A confession....

[Ski in NC]

I built my tanks to take a dipstick. Best thing since sliced bread!! Ten gal per inch.

Not easy to get a good reading offshore due to slosh, but if I am out there, I better have already done my fuel calc. Only a problem if weather turns nice and I change destination to a further port. I do multiple dips and average between highest and lowest reading. So far, so good. Always made it in.

 

[Hippocampus]

Have been using a Phillipi system. It’s ultrasonic and has been dead on. It’s rare tanks are cubes or boxes. The Philippi allows you to accommodate for irregular shapes. We have four tanks. Made the mistake of leaving one to be used as a reserve. Even with religious Biobor it got foul. So started to rotate between which tank is the reserve tank. We also have dipsticks as believe in belt and suspenders for boats.
Last few weeks been actively looking to buy a trawler. Convinced my preference is for a day tank and at least two fuel tanks with a transfer pump for polishing. Friends tell me that’s a blue water sailboat attitude. With power turn over is such and filtering such that’s overkill. A single tank with good filtering and good technique suffices. Particularly as most fuel is returned to the tank and only a little is actually burned. ?Opinions?

 

[rslifkin]

A day tank would be a nice thing to have. But if you're not doing bluewater passages, I wouldn't sacrifice other things to get it. Just make sure you've got a good filtration setup (especially if single engine) and go from there.

 

[menzies]

I have the sight tubes plus a four "valve" tank tender at the lower helm. For three fuel tanks and water. There is a chart in the chart drawer showing inches to gallons.

I really use the sight tubes for the fuel and the tank tender for water.

Regarding the comments on Flowscan. The boat we previously sea trialed had them, and to be frank I am glad I don't have them on this boat. During the sea trial I was constantly watching them and I could see that I was being more focused on burn than hitting the optimum RPMs!

 

[Hippocampus]

So of course you watch reserve fuel. Is a floscan really worth it? Exhaust temp? How often do you “shoot “ temps on various engine components? Which ones? Sorry for the newbie questions.

 

[rslifkin]

For me, I periodically check temps on exhaust risers and such, but I don't crawl around with the IR gun underway very often. But my engines and exhaust system design tend to lead to some exhaust steam under normal conditions under any decent load. And I have twins, so I can use a change in steam on one side as an indicator of a water flow issue in a riser even if I haven't checked temperature recently.

I also occasionally shoot the thermostat housings just to confirm the temp gauges at the helm are fairly accurate.

For the floscan, it depends on the person and the boat. In my case, I'd like flow meters to help with finding the best speed to run if I'm trying to save fuel. But for the most part, I do just fine without them, so I wouldn't consider them critical equipment.

 

[Hippocampus]

R thanks for your informative responses.

 

[rgano]

For me, I periodically check temps on exhaust risers and such, but I don't crawl around with the IR gun underway very often. But my engines and exhaust system design tend to lead to some exhaust steam under normal conditions under any decent load. And I have twins, so I can use a change in steam on one side as an indicator of a water flow issue in a riser even if I haven't checked temperature recently.

I also occasionally shoot the thermostat housings just to confirm the temp gauges at the helm are fairly accurate.

For the floscan, it depends on the person and the boat. In my case, I'd like flow meters to help with finding the best speed to run if I'm trying to save fuel. But for the most part, I do just fine without them, so I wouldn't consider them critical equipment.

I quite agree with this IR gun methodology once a black dot is spray painted on the spots you want as reference and have a recorded "norm" for each. After that I tend to check temps with an IR gun rarely just keeping watch on conditions via other indicators.

Re: the Floscan comment, I get it about the price. I bought mine NIB from a fellow Mainshiper at a significant discount for the simple reason that I wanted a digital tachometer to replace the inaccurate POS Faria tach. Loved that it came with the various fuel metering features. I thought about FS when I had twins and elected not to go that route due to cost and just lived with the crappy analog tachs.

 

[rslifkin]

I quite agree with this IR gun methodology once a black dot is spray painted on the spots you want as reference and have a recorded "norm" for each. After that I tend to check temps with an IR gun rarely just keeping watch on conditions via other indicators.

Good point on the black dot. I rarely think about that because my engines are already painted black. I should probably add the dots on a few spots on the cream colored generator though.

 

[menzies]

Add white dots on the engine?

I have black Xs - bigger targets!!

 

[Baker]

Baker. I note: "Jetsome". Is it possible you are actually a pilot? Did you miss the lesson where we were taught to manage fuel with the clock, not the gauges?

Get a small notebook, burn a quarter or half on your unreliable gauges, noting start and stop times faithfully. Fill and calculate actual burn. Then ignore gauges.

See also United 173, 12/28/1978.

If you’re a student of aviation or human performance, UAL173 had gauges that were working perfectly fine...as did I. My gauges were painfully perfectly correct. There were certain “cognitive biases” that were at work that resulted in me going right past numerous opportunities to get more fuel. And in the end, I made it to the fuel dock under my own power.

If you are insinuating that the risks in a boat as it relates to fuel are the same or even similar to the risks in an airliner, it’s not even close. But I think you know that.

What I learned from this was that I will now treat that last quarter of a tank as a reserve and not go below it unless there’s a very good reason. There was no good reason in this case. No notebooks needed. And about a 250nm range at planing speeds before that reserve is penetrated. We did have some following swell conditions offshore that likely cut into our efficiency as we were climbing the backs of waves.

 

[Wayfarer]

I have the sight tubes plus a four "valve" tank tender at the lower helm. For three fuel tanks and water. There is a chart in the chart drawer showing inches to gallons.

I really use the sight tubes for the fuel and the tank tender for water.

I’ve got a tank tender system as well. One for each fuel tank and one for each water tank. I dipped the tanks a couple of times just so I knew the tender was trustworthy, and I’ve been very happy with it since. Dipping is a pain on Sylphide.

I would like to install some sight gauges at some point, but it’s a long way down the list.

 

[OldDan1943]

Sometimes we can stop early for fuel because we know the price will be higher at the next stop.
Wanna get a heart breaker, discover you need fuel in NY. They love to tax boating fuel even though you dont drive your boat on their precious roads. LOL

 

[The Brockerts]

Ok, after reading/following this thread and having 0 confidence in my new to me MY fuel gauges and no backup gauges at all here's the question. Can I add a sight tube easily? I can see the full length of my tanks in the ER. Or should I add something else? I know the previous owner ran out of fuel several times.

The Brockerts

 

[rslifkin]

It's probably possible to add sight gauges, but not necessarily easy. Personally, I'd fill the tanks, confirm the gauges read full. Run for a bit, then fill the tanks again and see if you can determine how the gauge readings correspond to actual fuel in the tanks.

With twin engines and 2 tanks (assuming they're not connected to allow equalization), you get an additional safety. If the 2 tanks start reading noticeably differently, either you have a gauge problem and aren't getting an accurate reading of fuel level on one tank, or something is causing significantly uneven fuel usage.

 

[KnotYet]

Ok, after reading/following this thread and having 0 confidence in my new to me MY fuel gauges and no backup gauges at all here's the question. Can I add a sight tube easily? I can see the full length of my tanks in the ER. Or should I add something else? I know the previous owner ran out of fuel several times.

The Brockerts

If your boat runs on gasoline I wouldn't recommend altering the fuel system.
Even if yours uses diesel I wouldn't add anything that would make the boat less safe,
like clear plastic hose, etc.

 

[menzies]

I wouldn't add anything that would make the boat less safe,
like clear plastic hose, etc.

With valves top and bottom, what's not safe?

 

[SteveK]

May stand to be corrected.
Most tanks have more fuel in top half than bottom half if they are saddle tanks. If correct a gauge will drop faster in the bottom half. I have the same issue with the car gauge.

 

[KnotYet]

With valves top and bottom, what's not safe?

I think a clear plastic fuel hose would be less safe in an engine room than a glass tube.
Then it should have an OEM quality installation and so on.

 

[rgano]

I think a clear plastic fuel hose would be less safe in an engine room than a glass tube.
Then it should have an OEM quality installation and so on.

Think it would be safer to have glass, I went that way many years ago on my trawler's four tanks. Setting up guards around then proved too hard to do, and I broke a number of them messing about in the engine room. Luckily, the valves were always shut when the breaks occurred. Went back to clear hose as a much safer alternative. And besides, how do you think I connected the glass to the top and bottom ports? Rubber tubing.

 

[OldDan1943]

Glass or non glass tubing. On wait we have had this discussion before.
I am in favor of non glass. We agree the tubing must fuel resistant and a isolation valve at the top and the bottom which is recommended to remain shut unless taking a reading.
I think the decision involved tygone (SP?) tubing.
Next question. LOL