I need a locking gas cap, someone pumped all 100 plus gallons from boat.

P

poormonkey

New Member
Jan 9, 2007
156
St. Charles, IL (burbs of Chicago)
Boat Info
290 Sundancer 2001
Engines
Twin 5.0 w Bravo 3's
Does anyone know where I can get a locking boat gas cap? I would prefer a locking stainless steel one, versus the plastic ones I see out there.

Well, to make a long story short, someone siphoned our full tank of fuel some time off the boat between last October and now. 100 gallons plus of fuel gone....

We aren't sure where this happened at, because the last the boat was ran, was late October and it had a full tank of gas in the boat. It sat in a parking lot of a marina in October for 3 days while being serviced, and then it was at an indoor storage facility for the duration of time. We don't think anyone did this while the boat was in the drive at our house the last two weeks. We are guessing someone did it while sitting at the parking lot of the marina last October. Someone we know called the owner of the storage place where we store our boat, and he told them that our boat was only sitting outside maybe a total of 2 hours. An hour when we dropped it off, and an hour when we picked it up.

We are shocked it happened, but not surprised now that gas is at an all time high.

Now I know, whenever I leave the boat any where, for service or for storage while on the trailer, I will always check my fuel gauge before I leave their property. I never noticed it, because the fuel gauge doesn't read until you have the port side motor running or ready to run.
 
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wow that really blows! I am sure people will be siphoning gas since gas prices are going through the roof. I think it calls to have locking gas caps for the boat and car.
 
Put an anti-siphon screen in where the fuel hose meets the tank... Then you don't need to "remember the gas key"
 
These days, it is becoming essential to have locks on your gas caps. I guess I need to also look into purchasing this for by boat and truck.
Currently I park my boat at my house, but am exploring the idea of storing it at the lake. Currently the price of gas to haul my boat to the lake is the same if not more than storage costs.

Poor Monkey, Sorry to hear about your gas loss.
 
Switch the gas labeling for the head pump out labeling.:smt001

No key necessary and they will be doing you a favor besides.
 
toyboat said:
I would love to see the reaction of the Dbag sucking on the siphon hose.
Click to expand...

:grin: exactly.

Or an electric/battery pump...imagine the mess as they realize this and pull the tube full of crap out. Ahhh....
 
Our marina has security cameras, though he does not keep the hard copy very long.

Man this really sucks. I never even thought about this until I read this post. I assume the thief had a 100+ gallon tank on a truck? How else would you take that much fuel? Unless 8-10 cars lined up and had at it.

In the slip environment this could be very easy, hose in one tank, siphon, move the hose to another boats tank.
 
We don't think someone would transfer it from one boat to another, but that is a possibility. Best guess is someone that has a tank in the back of a truck, like a landscapers truck that have the extra tank back there for their equipment.

I posted this on a local forum on where we boat, and a few people have noticed similar things as well, when they have left their boat some where on the trailer. They didn't take a 100 plus gallons like on our boat, but they have said they have noticed it had a full tank and then it all of a sudden had a half tank. Same type of scenario, sitting on the trailer some where for whatever reason.

I might just get a locking cap, so when it is on the trailer to try to keep someone out of it.
 
I'd be careful with the locking gas cap....not certain how water tight they are during a period of rain....not completely certain how the anti-siphon screen installs, but that would be the way to go.
 
HavingFun said:
Is this an inline product that you can buy or do I need to make it?
Click to expand...

Just get online and search for these things. Here's one I found but for diesel trucks:

http://www.fueltankaccessories.com/index_files/page0001.html

My 20' ski boat basically has something like that molded into the top of the gas tank where the hose meets the tanks. Surely there are after market products like that. It just prevents a hose from getting to the tank.
 
This happened to us two years ago when gas was not so high compared to now, but right when prices were on the steep increase. We lost 200 gallons over the course of a winter.

I did a lot of research on this one and settled on TankLock. The cool thing was that you could take the lock off and use the cap without the lock and then lock up when need be. The whole thing is made out of machined stainless and I've no problems over the last two years.

I have an extra set of TL20's if anyone is interested in make an offer. That size is more for the larger boats so I wasn't about to use them on my new boat.

Gene
 
Several years ago, I winter stored Just Ducky at Tower Power on Kettle Creek. When i put her up, both tanks were full. One weekend, went a friend went down to check on his boat, he noticed someone cut a hole in my shrink-wrap near the fuel fills. I went down and saw that he was right, the shrink-wrap was cut near the fuel fills on both sides and a long length of new Teleflex hydraulic steering tube was under my boat. Next spring, one tank, that was one the side with another boat close by, was 3/4 full and the other tank was 1/4 full.

Probably a marina employee stole some tubing from stock and syphoned my boat. A friend associated with the sheriff's department heard some things that make him suspect that. Not enough to charge the bastard. Besides there is not much chance that someone would go and buy hydraulic steering tube or just "find it". That stuff is expensive. But Tower Power had spools of the stuff since they installed steering stations on the top of the tuna towers that they would build.

I didn't have any proof, that it was the employee. I let everyone I know, and everyone I came in contact who had a boat, plus posting on a few web forums what happened. If someone could steal from my boat then theft and vandalism to someone else's boat was very likely at Tower Power since there was no security.

Best regards,
Frank

P.S. Don't worry about avoiding them. They're not in business any longer. I like to think I had helped them some, but that's probably just wishful thinking.
 
When I get home tomorrow, I am going to measure the size of the gas cap and order a tanklock. Thanks for the feedback, and I hope nobody else ever has this happen to them. You feel violated and there isn't much you can do about it........
 
Can you also siphon deisel also?? I am very curious. All kidding aside, It does suck someone out there took your gas. Sorry to hear that.
 
RubberDuckeeToo2 said:
This happened to us two years ago when gas was not so high compared to now, but right when prices were on the steep increase. We lost 200 gallons over the course of a winter.

I did a lot of research on this one and settled on TankLock. The cool thing was that you could take the lock off and use the cap without the lock and then lock up when need be. The whole thing is made out of machined stainless and I've no problems over the last two years.

I have an extra set of TL20's if anyone is interested in make an offer. That size is more for the larger boats so I wasn't about to use them on my new boat.

Gene
Click to expand...
It looks like that key insert can fall in the water. Do they sell extras?
 
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