Grady Fuel Tanks

[Bob's Cay]

CG must be busy, plus they lost a couple of folks. One got tired of fiberglass work and another lead guy got busted up on a motorcycle and has been out. At least that is the story.

Jeff, I have a "fuzzy" scan of the fuel tank drawing from Grady that they sent me years ago that I have been using for estimates. Something must be off however as from the drawing one shop has calculated a capacity of 55 gallons vs. the 65 that Grady claims. That's why I want to verify.

When I bought this boat 20 years ago it had been stored in a warehouse for 3 years as part of a lawsuit / repo. It had about a half a tank of fuel in it. I went to auto parts store and bought a universal electric fuel pump and connected it to the fuel line. Hooked up to battery (well insulated and some distance away!) and pumped the fuel into 6 5 gallon cans. Worked great. Not sure what the concern was with the getting the fuel out this time. it probably has 15 to 20 gallons of fresh rec 90 fuel in it.

As a side note, I used the gas from when I bought it in mowers and stuff but it did start to cause problems. Had three 5 gallon cans left that was getting harder to dispose of. After we had a round of gas can thefts around neighborhood I left in an easy to spot location. They were gone soon thereafter. Hope the thief (probably one of the neighborhood blow and go landscaping contractors) put the gas in his truck or equipment!

 

[JeffN]

Yeah good move waiting until you get the tank out. Only want to have it built once right.

Really like your gas recycling program :lol: That is priceless!

Hope they get around to your boat soon.

 

[Bob's Cay]

Looks like they are going to have to trim a bit of the deck flange to get my tank out. I understood from previous threads that Grady had built the deck plate the right size in 1988 and that tank could be removed without cutting. Looks like mine is just under an 1" to short. Guess I will chalk that up to "normal construction tolerance" that flange wasn't trimmed enough when deck came out of mold.

 

[Ky Grady]

Had to trim the flange on my buddy's '88 Seafarer to be able to get the tank out,, new one dropped right in.

 

[JeffN]

Just a heads up Bob - my tank would not come straight up through the deck cut out but after removing the wedges I was able to slide the tank forward enough to lift the rear of the tank out. They probably have tried that I would guess. I thought I would have to trim mine also but it worked out.

Hey the good news is they are working on it... or at least thinking about it.

 

[JeffN]

Hope everybody that posted about replacing their tanks made out well and are back enjoying their boats again. As I noted above my tank exterior was in great shape with no corrosion on the sides and bottom. The top was my issue and I have heard of some local boats far newer than mine with similar problems. At any rate I recently disposed of the old tank. To get rid of the tank I had to cut it up. I had removed the fuel sending unit and the tank had aired out for several months so out came the sawzall. Didn't take long and the tank was in several pieces. The inside of my 1983 vintage tank looked like new. No corrosion anywhere except the top. I thought perhaps that the lowest part of the tank under the duel pickups where water might have separated out might have some flaking or corrosion there was none at all. Lesson learned for me is that had I exercised more preventative care on the tank top I would have gotten even more life out of my tank.

I now plan on removing the deck over the tank probably yearly to monitor the condition of the tank particularly under the inspection ports. Just wanted to pass this along as it might save somebody else some money that could be better spent of fuel.