Need guidance on 30 Year old Fuel Tank

[Commander_47]

You may want to look at your deck drains. I have 6 deck drains on my boat. I regularly hose down the deck, mop up etc. The water runs out the drains, not into the bilge.

In fact, there are steps that lead down to the cabin area, and each step has a drain that empties out the side.

Dragging 7 grand kids, and their friends, around the lake on tubes, ski's and fishing gets the deck soaked!

Please don't take my post the wrong way. I'm merely trying to share some insights.

In my experience, ANY part of the boat that traps water cannot be good, regardless of make.

 

[piosifid]

I got the new tank from American Tanks and completed the installation. The new tank uses a thicker gauge aluminum .190 vs the original .125. I had them weld "L" brackets on top of the tank for mounting since I was not going to use foam to encapsulate it like the original installation. There are also 2" wide aluminum strips welded on both sides of the bottom length of the tank with 1/4'' neoprene glued on the same strips where the tank would make contact with the bottom of boat. I then used 1/4" angles to secure the tank to the stringers running from the forward to rear bulkhead. I used Blue Removable Thread Locker LOCKTITE for all fittings attached to tank. I also changed the 30 year old fuel feed hose. Fill and vent hoses were changed about five years ago. Thoughts on the final installation?

 

[Grub54891]

Looks great to me! Good idea to add them brackets, saves fastening it down in a different way. Is the wire from the left side the ground wire? Most tanks are bonded also.

 

[cptbill]

That's some pretty work there, not only do you not have to worry about the tank corrosion any more but you also eliminated a source of mold. Nice job and very informative, thanks!

 

[Commander_47]

WOW, that is some nice work. The tank looks great, the work is great, and it should last a very long time. kudos to you!!!!!

 

[piosifid]

Looks great to me! Good idea to add them brackets, saves fastening it down in a different way. Is the wire from the left side the ground wire? Most tanks are bonded also.

Thanks for the feedback. The wire on the left side is a ground for the fuel fill tube. The three wires on the right side are for the fuel level sending unit wire, and its ground. There is also an additional ground wire for a right hand side fill tube for a 50 gallon permanent auxiliary tank that sits on the deck.