY....

lol at 1:30 i thought that only happens in cartoons. do you have a video of a van doing that? I can see a pick up doing that

or i guess you could install wheelie bars out the front lol

Belive it or not the Econo Van did the exact samething..!!!..I spent most of the night looking for that video also..I will keep looking...  ..They were both Dealer tests done at 45 MPH Quick Stops....

Look close the passenger is sitting on the dash of the econoline!!!

Ralph Nader killed the Corvair over problems Chevy had already fixed also!!

Joe Van wrote:Belive it or not the Econo Van did the exact samething..!!!..I spent most of the night looking for that video also..I will keep looking...  ..They were both Dealer tests done at 45 MPH Quick Stops....

well for what its worth, i was traveling at approx 45 mph when the kid tried to run out in front of me and my van didnt do anything of that nature. just locked up the back tires and got a little sideways.

For what it's worth there's definitely some showmanship in the video, like 4 guys leaning back and holding the corvairs rear wheels down vs 1 guy pulling up on the econoline on the ice