Underfloor fuel tanks

Sonar · 06 February 2010, 06:36

Can underfloor fuel tanks be made of grp.? in situ..

Will Petrol affect the grp over a course of time.

Or is it best to have stainless steel.

Once fitted there never going to come out.
I hope.

Cookee · 06 February 2010, 08:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonar

Can underfloor fuel tanks be made of grp.? in situ..

Will Petrol affect the grp over a course of time.

Or is it best to have stainless steel.

Once fitted there never going to come out.
I hope.

No

Yes

It's better if you can get them out

Sonar · 06 February 2010, 14:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cookee

No

Yes

It's better if you can get them out

Thanks for the reply.
Guess removable stainless steel is best..

Hightower · 07 February 2010, 09:54

Osprey have been fitting GRP fuel tanks to their Vipermax range (and probably others) for years and don't seem to have any problems. However before you go off to build one with standard materials I beleive they use a Petrol resistant resin in the make up.

Not sure about building them in situ. Better on the bench and then fit them after.

Jizm · 07 February 2010, 10:00

what about polyethylene...

http://www.tek-tanks.com/boats/

nik · 07 February 2010, 10:11

The resin is Neo Pentyl Glycol.
There is a thread about it here

Cookee · 08 February 2010, 07:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hightower

Osprey have been fitting GRP fuel tanks to their Vipermax range (and probably others) for years and don't seem to have any problems. However before you go off to build one with standard materials I beleive they use a Petrol resistant resin in the make up.

Not sure about building them in situ. Better on the bench and then fit them after.

There are CE rules about this, and as I understand it you can't have a built in petrol tank, in addition Scott Bader who supply our materials don't do a petrol proof resin, especially with them changing the make up of fuel all of the time.

The US has had many problems with the additives in their fuel and GRP tanks with them disintegrating and bits getting to the motors and causing lots of damage.

We have a Diesel boat with a built in tank which is fine.

BogMonster · 08 February 2010, 08:05

The man from Scorpion was banging on in his RIB Intl column about how Scorpions have a big inspection hatch to allow you to clean the tank out and how nobody else does this.

Is it true that nobody else does - why? Even if the tank doesn't disintegrate, it will accumulate poo over time. Seems that it would be cheaper to put a hatch in than make the whole tank removable? otherwise you have to hold the boat upside down and shake it

Cookee · 08 February 2010, 08:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by BogMonster

The man from Scorpion was banging on in his RIB Intl column about how Scorpions have a big inspection hatch to allow you to clean the tank out and how nobody else does this.

Is it true that nobody else does - why? Even if the tank doesn't disintegrate, it will accumulate poo over time. Seems that it would be cheaper to put a hatch in than make the whole tank removable? otherwise you have to hold the boat upside down and shake it

It's a big, bold and in my opinion naive comment to say "nobody does this", in fact we make all of our boats with access to fuel tanks to make them removable, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are manufacturers out there with inspection hatches in fuel tanks as well.

Hightower · 08 February 2010, 15:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cookee

There are CE rules about this, and as I understand it you can't have a built in petrol tank, in addition Scott Bader who supply our materials don't do a petrol proof resin, especially with them changing the make up of fuel all of the time.

The US has had many problems with the additives in their fuel and GRP tanks with them disintegrating and bits getting to the motors and causing lots of damage.

We have a Diesel boat with a built in tank which is fine.

The fiberglass tanks Osprey make aren't built in so to speak. They are made on the bench and then glassed in place. But once glassed in place they form part of the boat and are removed by having to cut out the deck and console which isn't a five min job which kind of makes it a built in tank.

My last RIB had a poly tank and that was buried under a deck and consol too and obviously involved alot of work to remove, as I'm sure stainless ones are on other RIBs. Does this make them "built in"?

Sonar · 08 February 2010, 17:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hightower

The fiberglass tanks Osprey make aren't built in so to speak. They are made on the bench and then glassed in place. But once glassed in place they form part of the boat and are removed by having to cut out the deck and console which isn't a five min job which kind of makes it a built in tank.

My last RIB had a poly tank and that was buried under a deck and consol too and obviously involved alot of work to remove, as I'm sure stainless ones are on other RIBs. Does this make them "built in"?

Firstly grp tanks are no problem to diesel fuel. The grp minesweepers made for the navy have them but there enormous..

The us are having a few problems with grp tanks using Petrol as there adding ethanol and that.s making the tanks erode and disintegrate ..

Any tank that is NOT removable will be either built in or fixed in .
Fixed tanks can be removed by removing fittings and fixings.
Built in is usually inaccessible..

Thinking I was going to use grp as a built in tank. Then thoughts went to Stainless steel.

But now thinking of Plastic tanks Not built in but accessible..

Hightower · 08 February 2010, 21:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonar

Firstly grp tanks are no problem to diesel fuel. The grp minesweepers made for the navy have them but there enormous..

The us are having a few problems with grp tanks using Petrol as there adding ethanol and that.s making the tanks erode and disintegrate ..

Any tank that is NOT removable will be either built in or fixed in .
Fixed tanks can be removed by removing fittings and fixings.
Built in is usually inaccessible..

Thinking I was going to use grp as a built in tank. Then thoughts went to Stainless steel.

But now thinking of Plastic tanks Not built in but accessible..

I like the plastic tanks, my last RIB had a plastic tank which wasn't a problem at all. But I'm thinking that if you want anything over 120 liters then you might have a problem finding one, so it'll have to be in Stainless or Fiberglass. My Fiberglass one is 200 liters and the largest that Osprey build or used to build was 220 liters I think.

BogMonster · 08 February 2010, 22:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cookee

It's a big, bold and in my opinion naive comment to say "nobody does this", in fact we make all of our boats with access to fuel tanks to make them removable, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are manufacturers out there with inspection hatches in fuel tanks as well.

Thought it might have been!

Cheers

Cookee · 09 February 2010, 07:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hightower

The fiberglass tanks Osprey make aren't built in so to speak. They are made on the bench and then glassed in place. But once glassed in place they form part of the boat and are removed by having to cut out the deck and console which isn't a five min job which kind of makes it a built in tank.

I would be interested to see the spec on the materials they use for the tanks, they can't be using Scott Bader as a supplier!

We laid up the diesel tank in the boat - that way it fitted perfectly, and it would never need to be removed as all you would need is access the full length of the tank is remove the lid, you can then clean it and work on the pick up etc.

Tek Tanks only cater for diesel and all the petrol tanks are not custom made, so you have to make do with standard sizes. We have always stuck with aluminium, as in race boats the extreme use tends to crack the harder stainless, I would be happy to put stainless in a leisure boat though.