Good point! If you know your true tank size and subtract 5 gallons from the total for a short pickup that should be close to your usable gas. This does not apply to 97 35' Fountains. They decided to put smaller tanks than advertised for half the year. Only 64 gallons are usable in my tanks. When you go out make sure to reset the millage and top off the tanks. When you refill next time do the math. I average 1 1/2 miles per gallon. If I run 60 miles I figure 20 gallons per tank. That way I can slow the pump down before it spits out the vent.

Dan

Candyman,
Ditto...did the same thing the first few times out in the boat. Ends up my 35 gas gauges are pretty accurate from 1/2 to E...when not on plane. Never been below 1/8...but when it reads an 1/8th it takes 70 gals a side to get it to come out the vents. That's pretty well empty for me. The boat must hold 10 gals in the filler hoses.

Haven't been towed back yet

Tarheel,
My tanks are only 70 gallon tanks not the 79 I thought they were. When I ran out of gas it only took 64.5 gallons to fill the tank that ran out. I figured the pick up had cracked until I spoke with Jeff Harris. He pulled the info on my boat and told me about the half year experiment.
Dan

My 10-Meter is equipped with floats that are electrically adjustable. I don't know if this is standard Fountain equipment, but it's worth looking into for you guys.

Under the back seat, there's an access cover that over top of my pickups/level floats, and each tank has a pair of potentiometers that you can adjust the "full" and "empty" levels with a small screwdriver or plastic alingment tool. With some trial-and-error, you should be able to adjust them so full means FULL, and empty has a 5-10 gal reserve. Don't crank them a bunch of turns, just turn it slightly and watch the gage.

My tanks are 75 gal, and as a racer, I use about 25 gals per side for a 45-min race. I set them up so they read full at 30 gals, and E means E.

Good luck!
Brian

p4-33,
Thanks for the idea.
Dan

Add me to the bunch of tow-ins. Ran out the 1st weekend I had the boat. Months later I was given a Fountain owners VCR tape by a friend to watch. Reggie says, and I quote " when you hit a 1/4 of tank on the gauge you better be looking for a marina". Now he tells me!

Wrong, at 1/4, you better be AT the marina.

Thanks guys! This is good info to know. My father just bought a new 42 Lightning with staggered 500s. We ran around bunch on Sunday (first day out). I noticed that it took a while for the needles to start to bounce off Full. I will point out this thread out to him.

Luckily this one has the two aux. tanks located in the engine compartment. We had to run some fuel out of them because sitting at the beach with the nose up on the sand, fuel wanted to come out the overflows when the boat rocked with the waves. It sure didn't take long for those tanks to come off Full. When I get down there this weekend, I will tap on the aux tanks to see how fuel they still are. Might be good to have them with some fuel in them and let the mains run dry to see where the gauge is dry.

Matt

ttt

Finally found this thread thanks to twinn29, very informative...hope it keeps me out of trouble! My '04 29 was supposed to have either 131 or 140 gallons of fuel, depending on what you read. Let ya know.