Fuel tank size

[Mrlippy]

I hope this is the right place to post this. I am a newbie, lol. And, happy to be here!

I Recently bought a 06 320 Sundancer. My fuel tanks are 80 gallons each. Everywhere I read that they are, or, should be 100 gallons each. I've fueled up 3x since purchase, but never put more than 60 gallons in either side. Even with gauges and smartcraft info telling me I was empty or, less than 10 gallons showing. Is this a normal situation, or, was, mine fitted with smaller tanks? Any info is helpful to the newbie. Thanks

 

[Bt Doctur]

get a outboard tank and some hoses/fittings etc. and run one tank untill empty(motor will not run) m plug in the outboard tank to get back to refuel.
most tanks have a design capacity L x W x H and a usable fuel quantity. Depending on where the pickup is and how its installed you could leave 15-20 of fuel in the tank and read enpty

 

[Mrlippy]

Good idea, Thanks for that one.

I also wanted to state that when she's full, the smart craft gauge sows 80 gallons. Normal?

 

[Woody]

Your boat should have 200 gallon capacity with 190 gallons being usable. Your situation is not unusual. My 280DA is similar, when it's full it's full but when it shows empty I still have 20 gallons in my 100 gallon tank. Once I realized the gauge was consistent I just looked at the 20 gallons as a built in reserve.

Look at your smartcraft manual, there are ways to re calibrate the tank.

 

[dvx216]

My fuel tank is to small when I'm on the lake and to big when I'm at the pump.

 

[trflgrl]

Glad you posted this thread--it may have answered a similarly puzzling annoyance we've experienced.

We have original gauges and sensors, and know one tank consistently reads about 1/8 low so account for that when it's important. When we ran both engines down to the last line on the gauges, and one a little bit past, then I estimated how many gallons would put them at 3/4 full....one overflowed! No clue how much "reserve" there really is, but at least it makes sense now!

 

[SCORPIO]

I know how big my tanks are, can read data plates, and I have fuel flow meters that I reset at each fill up. I use the gauges as a rough guide but rely on the gallons burned /gallons remaining from my flow meters to know what I really have on board. I don't know how low I can go as I've tried to run her empty.