Re: 1974 Starcraft Chieftain 18' OB refit
There is a 17 Y.O. gent in the neighborhood looking for work.
Planning ahead now....Fuel tank
I've been looking into below deck tanks and want to share what I found and get some advice. The moeller tanks have the fittings in poor spots for my application but Inca makes a couple contenders and they seem to have a lower profile over all, see Inca FO1921 (19 gal.) and Inca FT2306 (23 gal.). Google those and you'll find limited suppliers but the price is really good. I'd rather have all the connections in the stern so all I have to do is make the bildge access cut-out in the deck bigger keeping it all under the splash well, the 23 gal allows me to do that best but the fill is on the starboard and the fill hole in the splash well is on the port so I'll have the fill tube crossing the area (not clean) and the 19 I may have to fill and vent on port gunwale and have an access hatch in the deck (sucks). The 23 gal tank is 47 1/2" long and the 19 gal. is 53" long. Having said that I have 3 questions: 1) I will be running an Evinrude 90hp V4 weighing 300 lbs. so how much fuel should I carry? I mostly troll and cruise on day trips and it would be rare to pull skiers or tubes then maybe a 3 day fishing trip once in a while. 2) Weight distribution...The end of the tank will be as far aft as possible and I plan to put the battery also below deck at the bulkhead as far forward as possible. This is pretty much the same setup as Brighp2. Will this be acceptable weight distribution? 3) Is it safe to have the battery and fuel in the same semi closed compartment? I do plan to ventilate.
Here is an older thread that will add to this topic. As barato stated I could add a vent to the end of the 23 gallon tank I'm looking at so it can be filled if the boat isn't level.
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=427065&page=1
