I bought a 2002 27 fever with a 500efi last month with 118 hours. The boat is awesome, but. It only has a 58 gallon fuel tank. I leave the dock, go to my local watering hole which is about 25 minutes away, probably 35 minutes total with idle driving. I run the boat at 3,500-5,000 RPM. I am very concerned with my fuel consumption. Round trip, I burn up over a half of a tank, which is unacceptable. I can't do any long range trips without planning on fuel stops, which I find ridiculous. Why would Fountain build a boat that has a fuel range of less than 3 hours of driving? I can't even enter the local poker runs because I don't have long range fuel capacity. The boat runs strong, compression is good, and a survey of the vessel found everything was within factory specs. Is this fuel consumption normal? Am I not driving the boat correctly, ie. trim tabs and drive trim set right? This is my first boat with trim tabs and a stepped hull. It also seems to take forever to get on plane, which I think is my lack of experience with this boat. What kind of fuel range are other boaters seeing with similar setups?

Thanx,

Rich

You probably arent burning quite as much as you think. The gas guages are very far off. It takes a while to figure out just how much is getting burned.

no high speed turns.

I'd guess 1.5 mpg

about 85 miles per tank

put your tabs down and drives in when taking off. No hole shots, ease the throttles and then trim all up.

twins get you 1 mpg but I got 250 gal.

Although the 27 hull is not quite as efficent as my 29, The motor should burn about 30 gallons an hour at cruise speed. Also, these boats do not plane out quickly, that's not their thing. Tabs and drive all the way down when taking off. For smooth water cruising, run the tabs between 1 and 2 and the drive between 3 and 4. I use my handheld GPS to milk as much speed out of 3500 or 4000 rpm. Every little bit counts. And yes, you are right!!! It's a stupid-small tank on that boat. 75-80 would be more appropiate. The 29's carry 130 gallons, so go figure why the difference.

dicdik,i have a 27fever,1994.no step in the hull,502mpi mag,415hp.63gal tank.at cruise speed,40-45mph i can average about 2-3mpg,depending on the tide...and the weather.i ran this year in thepokerruntotal run miles were about 80miles.i didnot push the girl hard,but manage to stay in behind bigger boats,and only burned about 24gallons.not bad.as said before,the fountains are slow to plain.i do not know why such a small tank,reggie say because his hull designs are so effeciant,that they burn less fuel...plus the weight factor of add gas.go figure.hope this helps.brad

I have a 99 27 With a 502 Mag. I average 2.4 MPG checking it by GPS and always filling up after a trip.

What Prop are you running? My boat came with a Hydromotive and it got terrible gas milage. Around 1 MPG. Changed to a Bravo One prop and the MPG doubled. Lost about 3 MPH top end though. The boat also planes much better with the Bravo.

The 27 Fountain is slow to plane especially with more than 5 people in it. Always trim all the way down and drop the tabs all the way. Once it starts to roll over onto plane I start lifting the tabs. This struggling to plane burns lots of fuel. As you get better at planing out you will burn less fuel. Once on plane and at cruising speed make sure your tabs and drive are level with the bottom of the boat. You need to look at the tabs and drive when the boat is on the trailer and mark on the gauge where they are level with the bottom of the boat. From there its all about the water condition. Dont drop the tabs below level unless you need to. If the seas are a little rough dropping the tabs will make the ride smoother at the expense of speed and fuel milage. As far as the drive trim I bump it out a little and wait a 30 seconds or so to see on the GPS if there was an increase in speed. I keep doing this untill there is no increase in speed. At this point I feel I am running the boat at the highest effeciency. It sound like a lot to do but its second nature after you get used to it. Once you learn your boat you can tell by the sound of the engine how the boat is running.

I suggest you check your fuel milage with a GPS. Once you know what your average is you can figure how far you can go. One thing to remember is that you will not be able to use all the fuel in the tank before the engine dies. On my boat I figure that 50 gallons at 2.4 MPG will give me 120 miles. I watch the gps and try to get fuel before I reach 100 miles.

Good luck! The 27 Fountain and the 500EFI should be a great combination!

Thanx guys for answering my post you've been helpful. I went out on monday before this posting and marked the trim tab guages at even with bottom of boat. I took it out and noticed that I was riding with my tabs down little more than flush prior to marking the guages. The drive is trimmed to around 3-3.5 when at 3000rpms, 4@ 4000rpms, and 6-7 @ 5000rpms. At WOT the boat shoots a little rooster tail, she seems to come unglued and fun to drive. I am running a Bravo-1 4 blade I think it's a 26 stock prop (not finished). How do I mark the guage for the drive level with bottom of the boat?

6-7 sounds a little high. That could damage your U-joint. Fountain recommends that you never go past 5.5 on the drive gauge. Put your drive at 3 and put a straight edge along side the prop shaft to the hull. Then fine tune until the straight edge is parallel with the hull. There's neutral. Your trim sounds fine at cruise speed.