[ShrimpBurrito]

To my knowledge, TMs WITH a front slide (i.e. 2720SL) have always had "lay-down" tanks, as in tanks in a horizontal position when mounted to the tongue. In contrast, those TMs WITHOUT a front slide (i.e. 2720) have always had "stand-up" tanks, as in tanks that are mounted in a vertical position.

In earlier TMs with a front slide, the horizontal tanks were mounted on the same plane as the top edge of the tongue. That necessitated a cut-out in the slide to accommodate the tanks when you pulled out the slide. This cut-out is shown in AmcFlorida's unit.

What changed sometime in the mid-2000s is that the same horizontal tanks were mounted lower, below the plane of the bottom edge of the tongue. The factory created some support that hung down below the tongue, in which the tanks were mounted. With this configuration, the bottom of the slide cleared the tanks when you slid it out, and so not cut-out was required in the slide, but at the expense of reducing ground clearance.

Thus, AmcFlorida's unit was made before this change. And yes, that means you cannot change the tanks with the slide pulled out. Further, removing each tank requires the removal of 3 bolts (6 in all for both). With the new tank mount, removal is much easier, though I have dealt with the more challenging removal method for 15 years.

Dave