Defever 38?

My wife and I are just finishing up the paperwork on an older (1976) Defever. The broker called it a 38' tri cabin. The surveyor has it as a passage maker 40. Does anybody know the story of earlier Defevers? I think I'm going to be showing the marina the 38' add when I get moorage.
Some things I'd like to pick the collective intelligence on.
1. Steel fuel tanks. What options are there to prevent fuel nightmares in the future.
2. Ford lehmans. I'm sure there's a lot of things to learn about these.
3. Any things to look out for with this model of boat.

Welcome aboard

Try this; DeFever - Trawler Forum

Well, let me say a few words about your steel fuel tanks. Steel can last forever if it stays dry. So keeping it dry is the way to avoid future problems.

Often water gets on and under steel fuel tanks from the fuel fill fitting on deck leaking around its base, down the fuel hose and onward from there. So the first thing I would do is to rebed the fuel fill fitting.

The other thing, but there probably isn't much you can do about it, is to support the tank on stringers so there is no basin for it to sit in, get wet and rust out the tank. Unfortunately most older boats just layed down a layer of foam and dropped the tank on it during building. Other than totally pulling out the tank, there isn't much you can do about it.

So keep an eye on the bottom of the tank. If it ever looks like it is sitting in water, do something about it if you can.

Lehmans are great engines. One thing to be aware of, depending on the model of the fuel injection pump, is that there is an oil reservoir on the pump that needs to be refilled every 100 hours or so.

Other than that, keep it in clean oil and clean fuel, run it at a reasonable load and it can last almost forever.

David

Greetings,
Mr. dj. To slightly amend your statement..."...that needs to be refilled every 100 hours or so." Should read emptied and refilled... In other words, the oil in the fuel injection pump must be changed every 100 hours or so.

Thank you for the tips!
Looking forward to the sea trials this week - probably have a lot more questions after I dig through it mor extensively

Welcome aboard,


Sergio "Alemao" Sztancsa
Sent from my iPhone, using Trawler Forum

I would ask the surveyor why he labeled it that way. Often you find that it is the same form he uses over and over. If he forgets to change the info in one location it will be inaccurate. On the boat I just bought the survey listed the outboard of the dingy at 4 hp but it is actually a 6hp... there were 3 inaccuracies. after looking at many boats and reading old surveys I spotted many inconstancy between the surveys, ads, and brokers comments.

Good advice! We're going to sea trial it this Thursday. I'm going to dig through some of the paperwork to see if I can learn any more.