Fuel use meter?

[Jeff J]

I need some way, other than leaving full and refilling when I return, to find out how much fuel is used on each outing. I know about FloScan and it is a nice, across the board fix but it is a little pricey for me. It seems to me that with everything on the modern engines being computer controlled that there should be a multi-function gauge or display that would give me the information simply by plugging into the harness. Local dealers just kind of shrug their shoulders when I ask them. Does anyone here have any information on this?

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[alldodge]

Mercury Vesselview will show fuel usage/remaining but its just calculated from the boat/motor sensors. It knows how long the injector pulse width is and can guess on the amount of fuel used. It doesn't know if one injector is supplying more or less fuel then the other.

 

[mr 88]

Most of the new MFD s have that capability with newer engines . My fuel gauge and using the boat quite often is all I need . Don't need a flo scan or MFD to tell me what I already know .

 

[airshot]

After using my boat for a period of time, I can estimate quite close as to how much fuel I have used. I also filled my tank at various intervals to see how much fuel I used in relation to the fuel gage reading....anything you add to give you accurate fuel consumption is gonna be costly !!
My previous boat had a 25 gallon tank and I was normally within two gallons in my estimate of useage. My current boat gas only a 15 gallon tank but have never been off more than two gallons there either. For the cost of an accurate measurement, my own estimating is plenty close,...

 

[Jeff J]

I should have mentioned this is for a rental fleet. Using a fuel gauge doesn’t work because the tank sizes range from 30-45 gallons and the deckhands are clueless about what each boat will hold. We have Volvo Penta, Mercury, Mercruiser. Yamaha and Suzuki. More than one of each.

I considered vessel view for the Mercs but we have 6 it would work on. I don’t believe the vessel view app will handle that many boats either.

Nearest fuel pumps are 3 miles away. We pump by hand from caddies which have meters on them but we need a way to tell boaters how much fuel they will be charged for when they get off the boat.

 

[flashback]

Top off before they leave and charge for a second top off on return, what ever they use in between is on them...

 

[dingbat]

I should have mentioned this is for a rental fleet. Using a fuel gauge doesn’t work because the tank sizes range from 30-45 gallons and the deckhands are clueless about what each boat will hold. We have Volvo Penta, Mercury, Mercruiser. Yamaha and Suzuki. More than one of each.

I considered vessel view for the Mercs but we have 6 it would work on. I don’t believe the vessel view app will handle that many boats either.

Nearest fuel pumps are 3 miles away. We pump by hand from caddies which have meters on them but we need a way to tell boaters how much fuel they will be charged for when they get off the boat.

There is no cheap way around the situation.

With so many different engine manufacturers involved, you would probably be better off installing a third party, in-line NMEA 2000 Fuel Flow sensor which could then feed any NMEA 2000 Certified Display to process and store the flow and consumption data for later retrieval.

 

[airshot]

No easy way out, being a rental, everyone will be trying to shortcut you!

 

[Scott Danforth]

follow the 1/3 rule.

the fuel flow meter in my boat quit working after a year. almost 1 month after the warranty went out.

 

[Jeff J]

About a third of the boats have FlowScan but most have quit and parts and system support became questionable when the company changed hands a few years ago. It looks like they have a new system out.

If the fuel use can be retrieved on a NMEA 2000 compatible unit then some of the boats are equipped via fish finders and/or navigation units. I would just need to figure out how to hook it up but they don’t have the in-line sensors. None have a console gauge that would work but might buy if such a thing is available.

It would be a lot easier if there were pumps close by. Just make the users fill the boats and pay for the fuel before returning to the dock. Unfortunately, that option doesn’t exist.

The real issue is the requirement to let users know how many gallons of fuel they will be billed for before they leave the dock. Very few of them would be willing to wait for a dockhand to drag a caddy over and hand pump fuel into a boat.

 

[alldodge]

Hand caddy and rental boats, things like LEO/USCG/USACE come to mind.

Don't see a way out.
Suggest, figure a base cost and don't use a refill.
Boat A uses X Gal per hour.
Boat B uses Y Gal per hour.

Take an average and base it on time not Gal used. Don't get into the weeds.
Could also say this is base charge, and if same user rents again and there are any savings it can be applied to next rent. That's a win and a Bate for next rental

 

[Scott Danforth]

Or you simply make the renter pay for filling the tank upon return..... Like other boat rental companies

 

[Jeff J]

I just went to the Mercury website to take an other look at vessel view. They aren’t too keen on selling their products. They require a person to register just to get information. What a crock!

 

[mr 88]

I would keep a log of each boat . Boat 1 takes X amount of gas to fill it at 3/4 - 1/2 - 1/4 . Boat 2 same thing . Then let customers know it's going to cost Y amount of dollars to fill based on that boats particular gauge. Any rounding off is done in your favor and have that in writing . Renter is going to shrug shoulders and say OK or give them the option of filling it before they return it, just like rental cars .

 

[dingbat]

The real issue is the requirement to let users know how many gallons of fuel they will be billed for before they leave the dock. Very few of them would be willing to wait for a dockhand to drag a caddy over and hand pump fuel into a boat.

From a practical standpoint you don't want to be haggling with customers over fuel usage after the fact. Your best bet is to include a fixed rate of consumption into your hourly rental fee.

Charge fuel at the rate of 10% of rated horsepower per hour of use.
One (1) hour rental of a 100 HP boot would automatically included 10 gallons of fuel in the rental fee.

 

[JASinIL2006]

From a practical standpoint you don't want to be haggling with customers over fuel usage after the fact. Your best bet is to include a fixed rate of consumption into your hourly rental fee.

Charge fuel at the rate of 10% of rated horsepower per hour of use.
One (1) hour rental of a 100 HP boot would automatically included 10 gallons of fuel in the rental fee.

I think this makes the most sense. If you know what each boat consumes at WOT per hour, you just build that charge into your rental fee. I've only rented a couple times, but the fuel fee was just part of the rental cost.

 

[Scott Danforth]

A boat moving with the wind and current uses half the fuel of a boat moving against the wind and current.

too many variables to calculate fuel consumption on the front end.

only way to do it is know how much fuel was consumed. only way to do that is to top it off when the boat comes back..... just like other boat rental places.

 

[mr 88]

A boat moving with the wind and current uses half the fuel of a boat moving against the wind and current.

The only way that's even close to being true is if it's hurricane winds and the current is 15 -20 mph . And in this case the renters have to come back to where they started . So in your theory they would cut in half the normal fuel burn at some point , evening out the burn numbers .

 

[QBhoy]

The VesselView mobile is a great wee thing for modern mercs. The sc1000 gauges will also give you every bit of data too. I have both on my merc outboard and the VesselView on my mercruiser v8 mpi.

 

[dingbat]

A boat moving with the wind and current uses half the fuel of a boat moving against the wind and current. Too many variables to calculate fuel consumption on the front end.

Somebody renting a boat for an hour or two for a boat ride isn't going out to battle wind and waves for an afternoon.

A valid point if calculating actual consumption, but your not. Your calculating worst case consumption to come up with a flat rate fee to add to your hourly rate.