Thoughts on this idea....

I own two boats and two jet skis and subsequently burn through a lot of gas. Refuse to buy it at the marina because it is so expensive. I was thinking about buying a 50 gallon plastic boat gas tank and mounting it on my jet ski trailer. That way I would drive over to the gas station - fill up and drive home. Then just fill everything up from home. Thought this would be a good idea 1) less trips to the station so less of chance of an accident and 2) the gas is further away from the car so if I do get hit I might have a chance to survive. Currently, I usually buy 28 gallons in 4 separate 6 gallon cans and carry it in the back of my 4Runner.

Any petroluem engineers out there with an opinion on this idea?? Is this illegal? I would cover the tank with a plywood to disguise it from the road.

I would imagine you can get the same tank that construction guys run in the back of their pickups with filters and a pump and mount that.

I am certain its not legal…but this is what my dad did. We both live on a lake, so we don’t trailer our boats…so its either 5 gallon cans or this.

He bought a 50 gallon tank, and put a 40 foot hose on it with ball valves attached. He went up into his attic above the garage and installed a brace, and put an eye hook in the ceiling of the garage. He then put a chain hoist on it.

He puts the empty tank in the back of his truck, and goes and gets it filled, then backs into the garage and winches it up a few inches with the straps that he installed on the tank. So far so good. He then drives the truck out, and pulls in his golf cart (so he can drive down to his dock…don’t want to screw up the grass with the truck) and lowers the tank into the cart. He parks by the dock, and fills the boat tanks with simple gravity.

As much as I give him crap for it, it actually works very good. He even has a little cart that he can lower it onto. I thought the chain hoist in the ceiling was stupid…but he uses it all the time now. He can go to a hardware store and have the kids throw bags of mulch or whatever onto a little cart he has in his truck, then lift it right onto the ground or onto the golf cart bed without lifting more than a few pounds and risk breaking himself in half. He is getting to old for that stuff.

It works pretty dang nice…but a lot of crap to do. Definitely safer than having any type of gas cans inside your truck.


(Message edited by robertt on May 10, 2005)

two of these might be better...

http://www.overtons.com/modperl/overtons/detail/pdetail2.cgi?r=detail_view&item_num=31249

That was gonna be my suggestion!

I thought about the gas caddy - but I would like to carry more gas. My X-9 has 35 gallon tank, my Donzi has a 30 gallon, Sea Doo is 11 and stand-up jet ski is 5. I can drain them all in a long weekend - which is about 82 gallons.

Robert - your dad has a great system. I don't have a pickup though so taking the tank out of the back would be a challenge though.

Jan - that is a great idea with the back of the pickup tank. I will try to find one...

Yea, we looked at those but my dad cant easily lift the +-260lbs this thing would weigh full out of a truck or your car. Plus, its pretty much exactly what he made except without the built in dolly. He also has less than a hundred bucks in his. Having that said...its still "homemade" and I guess that could be an issue.

http://www.transferflow.com/html/about_us.html

They could make anything you want.

Here is another idea that I was thinking of.

You can buy a fairly inexpensive carrier for your hitch. Something like this…
http://www.etrailer.com/cargo-carrier.aspx

I was thinking of buying one, and then mounting a plastic box like you would put in the back of a pickup. They cost about fifty bucks. I would then buy a gas tank that would fit inside the plastic box, as full as possible. Any extra room would be for the hose and a fire extinguisher. Basically, you would have a 80 gallon portable tank that you could use anytime.

The only downside is that you have 80 gallons of fuel as a bumper…and if you get hit that could be really bad. On the other hand, I would rather have it behind me than in the back of my suburban or even a pickup. Either way its not very safe.

Yes, if you have a pickup you can get a 100 gallon steel tank for pretty cheap…but who wants that thing in the back of your truck all the time?

I just don’t want my suburban to smell like gas all the time…and don’t want to be blown to heck or burnt up, and still have gas in the boat. Is that too much to ask?

be careful about putting plastic gas cans into a plastic box.... STATIC ELECTRICTY will build up and BOOM.

Robert,

That link is a good idea - but how much weight can a hitch (class 3) support? Gas is about 6 lbs a gallon (I think) so that could be a limiting factor.

I looked into the pickup truck bed gas tank - but all the ones I saw where for diesel fuel only.

Thanks ladalske!!! That is a very good point.

Keith, if you are willing to have a tank in the back of your truck all the time...there are a ton of options for you. Look up construction supply houses in your area..they will have them in stock.

Check out Tractor Supply Co. They have all kinds of truck and trailer mounted tanks for farmers. You never see a Combine at the self-serve station. I have seen tanks that you tow on their own trailer that hold more than 100 gallons.

if you have two boats and two jet skis why do you mind about gas pricing????

I'm not rich - just a workin' man who likes toys.

I use one of these when I need to tote a lot of gas: http://www.quikfillgascan.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=3

Thats what I am talkin bout! Thats the coolest thing I have seen yet for it. Thanks!

Keith,
Check into your state laws regarding the transportation of fuels in containers not for the approved for the vehicle or installed by a manufacturer. Obviously, all of the tank/toolbox combos are certified, but some of the other portable fuel tanks might get you in trouble with the commercial officers, if they wanted to be "exacting"...
Back when were were racing, we were hauling 110 gallons of methonal in two 55 gallon drums secured in bases and locked into placed by padded stainless steel straps.
These were inside a 40 Ft. 5th wheel race car trailer, and one evening as about 30 rigs were leaving a local track in norcal, we ALL got pulled over by a overenthusiastic commercial CHP officer who proceeded to cite about 2/3rds of the rigs for reflector violations, improper sizing on our "not for hire" labels, etc.

When I went inside the trailer to get a flashlight, the officer saw the fuel barrels. He immediately asked what they contained. I told him they were empty, but were for fuel for the car. He wanted to know what kind, I told him, and he pointed out to me that there is/was a law regarding how much, measured by weight, not volume, of flammable liquid that was not part of the vehicles' fuel system we could haul without a permit.
I told him that we were heading home after a three day race, and that they were empty. He told me he did not want to see us hauling that much fuel in that fashion again. Since we frequented that track, and I didn't want to deal with him again, we solved the problem by attaching a 150 gallon fuel tank to the side of the tractor (Kenworth) and used it for the race car fuel.
It looked just like the fuel tank on the opposite side of the rig that hauled diesel, but it was for the race car. Many of our peers wound up doing the same thing, as it also freed up floor space in the trailers.
If you have a truck, I'd probably do the tank/toolbox combo, and only install it when you are hitting the water if you are concerned about the looks.
If you have a suburban or other such rig, someone mentioned transferflow. they might be able to set you up with a second tank on your tow vehicle that you could isolate and use for a fuel supply for the toys.
I would shy away from hauling more than a couple of 5 gallon jugs on the trailer, they are easy to steal, the weight can never be right where you want it, etc. Some places ya can't go into a restuarant without leaving somebody outside watching your stuff. Let alone some jerk contaminating your fuel with any number of bad things..
We have thought about one of those Gas Caddy deals, but some of the courtesy docks I've walked on would be a little spooky wheeling one of those onto...think of the hazmat fiasco if you lost that thing into the lake...

Just to throw out an idea, what about burying a 500 gallon tank in your backyard and having a fuel truck fill it up a couple times a summer? I have no idea what this would cost, but would save you several trips to the gas station, and you could have gas right at your dock whenever you want. I don't know if you can get a discount on bulk fuel, but could this save money in the long run?

Yeah I agree with ladalske sp?

We got a 50 gallon gas tank for our truckas the tank but they have a big pickup bed tank with a hose with a 12 volt pump to fill up the toys! Check them out great service!

I run w/ 2 of what Dave Williams linked above. I only have a 25 gal tank on my boat and you can get 13 gallons in those tanks. So 2 and I'm good for an extra fill-up right at the dock. Just make sure you lock them up in the bed of your truck or I'm sure they'd disapear.

Levi,

I actually have one of those 11 gal (really 13) Hunsaker tanks. Haven't used it yet - can you lift (and carry it) when full?

-Keith

Yeah..but you don't want to take it too far. You just have to get low and pick it up closer towards the bottom. I'm able to set them right on my swim platform and then put the hose in the gas fill and tip the jug. They are no fun to try and hold up and fill a boat while it's on the trailer I can tell ya that!

I have two of the Hunsaker tanks. They hold a lot. I can fit 14 gallons in each of them. Unfortunately, they are tough to carry, tough to pour, they spill too easy, the hose that came with them is too short, the black rubber gaskets get torn up (they should be nylon), and they are almost to tall to fit into my Yukon. Don't buy the hoses with these cans. Go to the hardware store and fashion something that works for your situation. I uses a lot of 5 gallon racing cans instead of my Hunsackers, which rarely use except for houseboat trips. However, I can't drive right up to the boat dock. If you have a pickup and can drive to your boat, these cans could be great. They need to fix the gaskets though.

I think that's why they cans say 11 gallons on them. Although they'll hold 13 or 14 gallons, 11 is probably the limit when it comes to handling them easily.

50 gallons of gas in a plastic container mounted on your trailer? OMG! I hate to imagine the disaster during a rollover.