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Quote:

Originally Posted by Wahoo ATV (Post 2930422)

Dr. I don't know if any of 32s have had tank issues, but I know from personal experience and the fact that I have replace tanks in two boats that I will always inspect them very closely before buying another boat.

It is a termendous amount of work to fix most tank issues.

What is the best way to inspect the tanks during a new boat purchase? Remove the level sender/inspection plate? Then what?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maritime_Eng (Post 2930440)

What is the best way to inspect the tanks during a new boat purchase? Remove the level sender/inspection plate? Then what?

In both of my boats you could smell the gas. In the case of the AMT, you could see a dark spot on the outside of the tank. It was about 3" round. So I remove the top of the tank cut out the bad coring and then re-glassed the whole inside of the tank. Once done, I coated the entire tank with "Ceram Kote" to seal the fiberglass and made an aluminum inspection plate for the top of the tanks. No leaks after that.

Some times you may find fibers in your fuel filter too. My leaks were only pin holes not delam.

In my Fountain, the bladders were incorrectly installed, according to ATL, and they had holes in the corners. This was an easier fix. We simply made new bladders out of aluminum, glassed them in. No more leaks.

The 30 DW had fuel leaking thru the bilge drain tube that runs under the tanks. Sparky fixed them just as I did in my AMT.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sean H (Post 2930433)

What was wrong with the tank? Was the core damaged from the gas? I haven't seen a modern epoxy/foam boat have a gas tank issue yet, so that is why I am curious.

Obviously, anything can go wrong and usually does with a boat. I personally like the tanks that are laid up seperately from the boat and then tabbed in. Something goes wrong it takes no longer to ground out that tab than it does to remove a bladder system, and you don't have any of the issues of rubs or holes that comes with bladders.

In my Fountain they built kevlar and epoxy boxes that the bladders sat in. Unfortunately they didn't line the boxes correctly so they rubbed and leaked. When we replaced them, Derek made 3/16 aluminum tanks that were lazer welded inside and out, no bends. We than installed the foam filler and installed the bladder fill tubes and access plates. Set them in the kevlar boxes lined with roofing rubber with about an 1/8" space all the way around. We than strapped them down and foamed them in. After that we glassed over the whole structure. Rock solid and leak free!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wahoo ATV (Post 2930729)

That's the way to do a bladder. What thickness aluminum did you use? I now run a fuel sniffer I suggest everyone should.
Steve

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wahoo ATV (Post 2940760)

3/16"

nice

We Just Picked Up A 2002 30 AMT Hull #3 It Has Aluminum Tanks

All of the 32' Doug Wrights have a special coating inside of the tanks that holds up very well to all fuels including Ethanol blends and has no issues whatsoever. The tank is built outside of the boat and dropped in before the deck is attached, it's not built in the same fashion as the Skater's where the hull is the actual bottom of the tank.

.

Are Doug Wright fuel tanks still a drop-in box today?

If yes, what are the benefits of drop-in inside-coated fuel boxes?

If not, what is Doug Wright using today?