Adding Portable Fuel Tanks

[Silver Heels]

Hello,I have a question for you old salts about ways to increase my fuel capacity.* My boat is an '89 20' Mirrocraft Voyageur cuddy.* It is powered by a 120 horse Johnson.* I use the boat for some fishing, tubing, but mostly for just spending the day cruising out on the water.* Several times a year I take the boat on an overnight weekend trip.* The major drawback of this boat is its limited (20 gal.) fuel capacity.* In the past, I have worked around that by carrying a 5 gal jerrycan or two and topping off when necessary.* Doing this on the water is very inconvenient and potentially dangerous as you have to lean overboard to fill up.* This winter, I am adding a water seperating filter and thought it might be a good time to put a fuel line disconnect in the existing fuel line before the primer bulb. This way, I could disconnect the motor from the main tank and plug it into a 6 gallon portable tank as needed. Does anyone see any problems with this idea? Specifically, with the addition of the filter and the additional quick disconnect, might there be any fuel flow issues from all this resistance?

Thank you for your advice

 

[mthieme]

Re: Adding Portable Fuel Tanks

I have disconnects on my tanks...no problems.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Adding Portable Fuel Tanks

Ayuh,... I don't see any problems with that Plan.....

 

[Mark42]

Re: Adding Portable Fuel Tanks

A nice clean setup for connecting a portable tank to your system is this:

Get one of these 3-way valves (two in ports, one out)

A couple of these hose barbs:

and one of these fuel connectors that matches your portables:

Connect your fuel tank to one inlet port of the 3-way with a hose barb, connect your brand male fuel connector to the other input port, and a hose barb to the outlet port. The outlet port can feed to your fuel filter.

With this setup, the 3 way valve can switch between the main tank, the portable tank or off. I used this setup on my MFG niagara for an easy way to tie a portable tank into the system.

Make sure you order all the parts with the right fitting size, 1/4" npt is good, but 3/8" is better.

BTW, if you haven't decided what filter to get, you might find this post about water separating filters interesting.

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=295481


Good luck

 

[Mark42]

Re: Adding Portable Fuel Tanks

BTW, about carying extra gas in regular gas cans; not sure if its breaking any regulations/laws, but it certainly is not safe. Regular gas cans are tall, many have rounded bottoms, and they tip over easy in a boat. They also generally have a light duty fill cap that can break easily when bouncing around in a boat. Marine portable tanks are low and wide, so they don't tip over easy. And they have massive heavy duty fill caps. Also there is the possable fines if gas is spilled while trying to fill from a regular can into an outside mounted fuel fill (like most are).

Just something to think about!

 

[Silver Heels]

Re: Adding Portable Fuel Tanks

Thanks Mark42. I like your idea with using the valve and will probably go that route. And I agree about the safety issues with using the portable gas tanks, thats why I am going this route. I appreciate the help.

 

[marquette]

Re: Adding Portable Fuel Tanks

one of the guys i fish with has 2 portable tanks that he uses when his main tank runs low. he just put the standard quick disconnect on his main tank line and unplugs it at the motor and plugs a 6 gal tank on. he's running a premix 2 stroke. something with VRO (or similar) would need something differant.

 

[Tinman57]

Re: Adding Portable Fuel Tanks

It's not a bad idea to have a separate fuel hose for the portable tanks. That way you just connect the portable tank directly to the engine, very simple, an you have the benefit of a backup hose and bulb.

Also, the Tempo 12 gallon above-deck portable tanks (model PBW) have the same footprint as a 6 gallon tank. You need to strap them down however.