Best fuel tant material.

[allangray3]

Just a quickie, Found deisel leaking from old Mild Steel tank where it sits against sallon wall so no chance of repair. Having to replace tank and would like some help to decide best material for New Tank. Ali, Stainless , or Plastic . Taking into account that I need about 60 to 70 Ltrs. Input mose appreciated.

 

[Chilvers]

Tek-tanks do some great plastic tanks that are reasonably priced and which will last a lifetime (hopefully) although a cheaper solution is adding a resin liner. A friend showed me how he did his motorbike tank for less than 30 quid.
Stainless are the best but you pay a premium. Also I seem to remember that plastic tanks are frowned on in the inland waterways.

 

[macd]

Can't pretend to know the answer myself, but Nigel Calder (author of the pretty authoritative boatowners' 'bible') puts plastic tanks top of the pile, GRP second, with stainless steel third. Advantage of GRP -- if you know how to use it -- is that it's relatively easy for an amateur to make it the perfect size and shape for his boat. But as the other post said, Tek-Tanks (with which I have no association), could be your answer. As well as their regular, symmetrical sizes, they will do one-offs to your patterns. Check out www.tek-tanks.com

 

[Alrob]

you possibly might get less condensation with a plastic tank, but I could be wrong

 

[oldsaltoz]

G'day Allan,

Mild steel and Aluminium tanks will corrode if any water is present, and all diesel has water in it; condensation.

Stainless steel will not corrode but have problems with welded seams cracking and leaking; also has the problem of condensation adding water.

Plastic tanks avoid the above problems but don't last long if you have a small fire on board and may cause a large fire. any movement will result in rapid wear.

That leaves Fibreglass, will not corrode, can be made to any shape and if a core material is used will not have a condensation problem, nor transmit a lot of heat into the boat, also reduces the risk in case of small fire. Also easy to repair or modify.

Whatever material you select try to ensure the bottom has a well to collect water and other heavy contaminants, or is tilted and that has it's own outlet to allow draining. Fuel uptake should be at least 50 mm above the bottom of the tank, more if the tank has a narrow taper.

Hope this helps

Avagoodweekend......

 

[DaveS]

Purely asking from theoretical interest, but...

My stainless fuel tank gets pretty warm after a long spell of motoring; I haven't actually measured it, but I would guess around 40 degC or so. Now in a cool climate this can be quite useful, e.g. acting as a radiator to give a cold boat some heat or for laying damp socks on to help them dry. I would have thought, however, that using foam cored GRP to stop the tank heating the boat (advantageous presumably for a hot climate) would result in quite high diesel temperature. Does this cause any problems?

 

[fishermantwo]

One of the best fuel tanks around in my area are the early type of SS beer kegs. 2.5mm Stainless steel, pressure tested. Hold 20 litres. Its possible to utilize the existing threaded entries although I welded on a threaded pipe to the base on mine. Downside is the shape, you would have to find the space for more than one. I paid about $20 each for mine.

 

[oldsaltoz]

Never ever had a problem.

 

[harvey]

Whatever you choose to make it from, make sure you include an inspection port in the top. You'll need it one day...
John

 

[DaveS]

No, I wouldn't have thought so or people wouldn't do it. I just wondered what sort of temperature the diesel reaches in an insulated tank and what is the safe limit.