New menber lost

Builtin gas tank question

Its 2005!!!
Any new threads here?
Just posted a new thread and it must have got lost in the past beacuse it's not here.

 

Built-in gas tanks

HELLO! Hello.
OK, we'll try again! Need your help, have a Pearson Ariel going thru an extensive and too lengthy rebuild. Have molded in two 14 gallon gas tanks on either side of the motor well that used to have a factory glassed in deck filled underneath with waterlogged and gas-smelling foam.

Each tank has a large access plate where I plan to put a fill and a feed line fitting. It's open back there, not below decks, so I'm still thinking 'portable fuel tank' and the two prong male fitting you find there on officially approved red polypropylene tanks. Yet my tanks ARE built in. A no-no I know, but I do things like that!

The tanks could be pressurized, in fact I'm thinking of doing the pressure test once the fittings are in the plate.

What can I use for the pickup? A portable tank has a pickup tube inside that goes to the bottom of the tank. Should I buy a couple of polytanks and canabilize them. Or is there something a bit more elegant I might do? Thanks for your interest. I'm really in a quandry as to how to preceed. My out, I guess, is to buy another three gallon Yamaha red gas tank, canabalize the pickup and extend the tube. But I wonder if plastic fittings are appropriate for builtins?

Also, can anyone suggest a foolproof thru-tank (tank is approx 1/4" frp) fitting for the 5/8" vent. I'd rather not do any more epoxy if I don't have to. So it could be some sort of bronze thru-bulkhead fitting? I plan on installing Racor Lifeguards.

[On the Pearson/Ariel Assoc site in the Gallery section under Ebb (page 9) you can find pictures adinfinitum including the ob well - and these builtin tanks I'm hoping to get your feedback on.] :?:

 

email me, with all due respect, you Americans think stock, stock parts stock this that,
pickups simple email me

 

Ahhhh!!! AAAaaahhhh! AAAAahhhHHHH!
Gasoline? We're talking gasoline right? A couple of things. First, built in gas tanks are just fine. Integral tanks are illegal, for example if you poke a hole through the hull, you'd also poke through the tank. Also, tanks cannot comprise structural parts, like decks or deck stringers resting on the tank top. Access covers are also illegal with gas. I'm guessing that you used the appropriate fuel-proof resin, so I'll skip that. I'm not sure, but I think having a quick disconnect on a buit in tank is a no-no. These tanks have to also either have a anti siphon valve or the lines must run in such a way that if the line breaks that the line can't fall below the level of the top of the tank. Maybe glass an aluminum tank top onto it with the appropriate pipe-hose fittings already welded in place, then screw in an off-the-shelf pick-up.

 

Sure sounds like I screwed up. These are only 14 gallon and way overbuilt - so I'm not worried about getting holed like somebody with 200 gallon tanks stabilized with foam, or the Valdez. It's a different league from my point of view - which is insignificant I know. The tanks and the standup flange for the access plate are molded with bisphenol/epichlorohydrin epoxy. The bolts for the plate (18 per) do not pass thru into the tank. And are in full sight, not tucked away in the bilges as in powerboats. Am thinking of coating the inside with liquid Viton. Not cutting any corners here.

I think a 45 might 'poke a hole' in these quarter tanks but that's about it. I guess the superiority of the built-in vs the integral (as mine ARE) is that the 45 slug would rupture the tank after it entered the hull causing the gasoline to stay inside the vessel until the boat filled with water.

They may by definition be 'integral' but the tanks in themselves do not add support to any structural part of the boat. The tanks are builtin in that the frp for the tanks was laid right in against the hull and against the bulkhead. Would everything have been copecetic if I'd slipped in a piece of mylar between the offending laminations???

Thanks for the info. I will probably set the OB system up to work off the portable tank for coastal and inshore so as not to run afoul of the CG.