Fuel Bladders
 

I was going to send my boat to have the tanks done this winter. However, I had an interesting breakfast conversation with a number of knowledgable experienced individuals who told me to do bladders. I won't name drop but these individuals have built and raced boats for a number of years and per his words "I've only put bladders in all my boats and I'm not aware of one failure". I would classify these as well above average boats (like way out of my price range). He then went on to tell me that he basically knows who has all of his old boats and they are not having issues.

So I'm thinking why not do bladders instead of having my boat all cut up.

Anyone have experience with putting bladders in a Skater?



**I did try to do a search on this forum but didn't come up with anything.**

I have a had a bladder failure in a raceboat. Never before ethanol, but two since. The bladders are good for about 60 months between replacement. With a skater in theory the original tank would contain the failure. If your boat has any damage from ethanol you should still fix the the structure and then pick your tank strategy. We still use a bladder in our v hull raceboat.
Steve

It has only had race gas until this summer. I have been running 93 ethanol free. I don't think it has any damage but I guess it would have to be cut up to know for sure.

It's a Skater, I would have it fixed by Skater. Someone buys it they want to call the factory and see if it has been done and done right......Or just trade it off?

How long do they have my boat?

A bladder is no big deal as most of the ga planes I have flown have them. My question would be, what does the structure around the bladder look like? What are the possibilities of it being ruptured?

If they're good enough for aircraft and the FAA why wouldn't they be good enough for a boat ?

I was offering that up as hypothetical question. There really is no comparison as far as regulations go.

PM sent.