Refuelling

[Aardee]

Hi All, advice sought...

Our boat (Viki 34 Aft Cabin) has two 300L fuel tanks which gravity feed to a smaller settlement tank which is where the engines draw their fuel. When refuelling, can I simply fill from one side and rely on pressure/ gravity to fill the other tank or will I need to fill both sides separately? - There's no filtration between the main tanks and the settlement tank so my thinking is it also acts like a balance pipe.

Thanks!

 

[matt8442]

Hi All, advice sought...

Our boat (Viki 34 Aft Cabin) has two 300L fuel tanks which gravity feed to a smaller settlement tank which is where the engines draw their fuel. When refuelling, can I simply fill from one side and rely on pressure/ gravity to fill the other tank or will I need to fill both sides separately? - There's no filtration between the main tanks and the settlement tank so my thinking is it also acts like a balance pipe.

Thanks!

I would assume that if they are gravity fed and that you have two fillers that the fastest and best way to fill them is to use both filler caps. Thinking about your setup unless you had a fuel pump I don’t see how you would push the fuel up from the settlement tank to the other sides fuel pipes. Plus if the balance pipe is not very big you’d be taking even longer on a fuel dock as your waiting for one tank to drain into the other if it worked…

 

[Freebee]

you could rely on pressure and gravity to fill from one side but you may find the fuel does not transfer as quickly as you can fill then you are risking overfilling one side whilst you wait for it to cross over.

 

[NorthUp]

Unless the balance pipe and breather are huge... as you fill one tank the boat will start to list, reducing the flow between tanks even more. It will probably never equalise fully, but retain a list towards the first filled tank.

 

[Bat21]

Late arrival of a Viki 32 owner, before refuelling, I close off the valves at both ends of the balance pipe, fill both tanks then open the valves on the balance pipe.