Putting a gas can on the roof anyone?

S

spoiler900

New member
I have my 4Runner with a roof rack on top with a mesh bottom, and Im heading thursday night from Tucson to LA, about 550 miles and thought it would be cool to have a gas can tied (with a bike lock so it doesnt get stolen) on the roof! So I did it today with one about 80% filled up to give it a try and by the end of the night noticed a tiny bit had started spilling out of the cap...is it just not sealed tight enough? Maybe the circulation of the lock going around the canaster put to much pressure on it starting it to leak? Anyone have any ideas for me to do before thursday?

thanks!


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what type of can? if its just a regular ol' gas can you'll never keep it all in. regardless of how smooth you drive that fuel is sloshing all over. you will have to upgrade your gas can. rotopax are pricy, you may be able to swing a small marine/jon-boat style tank, they're pretty flat too, and sealed better.
 
What roof rack is that? I have the same one, I bought used, and I have been trying to identify it for months!
 
Whitson Metalworks said:
what type of can? if its just a regular ol' gas can you'll never keep it all in. regardless of how smooth you drive that fuel is sloshing all over. you will have to upgrade your gas can. rotopax are pricy, you may be able to swing a small marine/jon-boat style tank, they're pretty flat too, and sealed better.
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Any personal experience with the Rotopax? I was thinking of trying one in the same location for an upcoming trip but wanted to lay it flat. I've seen a lot of pics of them that way and seen a lot of them on show vehicles at trade shows and things, but never talked to anyone who actually has real world experience with them to give me any input.
 
spoiler900 said:
.....leak? Anyone have any ideas for me to do before thursday?
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Two words: Silicone tape.

I use a cheap, red, 5 gal plastic Walmart gas can. I thought I was going to have to spend money on a good can since I couldn't get the red one to reliably seal, but I found what's been a foolproof system.

A foam earplug in the open spout under the main cap and then wrap the outer cap with silicone tape. I'm pretty sure I tried the foam earplug by itself before and it didn't do the trick so I'm attributing most of this to the silicone tape, but I still use the earplug anyway. I've done this now at least 10 times and it has been 100% leak free.

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Whitson Metalworks said:
Sorry, no personal experience with them, they look nice just kinda spendy.
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I agree, but I'm willing to pay the price if it gets me a leak free can that isn't sitting an extra foot above the roof line killing my gas mileage even more. Of course I wouldn't be concerned if the gas gauge hadn't gone wonky almost every other time i've made this trip. maybe i should just fix that.
 
e-caban said:
What roof rack is that? I have the same one, I bought used, and I have been trying to identify it for months!
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I hope you didnt spend to much if you bought it used, only cost $100 new with $25 to ship. Look for it on discountramps.com they have good stuff for cheap
 
I have generic crap-tastic plastic cans that ride on the roof, I use plumbers tape on the threads and a square of saran wrap under the cap and never have any spilling issues.
 
I have 2 new 2 Gallon Rotopax cans sitting the garage getting ready to be mounted this weekend, I'll let you know.
 
My can has a 2 inch opening or so, the funnel broke so i bought a funnel in the dollal store to use, so would some sort of tape work, like maybe packing tape or something to seal it up more? any ideas? Road trip is tomorrow night
 
the rotopaxs are huge with the ATV crowd as many of them mount it to the rear rack, they rave all about them all the time when I meet up with them
 
Heres what im trying, took a sponge and cut it and super glued it to the cap, noticed the cap had a crack in it and gas was coming through that so we will see if the sponge works, copied the idea from the earplug

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Well I filled them up on my way out of town and 800 rough miles later they did not spill a drop. We did actually run out of fuel and coasted into a gas station :), we were seeing if we would make it or not.

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I picked up the same pair of Rotopax yesterday, this weekend will be time to get creative and figure out a way to mount them. Glad to hear they are working well.
 
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