Undermount Fresh Water Tank

Ordered the SB Filters 20 gallon undermount passenger side tank. This is our secondary 'three season use' fresh water tank. The primary is inside the van heated space and 31 gallons.

The SB filters tank is pretty new and it's been back ordered most of the year - I signed up for notifications and as soon as I got the email, I pounced in 5 minutes. Advertised to fit even with factory running boards (our Trail uses the same factory mounts for the Trail unique boards). Excited that it should be a simple install.

Well, just like the driver side tank, it "mostly fits". It actually does for anyone that doesn't have a Trail. With the 2" body lift, Ford added spacers in many spots - including the exhaust line. But of course they did it in the worst way. That black bracket is the extra Trail specific piece. It drops what normally is a nice frame member hugging bracket and turns it into a wart that extends 2" more towards the passenger side - creating interference with the tank. There's more room there than the picture makes it appear - the tank shouldn't melt from the exhaust - the Trail actually helps that as the exhaust is lower and farther away from the tank.

Sigh. Oh well - its just like any other van project. They all turn into a much larger time sink than anyone would reasonably estimate. But it's just an exhaust bracket at the end of the day so a bit of fabricobbling with a welder will fix it.

Leaned on a friend with a MIG welder and with over confidence, started welding. It was the second time in my life I've ever welded so I'm experienced. Result of course looks like a 5 year old did it. At least generous use of the flap wheel grinder hides most of the sins and turns it into what Ford should have done in the first place. Hit with a few coats of cold galvanizing paint and bolted it in.

Rest of the tank prep is pretty much the same as the gray tank earlier in this thread. The tank is narrow enough that I couldn't fit the inner SS ring on this one for the hatch. Some hatch I think is better than none so went ahead with that (knew it when placing the sendcutsend order so at least not an installation phase surprise).

So glad both undermount tanks got done before snow started to fly. Really trying to wrap anything exterior, but new items keep coming up (some due to cannot-pass-up Black Friday deals).