To Fill or not to Fill

[rich356]

Just wondering what other Carver owners thought about filling all of your fuel tanks completely every time you fuel up or partically filling for weight reasons. I was thinking it might be better to fill up all the way considering the top-heavy nature of the 356 Aft Cabin that I bought. That way you'd have more weight lower in the boat countering the superstructure. The other question I have which hopefully someone that owns a 356 can answer is how do you tell how much fuel is in the auxillury tank? There is no gauge for it; only the port and starboard tanks.

 

[lanbuilder]

How about a dip stick.

 

[rich356]

Actually, I think I figured out the second question. I believe that one gauge is for both the port and starboard tanks (depending on which you toggle the switch to) and one is for the aux tank.

 

[timeout]

Rich,
I think keeping the boat in balance is what you're trying to achieve. When I first got our 356, after filling I would run out of the auxilliary tank first. Little by little, the boat would become nose heavy. I soon stopped doing that. After filling, I'll run out of the side tanks until they're down about half way, and then do the same with the auxilliary. Then I go to the bank for a loan and start all over again.
Dave

 

[HOGAN]

If your gas contains ethanol, the recommendations I have read is to make sure that you don't keep the gas more than a couple of weeks to a month. If it's going to sit longer, don't fill it up.

The second consideration is weight, which affects fuel mileage. If you only go on short hops, I'd keep the tanks between 1/4 - 1/2 full.

 

[Carver370]

You are right about the fuel guage, I keep mine filled and in our area we don't have the ethanol fuel yet.