I am trying to siphon gas from my van and I believe there might be a baffle in the way from getting the siphon hose to the tank. Does anyone have any experince with this?

 

Yes, there is a device that prevents fuel spills in case of a roll-over or other accident where a fuel leak could occur. Also makes it impossible to siphon fuel with a hose from the gas cap opening.

Why are you siphoning fuel?

 

Crashed it sunday, driver side front is toast, it is totaled. I will start a new thread to see if anyone needs parts for cheap. Waiting for insurance now.

 

Oh, sorry to hear that. My '97 burned in June so we are going through some of the same sh*t.



My fuel tank was almost full so I tapped a 1/4" hole in the bottom of the tank to recover my fuel using a funnel and some 5 gallon gas cans. Lay down some cardboard and have a few rags around if you decide to go this route as some gas will inevitably spill, or at least splash.

Keep your fire extinguisher handy, too.

Made sure the wife's car was near empty and simultaneously filled her tank while draining the van's tank, plus got 10 gallons of fuel in the garage for the lawn tractor.

When finished I drove a self-thread screw with a small O-ring on it into the plastic tank to seal it up (good enough) to tow to the salvage yard. Tank was near empty so there was really no pressure on the screw to make it leak.

 

With the 1998-2003, the gas tanks are plastic. Thus easier to drill into the gas tank and have no explosions.

I'll keep an eye out for your parts thread. Sad to hear about your lose. Thank you for keeping us in mind for parts. You may also help others on the other Dodge Ram Van forums too.

 

I too was looking to use my 2000/B1500 Ram Van as a storage receptacle for 30+ gallons of fuel.
Imagine my amazement ( and my discontent) when I found out after pumping ALL that fuel that I could not siphon it out.
Well...necessity being a mother and all, I decided to look a little deeper at this stopper valve in the tank.
I am even happier to say that the solution is MUCH easier than perhaps we thought.
My van has a plastic tank mounted midway on the left side.
There are 2 rubber hoses running from the filler neck to the tank.
One is the larger filler hose and the other a smaller overflow/return hose.
If you go under the vehicle you can see where they are simply hose clamped to the tank.
I undid the smaller hose from the tank and fished a small diameter siphon hose into the tank past the stopper valve and POW, how ya like me now...fuel!
I suppose you could undo the larger filler hose as well and perhaps use a larger diameter siphon hose as well for faster siphoning?
A little bit of trouble, it's true but still much easier than even I expected.
The trick is to use a small diameter hose to get past the stopper/flapper valve and into the tank.
A small hose will siphon 1 gal in about 3 mins.
I registered here just to give dodge folks a heads up and hopefully this will provide some relief to those seeking to store that precious fuel and avoid those long lines at the pumps.
Regards...The Sradiator
Here is a picture for reference: