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Old 08-30-2015, 11:38 AM   #17
Art
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City: SF Bay Area
Vessel Model: Tollycraft 34' Tri Cabin
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 12,569
Fuel Level Accuracy

As most fuel gauges never read correctly.... and... many boats have twists in their fuel fill lines from deck mount to tank that negates ability of calibrated straight-stick fuel level testing:

I purchased a 3/32" piece of tan colored strong-fabric line and stream-line attached a 3 ounce, thin, torpedo shaped (on goth its ends) lead fishing sinker on line's end. This enables me to get the sinker to pass through the fuel filler line’s twists and go to tank bottom. I can tell exactly by feel and sound when the sinker hits tank bottom. Then pull up the line and via calibrations of deck to tank top to tank bottom it is easy to calibrate fuel level in tank. Also by figuring the gallons per inch in tank you can simply measure inches of fuel dampened line and know exactly how many gallons remain. Our two 100 gallon tanks = 4 gallon per inch in each. Boat-Life is simple when simple ways are employed!
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