Fuel and Water Tank Size

[Foxtrot]

Figure asking this in the live aboard section would be my best bet.

 

Still looking at boats, most I've come across have, usually 100 Gallon Fuel and Water tanks. Looking at one atm, and it looks quite fitting, though its fuel and water tanks are only 50 Gallons. I'm a little put off, been that I like to survive apocalypses, so love HUGE fuel tanks. How much of a problem would the smallest tanks be? And, whats the larges water tanks I might come across on a boat?

[Keeping Up]

I don't think that a 50 gallon fuel tank would be a problem - even when working hard on a river we rarely manage to use more than 3 gallons a day. On canals it's less, and our 65 gallon tank never lasts us for less than a month.

 

On the other hand 50 gallons sounds unusually small for a water tank and I'd certainly look for something bigger (ours is 150 gallons)

[Titus]

100 gallon water tank perhaps, 100 gallon diesel tank WOW !

that would cost over £400 to fill up ?????

Are you sure or is it me getting mixed up in my old age

[Foxtrot]

100 gallon water tank perhaps, 100 gallon diesel tank WOW !

that would cost over £400 to fill up ?????

Are you sure or is it me getting mixed up in my old age

 

Might be me. Just thought most I'd looked at were 100 for each. How hard is it to change a water tank?

[Grace and Favour]

Might be me. Just thought most I'd looked at were 100 for each. How hard is it to change a water tank?

 

It all depends on what size of boat it is, and what the current layout is!

 

You could always consider fitting a second tank - as long as you are able to compensate the ballast of course

[ditchcrawler]

Figure asking this in the live aboard section would be my best bet.

 

Still looking at boats, most I've come across have, usually 100 Gallon Fuel and Water tanks. Looking at one atm, and it looks quite fitting, though its fuel and water tanks are only 50 Gallons. I'm a little put off, been that I like to survive apocalypses, so love HUGE fuel tanks. How much of a problem would the smallest tanks be? And, whats the larges water tanks I might come across on a boat?

Lots of run of the mill boats have about 40/180 gallon/lt fuel tanks.

Ours is slightly larger at 65/300 gallons/lt

 

Might be me. Just thought most I'd looked at were 100 for each. How hard is it to change a water tank?

The bigger the tank the longer you will sit on the water point to fill it although you wont need to do it so often.

[BlueStringPudding]

My diesel tank is about 44 gallons and lasts ages. If I'm doing full on summertime cruising though, i might top it up once a week; rest of the year, once or twice a month often less. I have two army jerry cans on board so can never run out.

 

My water tank is 130 gallons and lasts up to a month, I've stretched it to 6 weeks before, but it sulked a bit. When completely empty it can take 40-60 mins to fill.

Edited February 13, 2013 by BlueStringPudding

[rgreg]

My fuel tank is 40 gallons which is quite adequate. The water tank is 100 gallons which is ok but more capacity would always be handy.

[Darren72]

Foxy is it a typo?

 

thought fuel tanks were usually advertised in litres and water tanks in gallons?

[ditchcrawler]

My diesel tank is about 44 gallons and lasts ages. If I'm doing full on summertime cruising though, i might top it up once a week; rest of the year, once or twice a month often less. I have two army jerry cans on board so can never run out.

 

My water tank is 130 gallons and lasts up to a month, I've stretched it to 6 weeks before, but it sulked a bit. When completely empty it can take 40-60 mins to fill.

Having been caught out I also carry a jerry can full of diesel

[nb Innisfree]

In naivety I had extensions fitted to the 44 gal fuel tank on our nb shell which more than doubled it to 95 gal. Waste of money and effort, 44 gal would have been ample. On the other hand 280 gal water capacity has come in quite handy when moored between water points for a couple of weeks or more.

[Collie]

I've asked this elsewhere but will try it here too. How can I find out the capacity of my water tank?

[john6767]

I've asked this elsewhere but will try it here too. How can I find out the capacity of my water tank?

A simple, but not quick way would be to fill the kitchen sink with a known quantity of water say with a measuring jug. Then you know what the kitchen sink holds. Then count the number of kitchen sinks that a full water tank will fill and multiply by the sink capacity. Simple but a bit tedious.....

[Dinz]

Can you measure it?

A rule of thumb 100cm cube = 1000litre a bit of maths and away you go.

Or fill it and then empty into known vessels and add up?

Or empty tank. Time how long it takes to fill a known size vessel [like a 25 litre drum] then time tank fill?

Or accept that in normal use it last 3,5,10 days. Or whatever?

The last is probably the most useful.

Sorry should have linked to water tank size OT topic.

Edited September 19, 2014 by Dinz

[Kae]

I've asked this elsewhere but will try it here too. How can I find out the capacity of my water tank?

 

Empty tank.

Time how long it takes your hose to fill a known volume (so a large measuring jug for example).

Fill tank with hose and time how long it takes.

Do the maths, sorted

[Timleech]

 

Empty tank.

Time how long it takes your hose to fill a known volume (so a large measuring jug for example).

Fill tank with hose and time how long it takes.

Do the maths, sorted

 

If doing it that way, I recommend doing the sample time both at the beginning and at the end of the tank filling, and without turning off the tap in between. This will go some way to allowing for changes in water pressure during the filling, these changes can be substantial at some taps.

 

Tim

[Phil Ambrose]

Our fuel tank is 100gal (450 litres) and our water tank is 180gal (800 litres)

Phil

[Arthur Brown]

How much fuel can you afford to lose? Having a fuel tank emptied is an occasional hazard so if you really need a big tank then have two smaller ones.

[Paul C]

 

Empty tank.

Time how long it takes your hose to fill a known volume (so a large measuring jug for example).

Fill tank with hose and time how long it takes.

Do the maths, sorted

 

That seems the best way, but a jug would fill up really quickly so introduce a large margin of error. So I'd choose a bucket and time this, most buckets seem to hold about 14-15 litres to the brim, but of course it would be easy to accurately measure this (eg using several 1l jugs accurately filled etc).

[Phil Ambrose]

How much fuel can you afford to lose? Having a fuel tank emptied is an occasional hazard so if you really need a big tank then have two smaller ones.

Hope I'm not talking in up but will stick with the 100gal tank because to alter it would mean some serious (and costly) rehashing of the stern offset against the possibility of losing a whole tank hmm perhaps not. I would however consider 2 tanks if I was having a boat built

Phil

[LoneWolf]

 

That seems the best way, but a jug would fill up really quickly so introduce a large margin of error. So I'd choose a bucket and time this, most buckets seem to hold about 14-15 litres to the brim, but of course it would be easy to accurately measure this (eg using several 1l jugs accurately filled etc).

 

Hey Foxy, good to see the plan is coming along

 

I've measured mine 3 ways,

 

Paul's way as described above, but i used one of those large squareish water bottles rather than a bucket (cos they are already calibrated)

 

I can also get to my (squareish) tank from the inside of the boat so i measured it as well and converted to litres via some internet page

 

But the most useful measuring was when i filled it up & counted the days before it emptied with normal use

 

iirc it was approx 350 litres and 10 days which i think is quite small but fits my 'little and often' style of boating

 

 

I have no idea how big the fuel tank is....