Suggestions

I have twin engines in my MAINSHIP Trawler. Love the access. The 2 Racor's have pressure gauges. But, they are in the engine room. Not too much help under way. I think I have 2 choices. 1) Engine room camara
2) Run the tubing up to the helm stations. (maybe only the fly bridge) I have yet to use the lower station.

The camera seems the easier of the 2. Can you read the gauges using an ER camera? What about vibrations? Running the tubing seems to be a pretty big job.

What have you guys done? Now I have to start the engines and get into the engine room and read them. I guess if you check it once a month, you probably have it covered?

La Bella Vita
PGI Fl

Do your gauges have drag needles? If so you can check them anytime and see what the highest reading is.

Checking once a month is fine for Racor gauges. I wouldn't bother with a camera or anything else.

BTW, the Mainship 34T is one of the few 34' trawlers that that I would consider with twins. The huge beam of the 34T- 14' makes twins doable.

My Pilot 34 wouldn't work for me with twins- 12' beam.


David

IMO, it should be a pre-departure inspection item. I'd only be concerned about monitoring it closely if I had foul fuel.

Keep in mind that the racor gauges show the vacuum across the filter and that will change depending on how much fuel the engine is pumping. So at idle or low speeds the gauges may read fine but at higher speeds the vacuum level could be too high. That is why the "drag" needles are helpful because they record the max vacuum encountered. If you don't have drag needles then the guages should be checked at normal cruise speed.

Ken

Comodave said:

Do your gauges have drag needles? If so you can check them anytime and see what the highest reading is.

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+1. Usually, the gauges that come with a Racor setup have a drag needle. If yours doesn’t, I would consider it well worth replacing with one that does.

How do you tell if it has drag needles? At rest, in the slip, would the gauge have a positive reading?

Molly said:

How do you tell if it has drag needles? At rest, in the slip, would the gauge have a positive reading?

Click to expand...

If the gauge has a drag needle, it will usuallyhave two needles. One is the gauge needle and the second is the drag needle. There will also be a way to reset the drag needle.

Here is a photo of the one in my boat. I just opened the hatch and snapped a photo. It looks like it has 3 needles, 2 red and 1 black. The black needle is the regular gauge needle and is at Zero because the engine isn’t running. The next red needle is the drag needle and is indicating about 2.5 mmHg. That tells me that the max vacuum the gauge has seen since the drag needle was reset (last filter change) is 2.5 mmHg. This means my filter in giving the fuel pump any added resistance because this is where it reads with a new filter.

The red line is annoying IMO. It isn’t a needle but an indicator by Racor as to when you should change the filter. So of the drag needle got to the red line, then it would be time to change the filter. I would never intentionally let it get that high. The knurled knob in the center of the gauge is used to reset the drag needle after a filter change.

The drag needle can eliminate all the fancy systems to check your filters. Unless you get a bad load of fuel the rise should be gradual. I would not run a remote line to a gauge. Too many chances for air leaks. If you are really concerned then go the camera method.

If you wish to actually monitor the filter , not the entire system, Murphy sells DP (differential pressure gauges ) that measure the drop across the filter.

These are mechanical so two thin tubs are required to go to the instrument location.

Happily they are alarm gauges so need not be constantly monitored , just wait for the horn to blow.