48LRC fuel tank question

[cb48lrc]

We will begin out trip up north mid-April. I am planning to have full tanks, port 261 gal, stb 277 gal, fwd 494 gal and aft 303 gal. Am I better off running both engines from the aft, then switching to the fwd tank? How does everyone else do it?

[bobk]

Wow, lots of fuel. Where are you leaving from and destination? It might be possible to get much better fuel prices along the way and with your volume, it could buy a dinner or three.

Bobk

[rsmith]

We will begin out trip up north mid-April. I am planning to have full tanks, port 261 gal, stb 277 gal, fwd 494 gal and aft 303 gal. Am I better off running both engines from the aft, then switching to the fwd tank? How does everyone else do it?

I never run both engines off the same tank. If there is a fuel problem (like broken return line) you lose both engines at the same time when the tank prematurely runs dry.

[SKYCHENEY]

I never run both engines off the same tank. If there is a fuel problem (like broken return line) you lose both engines at the same time when the tank prematurely runs dry.

What rsmith said. I always run off of separate tanks. For your setup I would think running port and stbd out first and then switching to the other 2 tanks might be best. Leave that ballast as low and as close to center as possible.

[fissioneng]

For those of us with only two tanks, forward (92) and aft (285), I keep my forward pretty empty and run off the aft tank. No problems in 5 years running both engines off the same tank, but I'm not a LRC (yet!). If you don't need the fuel for range, you could just run off your forward and aft tanks. If I recall, a 48 LRC only burns about 5 gph at cruise (both engines) so I can't see you needing to carry that much fuel up and down the east coast.

I think it somewhat depends on the trim of the boat depending on FW tank level and holding tank level. I see pretty big trim differences based on those.

[cb48lrc]

Yes that is a lot of fuel! We are heading out from the York River first stop will be up the Potomac to D.C. (Not planning on spending any time with Obama). Then to NY city, from their up the east coast and on to Nova Scotia.
Fuel burn per the spec’s is: 2.7 gph @ 1,400 rpm for 6.2 k/h; 5.2 gph @ 1,800 rpm for 7.8 k/h. I like the 2.7 gph since I am going to be retired and NOT in any rush.
Thanks for the advice.
We hope to have our web-site up, when we do I will post it if anyone is interested.

Curt & Cindy

[geofish]

I spent a fair amount of time in Halifax and West Pubnico as well as Newfoundland when I used to swordfish on the Grand Banks. Some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life were from those places. The mothers would come to the boats in the morning and see if we needed laundry washed, the,younger boys would come to the dock bringing things to trade for the glow sticks we used for fishing ( sometimes they brought shoe boxes full of magic mushrooms!), The Dads would come down after work with some rum or screech and talk for hours, then at night we would meet the girls :) Damn they were funny and not shy I'll tell ya, I liked that part!!!! but the most memorable thing was when you got invited to dinner to a modest home and had a boiled Cod fish dinner with fried fat, onions and viniger, Man the thing those people could with a whole codfish is amazing. Best seafood I ever ate, another treat was the 5 gal bucket of salted beef that many kept under the kitchen sink, yeah it was a bit green but sure tasted good.

I met a beautiful girl from Rock Island? in Halifax when we were hiding from hurricane Josaphine for the second time (Josphine hit us once then turned around to nail us again but we made it port before she could get us) I was there for about 5 days. On my first day I met a good looking mother and her daughter 17 years old, I fell in love with the girl and we spent the rest of the days together until it was time to go back out fishing, well on the last day the mom and her boyfriend planned a long road trip for us. This was actually a plan for a shot gun wedding! I had to be back at the boat around 2 in the afternoon and everyone knew this but they drove so far that we could not get back until about sunset. I was pissed and a bit scared they were talking about marrige to me. I finally agreed but told them I had to at least get my things from the ship if it was still there.

They agreed and we made our way back to the docks in Halifax. I could see the tall mast of the Sarah T and smoke comming out the funnel there was no wind so I realized the ship was under way parrelling the dock! I jumped out of the car and the mom and boyfriend threw me back in but escaped from the other side of the car, the Cook on the boat saw the comotion on the dock and got the captain to turn the boat and headed it to the dock. Harpoon swordfish boats have very long pulpits close to 20 feet. That old cook (Jack Flattery) ran out on the pulpit I had to make a few more laps around the car to avoid The Girl, The Mother and her Boyfriend till the ship got close enough and I jumped into the arms of that damn cook standing on the peak of the pulpit.

That was a close call!

[utspak]

congrats on your purchase of harmony. As a fellow 48 LRC owner, I run from the port and stbd tanks and then when they are low transfer fuel from the forward tank and refill the port and stbd tanks, thenif I have to transfer from the aft tank.

i am curious what kind of fuel guages do you have on black powder? i am looking to switching over to nmea 2000.

Stuart

[cb48lrc]

The boat is NOT Harmony, it was Winters Dream and now is Classic Cyn. The gages are Mechanical, hard to see the port gage as it is under the gally sink, port gage is under the first step going to the pilot house, fwr gage is in the master stateroom (under the carpit, aft is in the RE.
Question, what would the return fuel be at 1,400 RPM?

[utspak]

sorry for the mistake in boat names.

My fuel burn is 4 gph at 1550 - 1600 rpm which give me about 7.2 kts without genset running.

I know what you mean about the fuel gauges that is why I am looking to change to something else. I haven't been able to find the fwd tank guage yet mainly because I don't want to pull up the carpet.

[cb48lrc]

The fwrd tank gage is located between the master bath and the door to the master stateroom. When we re-carpeted we did not have it tacked down so I could get to the gage. Let me know if you find a inexpensive remote type gage system it would be nice but a our fuel bure it is not really required.

[BlackPowder]

Haven't done it myself because we aren't in the water yet...ugh!!! But, the old owner said he would run the engines off the aft tank until about 1/4 full, then switch to port and starboard. As the return goes to the aft tank, when that would get full again, he'd switch back to it. He left the forward tank for reserve. We are going to find away to use the forward tank too so we can turn that fuel over. We just had all the fuel polished given we don't really know how long it's been there... Should turn it all over on our trip back to RI though.

Do you know if the forward tank can flow into the port and starboard?

[utspak]

Congrat on Black Powder.

If you have a transfer pump you can pump the forward tank into the port and stbd. If not, you can run the P/S on the forward and have the return go to the P/S tank. The 453s run a lot of fuel through them, I understand about 40 or more gph so be careful you don't overflow any tank as it can happen quickly. Also, if you have a good filtering system you really don't need to polish the fuel since you are running about 40 gph through the filters. A 300 gal tank turns in 7 hours or so it becomes self polishing.

Stuart