Belly tank on starchief?

[123gman321]

Has anyone ever put belly fuel tank into 18 4 starchief is there room below the deck.

 

[wrfalpacas]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

I was thinking about a belly tank, and if i had it to do over again I would have. As I recall there is enough room for one of those standard size plastic tanks between the deck supports

 

[Kainon]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

I found a 40g to fit my 21' islander, info & pics in my sig.

 

[barato]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

Gman, i'm looking into the same thing on my '64 Starchief and currently have the drivetrain out....i'll pull front engine mounts and do some measurements and shoot pix tonight of area just forward of engine, as i think there is definitely room for some size of belly tank there. remember, they come in all sizes....Moeller alone lists at least 10 sizes.

 

[Deadwood]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

Mine has one although I've never had the floor off to look. The old girl was an outboard originally and someone spent a lot of time and energy into closing the transom and making it a Merc I/O. Must have really made it butt heavy with the motor, outdrive and plastic tank under the back seat so a tank was plumbed to the center. Again very nice work as the filler tube/gas cap looks original. (circled in red)

 

[123gman321]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

Thanks for all the replys .
Barato pix and measurements would be great, I have not pulled my deck
as it is not to bad, but I would if I thought a belly tank would fit. I have looked at the Moellers they all seem to be about 7.5 to 8 in high, I am not sure if this includes the fitting for the fill pipe. I've owned my boat for about 20 years it's an outboard model and the one problem has always been storage with the space under the splash well freed up I'd have the space of a honda's trunk. Never enough storage for a weekend run with all the gear and a gal pals junk. Do you know does anyone other than Moeller make belly tanks? Thank for the help.
Deadwood any idea how many gallons yours is ?

 

[Deadwood]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

123, Nope but I'm filling her up the last week of Sept so I should get an idea. (Week long fishing excursion with my brother.) I'll let you know.

 

[barato]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

Deadwood, is your boat a Starchief or a Chieftain? it sure looks longer than 18' in that little picture (hint, hint....sure love to see more pics of this old lady...these older hulls really evoke Boating As It Was...i can see a miniature version of a 1920s 56' Elco...).

OK, here's what i found upon measuring my Starchief. does not look promising unless one has a custom tank built or could actually meausre tank first. measuring forward from the front engine mount crossmember, it appears you have 43" of clear space before the tape measure runs into something solid:

the problem is the vertical clearance due to curve of hull. look at this pic...the depth below the floor becomes less than 8" very close to centerline of hull....i crudely measured it at about 11" between points where sub-deck space gets down to 7.5" (measuring from deck to ribs, as any tank would sit on top of them.)

the smallest belly tank Moeller makes is 43"L x 25.75"W x 8.63"D at center:
http://www.moellermarine.com/aftermarket/fuel_storage_tanks/permanent_tanks/

so it might just barely fit...might....note that you need to allow for tank expansion of 3% with plastic tanks. but you'd need to pull floor to install (which means pulling consoles and cabin supports) or cut a hell of a hatch. if you're replacing floor anyway, it would be easy to make the new one a tiny bit higher for tank clearance. obv, there are many other tank mfgrs and you could have custom alum one built. for now, i'll probably be forced to stick with my bow-mounted 22 gal alum one.

 

[Deadwood]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

Barato, She's a 1966 Starchief V (thanks to HA back Feb for that info). I'm gonna check the belly tank out and shoot some pics of her the last week of Sept. Also going to do a comparison of how high the bow sits in the water normally versus after I put my 162 qt Igloo in the bow of the cuddy filled 3/4 with water. Also will take some of the little table I built for the cuddy, the oval porthole window I put in the cuddy door (so I can spy on the wife when it's cold and she's inside sitting on the 12V seat heating pad I bought her) and the bait cleaning station that I built that fits over the doghouse. I can't wait to get out on the water but gotta work to play.

 

[barato]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

Deadwood, thanks for info. i had to laugh when i read your list of mods to the boat...similar to mine, but geared for cold weather whereas i'm going crazy trying to keep the heat down! for example, i'm working on a screen door to replace my hatch, and fans in cabin instead of heating pads! and i'm also putting a fish cleaning board on top of doghouse...

 

[Deadwood]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

Barato, I love it. As they say "great minds think alike." Heat ain't the problem as it's usually around 60 degrees F. Made the bait station open out the back and clears the transom so I can hose or bucket it out with water. (although I put a 2x4 across the width with space below for the water and guts to exit because I know I'll set my tackle box on it and take off.......splash...oh $#%^ !!) Glued a wooden yard stick in it too to measure fish...at least part of them anyway...wishful thinking. Please share you pics too! Always looking for new ideas to keep splinters in my hands and wood stain on my pants.

 

[barato]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

well, obviously, you need to adapt the seat belt sensors from a car to sense when you have the tackle box on there and light up a warning LED on the dash....

i like your drain idea. would love to see pix of that and all your other mods. i'll shoot pix of some of my other stuff and maybe we should start a thread on "cruiser mods" since most ideas will transfer between Starchiefs, Chieftains, and Islanders.

one thing i love about a 46 yr old tin boat is that it's sort of a tabla rasa, or a jazz standard you can play variations on. ironically, fact that mine was in such good condition has kept me from going quite as wild as if it had required gutting. even my factory flotation foam, which most folks have to remove as a sodden mass, is dry and might actually float.

 

[Deadwood]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

I'll try to get some pics taken and posted in the next week or so. I'm many miles from the boat right now but am hopefully heading up tomorrow after work. I didn't have to rip mine up either....that's why I don't have a clue about the gas tank...firm believer in "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." By all means start that thread. We'll be going "why didn't I think of that???"

 

[DANZIG]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

My Sylvan/Smokercraft is very similar and I bought an New/old stock Moeller 28 gal much like the 032529 29 gal.

With the 3% expantion the tank is going to be just a bit wide for the 24 inches between my "stringers" Height should be fine, the filler neck and such make up the most of it, fitting in by the stern bilge access and,,,,, To get the fit on the width,, I am going to have to move the "stringers" "joists", whatever you want to call them, away from each other an inch or two. This will bring the deck up just a bit from the bottom of the hull.

To get one in you are pretty much going to have to rip the deck up anyway, so the minor mods should not be a big deal.

What I am still pondering is how best to "bed it" ( don't want that plastic rubbing on the aluminum) and "strap it in" fore-aft.

 

[barato]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

Gents--

this may be the answer....look at gutted pic from Star18's resto thread on his 180SS. since the Holiday hull is essentially identical to the S'chief, i suspect the 18SS also is close enough that the hull stringers etc will give us the needed dimensions. as Danzig correctly points out, the big issue is pulling the floor to get it in, or cutting a trap door.

 

[123gman321]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

OK my fellow chiefs and Danzig after lots of thought a bunch of 2 x 6 on the deck several refreshments to simulate rough water I think raising the deck 3 inches would not be noticeable. {checked again in the morning after last nights Atlantic crossing in the driveway on the trailer just goes to show Starcrafts are a blast even out of the water}. As Danzig said moving the stringer isn't a big deal, I think they are just riveted in place on the ribs to support the floor not part of the hull structure. The stringers are 24 inches apart so if the stringer are moved 2 inches each that would give 28 inches between them raising the deck about 1 to 1.5 inches. If as Danzig has said he did placing the fittings under the splash well {fill tube and vent } a Product # 032534 Product Dimension: 60.25L x 26.50W x 7.38H 34 gallon should fit. Putting the fill tube. air vent. and fuel pickup in the stern is a great idea as far as solving the problem of height but the stern is the lowest point so would it not be hard to fill the tank completely. I guess when the boat was on a trailer the front of the trailer could be lowered to fill the tank. But what do you do when fueling on the water? With the air vent in the stern the lowest point of the tank and a full tank as the motor sucks out fuel air must enter, is it possible for the air to be pulled in and travel from the air vent in the stern {low point} though all the fuel to the bow end of the tank {high point} without causing a build up of pressure possibly stronger than the fuel pump can pull. I think the Moeller tanks have the air vent. pickup and fill tube at one end should the fill tube and air vent not be at one end {high point} and the pick up at the other {low point}? Otherwise how could you fill the tank completly and get good venting and get all the fuel out. On my boat the tank would rarely be level if ever. I really want this to work but don't see how without the fill tube and air vent at the high end and the pickup at the low end. Please tell me there is something i'm missing. Danzig thanks for the moving the stringer idea I think this makes it possible it's just high low thing that worries me.

 

[123gman321]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

Here is some possible tanks
http://www.oceanlinkinc.com/tanks/bfueltanksrch.asp

 

[GLG fishing]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

Has anyone contacted Starcraft to see if a tank is available?
Might be an option if a custom tank is too much.
My Starchief has 2 newer tanks under the rear seats.
Makes it sit low in the water, same problem as you guys.
I have kicked the idea around of moving mine into boxes, under new front seats.

GLG

 

[barato]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

i've seen some fairly sano versions of that seat box plan, but i want to keep my front seats' folding capability....pretty limited floor space in a starchief with I/O.

plus from a center of gravity standpoint, a belly tank is the way to go for any boat that might see big water or hairy inlets:

"The Boca de Soledad... is the passageway that the Puerto Lopez Mateos panga fleet uses to get to its fishing grounds outside the bay. The entrance has very large breakers crashing along all the way across its mouth, and sometimes big swells build across the narrow open passageway. During new and full moons, the swift currents near Boca de Soledad muddy the waters, making it impossible to see the shoals and sand bars. At this time going aground here is almost certain."

 

[barato]

Re: Belly tank on starchief?

OK, here's an idea for those who don't want to pull the floor. look at the rod locker hatch door pictured in Star18's thread....36x21. i then went to the OceanLink Tanks link above and put in dimensions of 36x21x7 to see what they have. bingo: http://www.oceanlinkinc.com/tanks/fshowprod.asp?ID=FOLT1709M

This one is only 17 gallons but added to my 22 gal bow tank, it will give me just about the right amount of fuel. and if i can do it without having to rip my boat apart.....

i brought my solar panels for cabin roof home this weekend and realizing how much weight i'll be adding up high (40#?), i think i need to add the belly tank just to keep CG low.