aluminum tank installed

[nobrainsd]

Thank you to all who made suggestions regarding this installation. This aluminum tank fits in my custom bench/console assembly very nicely and leaves room for the 60lb AGM battery on the side. With the tank grounded to the negative battery terminal I don't have to pull the 10 gallon tank to fill at the gas station. I'm getting too old for that? All of my fixed weight is reasonably forward in the boat and is not taking up floor space. The aluminum tank holds almost as much as the plastic tank that filled the space entirely. It just has less headroom between the tank and the seat. I do have small footpad straps on the forward wood flooring so I can take my large plastic tank on extended expeditions. The aluminum tank is bolted to an aluminum plate that bolts into backing plates at the floors edge. The backing plates key into the side rails. The tank has a vent shut off valve and an antisiphon vent valve. It does vent into the interior of the boat, just like my plastic tank did. You can see the vent anti siphon valve protruding off the back edge of my console. By the way, I don't smoke... Note the cut out in the console, required by a mistake on my part. The tank filler could have been anywhere on the tank, but I made the decision to put the battery on the passenger side after the tank was ordered, oh well! Hmmm, What's next?

 

[Drowned Rat]

Re: aluminum tank installed

That looks pretty sharp! Nice job. What kind of boat is that? Achillies? Post some more pics, or do you have another thread on your boat?

 

[kandil]

Re: aluminum tank installed

Nice job more photos please

 

[nobrainsd]

Re: aluminum tank installed

There a quite a few pictures of my Zodiac Futura MK2 in these two threads;
Detached Transom... http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=266962
and Zodiac Modifications
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=265505

Is there anything specific you would like to see? I will try to post more pics of the boat in use, it does have three separate set ups (surfing, wakeboarding and fishing). Here are a couple of pics from my point trip yesterday. Transit in the dark, peering through the fog for dark bands that might be bigger waves while crossing the shelf off the point and catching the sunrise while the lighthouse kept us in position. Hard to see the boat, but isn't this sort of thing why we all own inflatables? Nice waves too!

 

[kandil]

Re: aluminum tank installed

some photos of the console and steering system please

 

[nobrainsd]

Re: aluminum tank installed

okay, The zodiac came with the console mounted on a regular bench with two angled support legs that fit into tracks on the side of the floor. Just like the seat bench in the battery photo.

There was no way to fit a gas tank under it. So I made a mount out of aluminum and raised the bench with vertical supports that didn't block out the room under the bench.

This was great for freeing up floor space, but I had to remove the tank to fill and there was no room for the battery. So I made a longer bench and moved the console out farther (easy with the bench raised in height), installed the aluminum tank and battery on an aluminum plate and fitted the tank with a ground wire and vent anti siphon valve.

The fire extinguisher fits nicely on the side.

The plate under the tank and battery bolt down into the backing plates for the bench supports and into a separate plate forward in the floor (using the two philips headed screws shown). Very sturdy attachment, but no longer easily removed. The bolt ends that are oriented up in the picture hold the tank flange to the plate. These are counter sunk screws that don't go through the floor, just up through the plate. The loose wire you see running around in the previous pics is for my running lights. They are removable and plug into a socket up under the dash. Probably should be secured, but the wire has survived a lot of trips so far.

Previously posted pic of the floor section without it's end cap. Shows how backing plates key into endcap and are captured by the floor rails for strength. Detail in this image is from cross floor plate holding the ski pole floor mount. Same technique as used on other fixed components.