Trailer hitch and rear fuel tank

[2001convertable]

I bought my 59 with a rear mounted gas tank. The truck also came with a trailer hitch. I always figured that I would keep the hitch on do to the location of the gas tank just in case I got hit in the rear. Would it be safe to remove the hitch?

[Foot Stomper]

I'd love to see how the hitch and tank coexist because I want to put a hitch on my 59 that has a rear below bed tank.

To answer your question, I'd say you have no reason in the world to worry about negative affects in removing it.

[2001convertable]

Iam worried if I get hit in the back. Like the 1970s ford pinto thing.

[2001convertable]

Iam worried if I get hit in the back. Like the 1970s ford pinto thing. I will take a picture during the week.

[mr48chev]

Pintos didn't have any frame structure nor did they have much of a bumper. The tank was pretty well exposed. your truck has a pretty sold frame, most likely a solid rear bumper or one that will hold it's own if you get hit from the rear plus the hitch. I'd say that keeping or removing the hitch should depend on one of three things. 1. Will you ever use it to tow with? 2 is it too ugly to have people see when you take the truck somewhere? 3. Do you like having it or not? My guess is that you don't like the hitch. That would be a viable reason to remove it.

Personally I would much rather have the gas tank six feet behind me under the bed surrounded by truck frame than behind the seat six inches from me. I don't really like them under front of the bed beside the driveshaft either.

When I first moved back from Texas I bought a 72 Pinto coupe to use for my work and it was a great little car gas tank location and all. I had to replace a starter on it and that was a pain because it had the little Cortina motor in it but it drove great and went anywhere. Sold it to a guy who drove it 100 miles a day for a long time.

[joedoh]

they taught the pinto case in engineering ethics, pintos didnt spontaneously combust from a rear collision but the position of the filler neck and the tank getting pushed into structure in front of it would puncture and dump the whole tank content on the ground in less than a minute, any stray spark turned the car into a barbecue. the ford internal study showed that paying out for deaths was less (by half!) than fixing the neck and putting shields on the front. there werent actually a lot of crashes or fatalities, by comparison to the number sold. they actually fixed it in production and recalled all the previous models so all the pintos were eventually as safe as intended.

a 'bumper' is just that, intended to protect sheetmetal from bumps. the mounts are spring steel for this purpose. they dont offer much protection over about 10mph.

the middle inside the rails is the safest place, based on collision, very hard to compromise. but having at the back isnt terrible.