Hey, have you wondered how actually good Safari Tanks are? Let me tell you – they are actually awesome! A bit expensive, but seriously good and if you like me hate frequent fuel stops, or plan the actual trip to the actual Safari Desert and afraid more that you will run out of fuel than water, it’s a thing for you!
So, when I picked mine, I didn’t bother with 16 L or what ever option there is for the DRZ, as I thought if I’m going for it, might as well go with biggest option I can find! And so – I ended up with 26L tank!
Honestly, I think its better to have bigger tank, and have less fuel in it, than have too small tank and think of an option to expand its capacity! Besides, big and half empty tank means that more weight will be at lower point (and I know from Xt660Z experience that having a big tank at higher level – makes bike harder to handle.)!
Only after few uses I noticed that that center “bridge” is pretty high, and does not allow fuel to move from side to side freely, in fact Safari Tanks do not have any balancing tubes fitter either, so when you are out of fuel, you are not quite out, as there will be quite a few Liters on the other side of the tank! Problem with that, that to get that fuel to where its needs to be – the whole bike has to be tiled / topped over on one side, that can look a bit silly if you do that on the side of the slip road (yeah had to do that few time already!), not to mention – a bit dangerous…
So, what are the alternatives you ask?
Well, apart from ignoring all that fuel on one side or tipping it over, I can think of 3 or 4 ways..
- Get couple of fuel taps, drill them in into the lower sides of the tank, and let it naturally from side to side. However, drilling extra holes, means possible leaks, extra stuff that’s sticking out and can be broken off… Good idea, but maybe I will leave this option for the later time.
- Fit a 2nd fuel tap on the other side only, and join fuel pipes closer to the carbs.
- Fit a fuel pump to transfer fuel between 2 sides, but there will be the need for another hole in the tank for the wires… Not sure about this one, as more complicated than the 1st option to achieve the same thing…
- Another option is to extend the tube that’s in the filter part of the fuel tap, the one that sets the “reserve” level, and route it to the other side of the tank, let the gravity do the trick, and once right side is used up, switch the tap to the reserve, and use up the left side! Its really a brilliant idea!
- Last option I can think of, is to do some magic with one-way valves and gravity! Oh, and a Y or T join. The idea: If tubes joined into the inverted Y shape, two ends lowered into the deepest parts of the tank, and the top part of it point up with a one way valve fitted on it, it should allow air to escape when tank is filled– priming the lover 2 pipes and lowing both sides of the tank to balance themselves with the help of the Syphoning when one of the sides becomes lower than the other one! Where is my medal for braining this one out!?
Wondering if any of it worked?
Option 5: So to make it work I have used stuff I already had, like tubes and Y piece, the only thing I didn’t have was a one way valve, but those things are cheap, just need to make sure its for fuels not for foods and stuff as it might dissolve it, and the last thing anyone would like to have is a plastic blob floating in the gas tank!
Fitting it into the tank was just a matter of dunking it in, making sure that all lower ends were as low as they could reach, and a after a short ride (like 300 miles or so) – it proved to be working! It didn’t syphoned all the fuel as I expected, as designing it I didn’t do any calculations if you like…
all I know that fuel did drop below the level it used to, but not quite right to the bottom, more like half way only… and so tipping the bike on one side was still unavoidable….(It definitely worked to some extent thought, as when parked for a few minutes, it was visible that fuel in tanks leveled out!)
Option 4: After option 5 failure (ok, partial failure!) I had to try something else, and so the easiest one was the Option 4, or extending fuel tap to the other side. I didn’t have quite enough of the right size hose, as that one had to fit through the hole where fuel tap is fitted, so I extended it just enough for it to drop down to the lower part of the fuel tank (on the same side of the tank for the start).
For the hose to curl up in c shape, I had to cut it in a few parts, and push aluminum tube inside, and bend it into the shape I needed it to be – worked ok (just with time it all fell apart thought!). After a test ride, once again, it drew out most of the fuel from the lower pocket, but once again, not all for some reason…
So for now I have tried only these 2, and I’m sure these options could work just fine, if perhaps constructed a bit better! I don’t know, I suppose best would be to try again, and see if it works, as at the moment, I really do not feel like cutting extra holes in the tank, but don’t want to keep on tipping bike on its side either!
So here we go, 5 options, 2 tries, 2 partial failures!
Explore more about DRZ400E!
Project “Suzuki DRZ 400” Adventure Build:
- Making a choice!
- Project Tracking (Any motorcycle project)!
- Why you should grease your suspension bolts and bearings… (find on my DRZ400 project)
- Motorcycle frame powder coating nightmares (why you should or shouldn’t powder coat your frame) + Bonus tip
- First impression and first problems on my newly rebuilt DRZ-400
Suzuki DRZ 400 Mods:
- Crankase Breather box mod – How to stop oil being blown out of the vent!
- Making Custom Wiring loom for my DRZ400 (or 3, or 4!)
- R&D FlexiJet, The Flexible air fuel screw on suzuki DRZ-400, is it any good?
- Big Safari Fuel Tank Balancing Attempts (and fails)
Suzuki DRZ 400 Fails!
Coming soon…!
