Remote genny fuel tank idea ...

[Bob B.]

We have been thinking about removing the head and black water tank on our 2014 25SC for a while now. We would add in its place a composting toilet. Along with this idea, we have further wondered about replacing the black water tank with an independent diesel tank for the genny. I would like to put a seacock on it to gravity add to the main tank if a situation arouse and we needed get home fuel.


We are still in the think about it stage, and wondered if anyone else has done this, thought about this or has any better ideas.

Some reasons for this include ... it can be hard to get a pump out for us, on longer trips even though we are careful to log genny hours daily to calculate fuel usage, we never really now how much fuel is being consumed or very accurately how much fuel we have as the genny draws form the main tank and the Garmin does not account for this, the Volvo gauge is not very accurate.

Having an emergency reserve is comforting, especially when making longer crossings.

Any thoughts or opinions?

Bob.

 

[knotflying]

We had a composting toilet on our classic R-27. We never used the waste tank from new and converted it to water, not fuel. With ten years of use we never had a worry about fuel and always had plenty of water. Running out of fuel or bad fuel can be always be an issue. Even if you had 1,000 gallons if you run long enough you can run out. And if you get bad fuel you now have more to have scrubbed. Same is true with water, but having more than double gave us more time at anchor and we could be a bit more liberal with usage. People have told us that when they did extensive traveling in the Bahamas getting fuel was easier than water. One owner actually put in a water maker where the holding tank was after he put in the compost toilet. The water maker is expensive and does require good maintenance. Having the additional water over fuel always worked for us. I guess it is a matter of picking your poison.