A little variation.......

The above oil tank, is the one that we used on Part-timer Steve's bike. Originally I built this tank for my FXTT bike, but with the rear frame section shortened up 2", it wouldn't fit - too thick. When It came time to build Steve's bike, he wondered if we could work the tank in on his build. As far as length went, it fit just fine, but it was too wide for the Paughco frame. So, off came 2 1/4" from the L/H side, and voila! It just fit.

This tank was done when I was just getting the hang of TIG welding, but it was a good design, and 50,000 mi. later, it's still hanging in there. No leaks or cracks whatsoever, so I know this style of tank can take it out on the road, in a rigid-framed bike. If Steve can't bust it, nobody can!

This time around (because I have the room, due to the CFL's 2" stretch "over stock" in the back legs), I kept the fender at full length (Steve used a half-fender), and shaped the oil tank's back plate to fit around it, with an 1/8" space between the fender and the tank. I made the frame mounts for the oil tank next, very similar to the Softail's rubber insert mounts for their flatside gas tanks. Once I had a "platform" to work from, I rolled the main part of the tank in 1 pc. (Steve's front was 3 pcs.) to fit the contour of the back plate, with radiused bends at it's front corners. Easier said than done, haha!

The feed and vent lines will come from the lower part of the tank - save for the return line, which will enter the L/H side of the tank just below the secondary drive belt's top run, through an in-tank flush mount Doherty oil filter setup, that uses the same canister filter as the old Shovel 4 speed electric start oil tanks did.

Yeah, you read right, I'm using a 1 1/2" wide secondary belt drive. I don't need to remind you that H-D has been running rear belts for over 2 decades, Phil Ross ran them, so does Sugar Bear. Nobody ever said anything to Indian Larry for running secondary belts on every bike he built from Voodoo Chili to Mr. Tiki's Shop Droppings. Larry, Phil, and Sugar bear knew where it was at, so to all you smarty-pants guys that love to type "Haw, haw...belts are for pants, haw, haw...", I'm gonna tell you guys that "Chains are for wallets, haw, haw". Belts are pretty tough, and if you get them aligned as they should be, tensioned where they need to be run, and use good quality belts, they can take some really hard punishment....stay tuned.