Classic AquaSport
Aquasport Mechanicals - things that need a wrench, screwdriver or multimeter => Fuel tanks and anything about fuel systems => Topic started by: Seadog on February 21, 2007, 04:48:58 PM
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Do I have this right? Run a wire from the fuel fill to the tab on the fuel
tank. Then another wire from the fuel tank tab to the negative ground on
the battery. Is the way to do it? Any help is appreciated.
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sounds right to me. Put some kind of grease on the connections to prevent corrosion.
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When I replaced my sending unit i connected the wire to the guage ground terminal that was connected to the battery worked fine for me.
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How bout some pictures of the progress?
:wink:
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/Seadog10/100_0754.jpg)
Thanks for the replies guys.
In this picture I'm talking about the tab to the right of the fuel sensor.
It's not the best picture but I think you can see it.
It's a little un-nerving to hook up a wire to the battery and then to a
potential bomb like the fuel tank. Just want to make sure the hook-up is
correct.
Having trouble up-loading pix into the photo gallery but I'll try again
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Grounding the tank to the battery is correct.
Where will that tank sit? Looks pretty wide.... how many gallons?
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/Seadog10/100_0768.jpg)
Tank will sit in this compartment under the console. This picture shows
the 1/4" klegecell panels being glassed to the hull. Not shown in this
picture are the 3" wide by 2.5" tall coosa 'ribs' supports, 6 on each side,
and the 3/4" klegecell panels that fit on top. Then added 1/4" neoprene
cushion to go against the tank.
54 gallons
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Looks good- but I have one question- why did you dogleg the stringers around the tank? Stringers should be a straight, continuous run for the length of the boat, if you subscribe to this gentleman's assessment:
http://www.yachtsurvey.com/HullFailPart1.htm
Not knocking your design, just trying to understand the concept. Otherwise I think you have one SERIOUSLY well supported hull!
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Very interesting info. from that surveyor... My 240's deck is secured to the hull with 8-32 machine screws, lock washers & nuts every 3" or so. During the process of working on the boat I have been finding random 8-32 nuts & lockwashers everywhere... mostly in the bilge. When I finally discovered where they came from I found perhaps 70% of the deck/hull fastening screws were missing their nuts & washers. Net effect being that the deck is currently attached to the hull with screws simply indexing two holes together. Reason for this was a mystery until I read the article.
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Jim- another reason to bond the cap to the hull. I have not decided how to attack this yet, but had considered Wart's method (glassing it) or possibly using 5200 at the seam, then bolting together.
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To carry all this back to the thread at hand, with the dog-leg in the stringers, I'd think it would be sound policy that the cap be secured as effectively as possible to assure good hull rigidity. Glassing would be the ideal way to go on that score since it's a continuous bond; screws are point-to-point (stress point-to-stress point).
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When I started this project the first problem was how to put a 50+ gallon fuel tank under the floor and still keep the hull windows in the floor compartment in front of the console. The original layout had twin tanks on top of the floor, stuffed under the console.
The original stringer layout wouldn't work, for an under floor tank, without taking out a major section of the central stringer.
The 'grid' stringers work great, but in my case, if the tank is under the floor, and 5' - 6' long , then the baitwell drain would be right over the tank. I wasn't crazy about that idea. Putting the tank under the casting deck in the bow just didn't seem like a good option either.
Fortunately for me I met a guy here locally who now builds catamarans for a living. He's in his early 60's, has tons of experience, and has been a tremendous help. With his help we layed out this 'dog-legged' stringer system. We beefed up the hull substantially to handle the load and had the tank custom built by Quailty T-Tops in Tarpon Springs.
The tank is 48" wide, 34" long and shaped like a flat bottomed "V". It's 6" deep on both sides and 9-1/2" deep in the middle.
Now I got what I wanted: I still have the 'hull panels' forward, the tanks under the floor, and the baitwell drain isn't over the tank, and I can reach the baiwtell drain attachment easily.
I found all kinds of crap in the bilge when I started - a srewdriver, sand paper, nuts and bolts, washers and pieces of fiberglass.
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Makes sense.
Can you post some more pictures of the entire layout? I need boat porn...
8)
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Been trying to post some pix but the photo gallery upload function is on
the fritz. I'll keep tryin...
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You can always drop them on a photo site like photobucket... That's what I have been doing recently.
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Boat Porn as requested. This gives you an idea of the progress.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/Seadog10/000_0003.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/Seadog10/100_0131.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/Seadog10/100_0477-1.jpg)
In this shot you can see a piece of solid oak I used in the bow for the bow eye. This will be the only wood used in the boat besides some mahogany trim around the console. Resin doesn't penitrate into hardwoods like oak
very well so you have to make sure you have good bonds around the wood to hold it in place.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/Seadog10/100_0682.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/Seadog10/100_0635.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/Seadog10/100_0750.jpg)
I left out the aft bulkhead in the fuel compartment to have better access glassing in the Kleg. That will be added later. Transom is 1.5" Coosa, stringers are 3/4" Kleg, floor will be 1/4" kelg. Ran a piece of PVC tubing from the forward compartments, under the fuel tank to the aft bilge for drainage. That was a major problem with these boats as they were originally designed - very poor drainage forward.
More shots soon as soon as I can figure out how to down load them off the new camera.
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absolutely amazing!that boat is going to be solid! :shock:
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Lookin' great :!: :!: Going on 2 years? Definitely a big project. You probably don't want to ever see a grinder again :lol:
Question: Is 1/4" going to be stout enough for the sole? If someone was to jump in from the dock, could it handle that? I've heard stories where a person went that way because of the weigh savings and was very disappointed because of how flimsy it ended up being.
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Thanks Pete!
Rick - Be 3 years next month. I've heard those horror stories too. And to answer your question about 1/4" kleg being enough support: I'm not sure if it will be or not, but I think it will.
In the last picture above those cross members running to the side of the hull are about 15" apart.
The hard part is going to be filling the spaces with foam. The trick is to fill ALL the space with ONE single pour. Lay in the floor and glass it in, drill the access holes, then pour way. If you have to do more than one pour to fill up the space there is going to be some air space created between the pours. The air spaces will compress, probably fill up with water over time, and give less support.
I'm using FGCI's 2:1 epoxy throughout. 5:1 on the transom. On the floor the schedule is 5 layers of glass on each side - 3 layers of 17 oz DB and 2 layers of 17 RW.
No mat at all.
We'll she how she does.
Back to grounding the tank - Anybody know if the fuel fill should be wired to the fuel tank tab?
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Not sure if it's really needed but I plan on grounding all elements of the fuel system. Not a big deal to do, just one wire from the filler to the tank tab.
Concerning a single pour for the foam, I found estimating the amount of A & B to achieve a certain volume of foam expansion isn't easy to do. The info. sheet with the foam kit will tell you the expansion factor but a small variance measuring A & B can make a big difference in the final result. I foamed my stringers in several stages and found with some care voids could be avoided.
Progress looks great!
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one question where's the label for your tank, check this link for installing tank http://www.yachtsurvey.com/fueltank.htm (http://www.yachtsurvey.com/fueltank.htm)
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Tank doesn't have a label.
Is that important?
The current concensis on the tank installation link is that Pascoe probably
did not have a 22-2 in mind when he wrote it. That recommendation is in
general for larger deep v vessels.
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no label means tank is not cetified survoyer has to see it so you can get insurance
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I do believe that they are right... you need a label on the tank for USCG reasons. Not that anyone will ever stop you for that reason, but here ya go:
http://www.uscgboating.org/safety/boatbuilder/downloads/FUELSYSTEM.pdf
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No label - that pretty much sucks!
After you guys had me significantly freaked - I called the manufacturer -
they are making a label for this tank - should have it sometime next week.
THANKS FOR THE HELP!!!
Now got to go change my shorts...
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Sad thing is I have stumbled across a lot of "do and don't" guidelines, but wonder how much I am missing myself. Get the boat assembled and run across some law/guideline I have missed.
:(
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Yes, the fuel fill should be grounded also.
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That USCG info. is interesting. Glad I read it before starting anything to do with my fuel system.
Link should be made part of an on-line reference library section if we can put one together.
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Link should be made part of an on-line reference library section if we can put one together.
Someday... :wink: