Replacement diesel tank

[wully1]

I'm thinking of changing out my mild steel fuel tank to a plastic one.

I spent yesterday sucking a black gunge consisting of diesel bug, rust flakes, water and yellow slime from the bottom of my tank with a small pump. When I got the inspection hatch off the top of the tank the steel inside was wet above the diesel.

This steel tank is only a few years old and when I bought the boat I was surprised the previous owner fitted it instead of a plastic tank - until I looked on the Tek Tanks web site and found that a replacement tank from them will be just short of £1000. This seems a tad rich since a stock tank of similar size from them is only £168..

Does anyone know of a place that will make me a plastic tank for sensible money?

TIA.

 

[fisherman]

I decided to make stock tanks fit the boat, £477 instead of £2400. (1000 lts, 2 x 500)

 

[vyv_cox]

There are many mild steel tanks that have given good service for 25 years or more. By draining regularly, buying fuel from a reputable supplier, ensuring that deck filler seals are good, it is perfectly possible to keep your existing tank in good condition. It might be worth having a sump added if it doesn't have one.

 

[pcatterall]

Blimey!! Ow Much !! I would be tempted to follow fisherman's example. Perhaps the space would permit having a day tank as well so you could pump in fuel from the main tank via a filter and be sure ( as possible ) that you had fuel as clean as possible.

 

[PetiteFleur]

I used an ' off the shelf' plastic tank to replace a custom steel tank, it reduced the capacity to 90litres instead of nearly 200litres but have not found this a problem in practice - I get almost 24 hrs motoring which is more thsn sufficient + 20 litres in cans. Made in Italy if I remember correctly - Vetus and TekTank + others do standard size tanks. Much cheaper then a new stainless or custom plastic tank. There is a firm in Ipswich thet also does custom plastictanks but dont remember the name.