Replacing oil tank

[thetruck454]

My oil tank took a pretty good albiet lucky hit last year while going off trail. I was following someone when their sled kicked up a tree branch and I was too close to them to even react. I don't know how I was so lucky but the branch went inbetween the a-arms, missing the shock and tie rods, and punched through the plastic cover right where the vents were. It hit the oil tank and shoved the tank back putting a good dent in the tank and bending the mounts and tearing the tank slightly by the top ear. The branch exploded after it hit the oil tank and filled the front of the sled where the steering is with rotten wood. It jammed up the steering pretty good and threw me off. I was able to clean out most of the wood out and I JB welded the tank to seal it for the rest of last season but I'm nervous about it this year. I'm tempted to just run it this year as it didn't leak the rest of last year or over the summer, but I've heard these tanks are prone to failure anyways, is that true? I saw OFT makes a replacement tank, any one tried those?

 

[natedawgedog]

My oil tank took a pretty good albiet lucky hit last year while going off trail. I was following someone when their sled kicked up a tree branch and I was too close to them to even react. I don't know how I was so lucky but the branch went inbetween the a-arms, missing the shock and tie rods, and punched through the plastic cover right where the vents were. It hit the oil tank and shoved the tank back putting a good dent in the tank and bending the mounts and tearing the tank slightly by the top ear. The branch exploded after it hit the oil tank and filled the front of the sled where the steering is with rotten wood. It jammed up the steering pretty good and threw me off. I was able to clean out most of the wood out and I JB welded the tank to seal it for the rest of last season but I'm nervous about it this year. I'm tempted to just run it this year as it didn't leak the rest of last year or over the summer, but I've heard these tanks are prone to failure anyways, is that true? I saw OFT makes a replacement tank, any one tried those?

the stock tank is weak and very prone to failure. with that said, I would change it out, dont even think about getting a stock tank again. the ts fabrication hd oil tank is the only one I would concider as a replacement and it is sold thru oft racing. http://oftracing.com/OnlineStore/index. ... dcmsj5r7g1

 

[rlcofmn]

I take great pride in running what I sell. My first winter on my Nytro I cracked my stock tank. That summer I bought a TS HD oil tank. I've now got over 3k mountain miles on that tank with literally thousands of roll overs and impacts. It has shown no sign of the abuse and will be great for many more years!

 

[thetruck454]

Where do the stock tanks usually crack?

 

[natedawgedog]

Where do the stock tanks usually crack?

around the drain bung, top "check oil" bung, and everywere that is close to the plastics during a roll over

 

[BADSLED]

So the cracking damage only occurs to oil tanks having been exposed to various impacts or roll over situations, correct? No one has seen a tank crack without any impact or is it a matter of time with more miles?

 

[Nikolai]

I think I had the first one to crack all the way back in 2008. It's been epoxied for over 3,000 miles now. I also cracked the mounting ears a couple years ago and fabbed new ones. I would recommend getting the HD oil tank from OFT, the factory ones are fairly weak.