Two fuel tanks or one?

[danshat]

This is probably a pretty stupid question, most of mine are. Since I need to remove the fiberglass gas tanks and replace them with aluminum tanks I wondered about some changes. I would like to put a queen size berth in the aft cabin of my 34DC. The original has two berths with 100 gallon tanks below each. If I put a single 200 gallon tank centered on the keel will their be any negative reprocussions? I'm not sure if the tanks on each side add to the stability or if it was just designed to give my wife a reason to sleep in a seperate bed.

[UNIQUE_NAME]

one thing i would look for is to make sure the strut bolts are accessable

[Brian Degulis]

I don't see how one large tank on the centerline would change anything at all as far as stability bouyancy. As long as the weight is about the same and it's sitting in about the same spot for and aft I don't see a problem.

Brian

[SKYCHENEY]

One larger tank should not be a problem. Just make sure that you have proper baffling so that the fuel does not move around too much. The only other negative to one tank over two is that if you run out of fuel in one, you may be able to make it home on the remaining fuel in the other. Or.... you could just put one pick-up tube a little lower that the other. That kind of creates a "reserve" tank.

[nyrussell]

We have the 40 DC. We have a centerline main tank holding 285 gallons of fuel and a keel tank in front of it that holds 75 gallons. Might consider that...

[akintosyali]

STOP!!!
I have 41 DC, and I had them make me a single aluminum tank with all the baffles, etc, only to receive the tank and realize that the tank would not fit through the main door!!! The tank was turned on its side, and the problem was not the height of the tank (width of the door) but width of the tank (the space between where the stairs start and the hatch rests...
Even if I cut the hatch housing, the tank would have been too long and wide to pass through the stairs to the main cabin without taking out some of the flooring.

SO DO NOT order anything until you build a darn box the size of the tank you want, and see if you can move the tank from the outside to inside the boat without having to take anything out.
Trust me.
The tank cost me 3k, and I was lucky to sell it for $600.