When I joined up we had (Military spec.) Series 2 Land Rovers, which had the fuel tank and filler cap under the passenger seat. We used to joke that Land Rover put it there to make sure they never had to pay any personal injury claims, just funerals which would work out cheaper in the long run.
You had to lift the seat base up to fill the tank and they always stunk of fuel inside due to the inevitable spillages.
The diesel ones were the worst as the smell never dissipated and the front footwells were like an ice-rink due to a generous coating of fuel-oil, which would instantly transfer itself onto the soles of your boots when you climbed aboard.
That meant that the passenger couldn't brace their feet against the bulkhead in corners (see below) while the driver's feet would regularly slip off the highly polished bare metal clutch and brake pedals.
This would leave you kangarooing away from a standstill and then failing to stop at busy junctions because the driver's right leg was wedged between the clutch and brake pedals with their foot on the bulkhead. I'm fairly sure that Land Rover polished the pedals so they could blame the squaddie behind the wheel rather than their feeble brakes when one of their flagship models crashed, which they often did.
The petrol ones weren't quite as bad - your feet only slipped off the pedals when it rained, which was all the time, but at least the spilled fuel evaporated fairly quickly. This would have left the occupants as high as a kite if Land Rover had not thoughtfully provided plenty of ventilation in the cabin.
Unfortunately, they achieved that by ensuring that none of the panels fitted properly so there were huge gaps around the doors and where the canvas roof 'fitted' (I use the term loosely, which is appropriate given how slack they got after an initial nail-breaking period of too-tightness).
This clever design feature allowed plenty of fresh air to circulate in the cabin, along with rain, sleet, snow and midges, which are wee bitey things if you're nae Scottish.
It also meant things could easily get out, like important documents, dropped magazines (both ammunition and porn), vomit and the occasional passenger as the doors would hilariously pop open when cornering hard and nobody bothered to wear the static seatbelts, which were always a tangled mess hanging out of the door bottoms anyway. In fact I do have an ex-forces acqaintance who gets a war pension because of injuries sutained when he fell out of a Land Rover and went under the back wheels.
Anyway, I hope I haven't diverged too far off topic, and good luck finding a place for your fuel tank. I'd just recommend that you don't put it under the passenger seat...
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