Mainship fuel tanks

[Capttug]

My surveyor said the 43 Mainship has ball valves at the bottom of each fuel tank. Is this standard and will it pass Coast Guard inspection.
Thanks (new member)
Bill

 

[Ski in NC]

Common practice to have ball valves on the bottom of tanks. If no line is attached to the valves, then the end should be capped or plugged. Can't see a problem here???

 

[Earl34Mainship]

My 2005 34' MS has 2 ball valves installed on the fuel tank at the factory - one for the main, and one for the generator... my MS has been USCG inspected numerous times, and its never been an issue. I've never heard of anyone having a problem with ball valves on at the fuel tank either on a MS or other vessel....

 

[bglad]

There is far more flexibility with diesel tank installation than gas. Equalization lines, sight gauges and other fittings are OK on diesel fuel systems but not on gas. Gas tank fuel fittings are limited to the top of the tank by law (not just voluntary standards).

My surveyor said the 43 Mainship has ball valves at the bottom of each fuel tank. Is this standard and will it pass Coast Guard inspection.
Thanks (new member)
Bill

 

[ronlord]

Our 97 Mainship 350 has valves for the feed and return lines and the generator. All are on the top of the tanks, nothing on the bottom.

 

[Capttug]

Thanks to all for the very usefull information.

 

[Dougcole]

The two tanks on my 2005 40 Trawler are tied together with a piece of hose so that fuel can, in theory, be transferred from one tank to the other.

Problem is that one would need to be higher than the other to get it to flow over. If I'm transfering fuel it would be because the port tank, which feeds the genset and port motor, is much lower on fuel than the starboard tank which only feeds the stb motor. If there is more fuel on the stb side the boat lists to stb and the fuel won't flow into the port tank.

Also, the sender for the fuel gauge is on the stb tank, which sucks because it always has more fuel in it than the port side.