Replaced fuel tanks

Of all the things I miss I miss my mind the most Al

CPseudonym said:

Of all the things I miss I miss my mind the most Al

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Don't worry Craig. It happens to the best of us, (like me), so we just call it a senior moment.

Great Post and thanks for the great pics, our boat (42' 1982 Grand Banks) is hold up in Charleston right now, tanks being opened and inspected today. Of course I hope our water intrusion was o-rings and seals, but planning for the worst.

I talked to Vince and he quoted me around $22,000 to come out to the East Coast and do our boat.

It seems to me, if I could get someone to cut them out, I could put in a couple of smaller tanks for now. I only burn about 2 gph and don't do any extended cruising.

I wonder if a local yard would have a worker that could come and cut them up?

Regards,
Kurt

I cut my tanks up with a sawsall. 2 - 350 gallons steel tanks, man that job sucked. I got $50 for the steel LOL.

Totally off topic We get charged $140 a ton to dump steel

what_barnacles said:

I cut my tanks up with a sawsall. 2 - 350 gallons steel tanks, man that job sucked. I got $50 for the steel LOL.
.......

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How long did it take you? Seems I could do one side at a time.

It took 2 (corded) saws and 35 blades or so and about 2 weeks, maybe 24+ hours total cutting time. I couldnt get myself to sit there and cut them up for 8 hours a day. Hot, loud, smelly, Man the bug goo on the bottom of the tanks was so freeking nasty. The cordless saw just sat there and peed itself when it saw the tank,

I cut sections of plates out. top front down to the stringer to take the front plate out (the plate was as wide as the baffle spacing), the the top plate section to the back wall, and the the back wall down to 2" off the bottom. I had 4 baffles so it took 5 sections of plates + the baffles as I exposed them. Once the front back and top sections were out I cut the bottom up in about the same size pieces.

You will wind up sitting in the tank as you cut the top, back and baffles out, so get several $10 pairs of jeans so you can toss them as they get nasty.

Pretty un-nerving watching sparks from the tank fall into the bug goo but it always went out. No way you could do that with a gasoline tank.

gaston said:

Totally off topic We get charged $140 a ton to dump steel

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Really really off topic...

We had to live in a immigrant camp there in sydney for like 6 weeks when my dad decided to move us to oz back in the 60's. I had to import a skateboard and a schwinn bicycle from the states. I may have corrupted Austrailia forever doing that.

Loved the place.

kurt.reynolds said:

How long did it take you? Seems I could do one side at a time.

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We removed 2-350 gallon tanks. We cut twice on the first tank only to get the tank small enough to get it out of the opening. The first time we were a couple inches too long. It took about 20 minutes to cut a section off. The tanks started out at 9' long and had 350 gallon capacity. We used a sazall and 2 blades/cut.

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=56517&d=1474491945

I wonder if a pneumatic shear would have worked any faster than a sawzall... what was the sheet metal gauge?

My tanks at 200 gallons were maybe 3/16, much thicker than I thought.

It took me 4 days of about 4 hrs each day cutting with a one handed Rigid (home depot) Sawzall and probably 10 blades. Could have done more, but living aboard, enough is enough and cleanup took time to wipe up and ventilate to keep the diesel smell to a minimum.

Each tank was cut into 5 sections, so 4 cuts all the way around so I could lift them out easily.

My tanks were no where's deep enough to sit in, just reaching with one hand and the light weight Sawzall was fine. I seriously anything short of hydraulic shears would have worked due to the thickness of the steel.

It looked to be a shade thicker than 1/16 but I never measured.

The first sawsall died from exertion. The second one limped in.

Nothing wrong with trying a shear, might be just the ticket.

My tanks were just over 7 feet long.

Man that steel was heavy.

As an aside they were replacement tanks done in the Caribbean, they placed them too far forward and had to add nearly 2 tons of lead ballast in the stern to get the bow to stop plowing. The lead bars were the size of gold ones and it took me 3 days to lift them out 1 a time.

Ok, anything more than about 18 gauge would probably be slow going... my bad.

That's a whole lot a' cuts!

Thats about a tank and a half. I threw the first half in the dumpster and the garbage truck tried to do an endo lifting it up. So I stopped that. LOL

Why so many pieces?

They are all about 2.5 to 3 feet sq. The steel was just too awkward when larger to lift out by myself while straddling the engine and having bug goo on my sneakers.

So I cut the krap out of it.

My dead tanks!

Looks like a great job indeed! I did the same for my 1978 GB36 Tigress, and used American as well. Question: how did you dispose of the 55 gals of old fuel they left on your cockpit deck? I, too, have a large drum of old, watery fuel sitting in my cockpit, and can't seem to find anyone in my local area (Marin County, just down from you) to come and haul it away. Appreciate any ideas!

Andrew,

Just sent you a PM. I suggested calling Marin County Dept. Of Health and get a list of oily waste disposal companies. They can haul off your old fuel....for a price!

what_barnacles said:

It looked to be a shade thicker than 1/16 but I never measured.


As an aside they were replacement tanks done in the Caribbean, they placed them too far forward and had to add nearly 2 tons of lead ballast in the stern to get the bow to stop plowing. The lead bars were the size of gold ones and it took me 3 days to lift them out 1 a time.

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OK, so that thin and they don't last, but are easy to cut into lots of pieces! Well, comparatively easy!

My tanks were measured at 5/32" original thickness. Removed each of the 4 tanks in one piece, after the engines were lifted out. New ones same size port & starboard, but rear tanks enlarged to give total of 1240 USG.

Folks wanting to use a Sawzall to chop things apart should first go have a talk with the local fire house.

They have (expensive) blades that are fast and last a long time.

But they are expensive !!!!

FF said:

Folks wanting to use a Sawzall to chop things apart should first go have a talk with the local fire house.

They have (expensive) blades that are fast and last a long time.

But they are expensive !!!!

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I looked at some "Diablo Extreme Metal Cutting" blade demos on You Tube and they are quite impressive. Home Depot Ad Video

kurt.reynolds said:

I looked at some "Diablo Extreme Metal Cutting" blade demos on You Tube and they are quite impressive. Home Depot Ad Video

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I work for a place that removes old home heating oil tanks and cuts them up for disposal.

They recommended the Home Depot Diablo metal Sawzall blades.

That is what I used and they worked fine.

There may be better ones, but fresh ones after an hour or so of cutting seemed to keep going just fine.

i used the diablos too, lots of them.

I cut my tanks into 4 pieces each. Used 2 carbide blades. $15 each. Had Speedy Tanks in NJ make new tanks and installed myself. $3600.


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I have a sawzall, and have had different luck with different blades. Now I know to pay more attention to the blade.

For cutting metal, what about those rotary cutters, with 3" or 5" disk blade?

Are they significantly different?

"For cutting metal, what about those rotary cutters, with 3" or 5" disk blade?

Are they significantly different?"

SPARKS

Every time I see a post on replacing fuel tanks I'm so glad Great Harbour Boats have built in integrated fuel tanks. You cannot get a lower center of gravity and leaks, and condensation problems are all but eliminated.

Why can't those tanks develop a leak?