A little boater humility

[SmokyMtnGrady]

Hey Y'all,
I have not posted in a while . It's been busy in my life but I wanted to share a story and it's somewhat embarrassing. This fall I was taking my boat out of Fontana for the winter. Halfway back to the ramp the boat just died. Now those unfamiliar with Fontana Lake in the NC Smoky Mountains it's big surrounded by either the Great Smoky Mountains National Park or the Nantahala National Forest. There are only a handful of ramps and 4 marinas with two having fuel. It's wilderness on the water .

So I head back from my slip to the public ramp at Lemons Branch near Tsali and it just dies . I check my fuel gauge and I have 1/4 tank. So, I call my friend who is at the ramp with the truck and the Owens and tell them. There is a couple going out in their pontoon boat for a 5 pm fall cruise . They come and rescue my butt. If they didn't show up to launch at that point in time I could have been sleeping on the boat . .

They tow me back and I phone a couple of you guys here and trouble shoot the problem . The consensus was either low pressure pump or maybe something with the ignition. Now both guys I talked too asked about my fuel ,fuel tank and did I have gas. We tried to rule stuff out.

In November I take the boat to Palmetto Boat in Greenville,SC as they are my service dealer . I get on with life and call them a few weeks ago to see when I can get her back and what was the problem. It turns out it's not the fuel lines, it's not the low pressure pump and it's not the ECU . It turns out I ran out of gas! It turns out my sending unit was reading 1/4 which is about 32 gallons for me.

Now with an honest and humble admission my sending unit has been on the fritz for a few years. It would stick one way or the other and during boating season I would use the fuel management system to track fuel burned versus how much I would fill it up . Before going offshore I always filled it up and would measure how many gallons I have gone through . It was safe so even if the fuel sending unit was sticking I knew where I was fuel wise. When I am on the lake I get less concerned and this summer I lost track of my count because I would say only put in 50 gallons and not completely full her up and the math would get more involved.

So , there I am adrift in 200 feet of water waiting for the pontoon boat rescue . I have never run out of fuel before and what is funny about this story KY Grady kept asking , hey Bob do you have gas in the tank and I am like yah the gauge says 1/4. I then tell KY I am going to add some gas before taking it to PBC . Tine gets away and I am in the busiest part of my season for the business. I am like ,it's not an empty tank.

The very first thing Palmetto does is put my motor on the shop tank and it fires right up. They soon discover I am empty and the sending unit is totally gone bad .

So, this boat season keep track of your fuel better than me especially in the ocean. I was lucky I was on a lake when this happened to me. Then again everytime I go offshore I go with a full tank .

When Amy told me my tank was dry I felt like a total idiot . Motor is in great shape .

That's my story .

 

[Halfhitch]

So, I look at the good side of this.....a couple that owns a pontoon boat got a free steak dinner!

 

[Sauza45]

To be honest I never relie on the fuel gauge, I always use the fuel management system to keep track of the fuel. How much I have burned and how much I add. I also fill up when I
go the the pumps.

 

[Hookup1]

My sending units were both replaced with WEMA style. The gauges read fine. But there are other factors to consider. Speed of the boat and weight up forward. Below is my story.

Running out of fuel

Had a interesting problem the other day getting fuel. Running off one tank to each engine. Both tanks low but had at least 1/8 tank. Ran to the marina that has a 1/4 mile long no-wake zone. Fueled the boat and went to start the engines back up. No start on either one - both crank fine. After...

www.greatgrady.com

 

[SkunkBoat]

Shape of tank matters. The sender is linear (supposed to be). If its a v bottom "belly" tank, the bottom 3rd (the V) might only hold half as much as each of the top 2 thirds.
So your gauge says 1/3 but you have 1/5 of the total capacity.

Add in the misadjustment of the float arm or the gap between the WEMA float and the bottom of the tank.(and the gap at the top for that matter)

Add in how the boat was sitting when you "filled" the tank(s)...

Fuel gauges are "suggestions".

 

[Mustang65fbk]

Isn't it funny how when something happens our minds, or at least mine, typically goes to the worst case scenario? I had something kind of similar, although not to the same extreme, happen a couple of weeks ago with my hot water heater. I got home from work and took a shower, of which the water wasn't getting hot, kind of just above lukewarm, but nothing more than that. I thought to myself "oh $hit, the house is 10 years old now and the hot water heater has gone out, there's $1k or more to fix/replace." I remembered a little voice in the back of my mind from the vintage mustang forums saying "it's oftentimes the easiest/smallest things that need to be repaired or fixed." So, I diagnosed the issue within about 10 minutes, realized that I had gas going to the unit but that the tank was cold, though there weren't any leaks or smells of gas. I thought about it for a second, realized it must be a gas supply issue, pulled open the little door to look inside and realized the pilot light had gone out. Turned it off, let it sit for a few minutes per the instructions and then came back out and tried to relight it. Would light up, but as soon as I took my thumb off the button it would go out again. Did a little research, made a phone call to a family friend and was about 80% sure it was the thermocouple that had gone out. It was getting to be around 9-10 pm that night and I needed to go to bed because I had to wake up for work the next morning. Came home from work, took the old thermocouple off, took it to Home Depot, bought a replacement for about $25 and change, came home, reinstalled it and voila, it worked again just like new. Long story short, don't skip past the small/quick/cheap fixes until you can actually rule them out as the cheap or inexpensive things are oftentimes the most common for going out before the expensive parts.

With regards to the fuel senders or fuel gauges themselves, the fuel gauge on my boat adjusts a bit when you've got a half a tank or less and when you're accelerating or decelerating. I don't go below 1/4 of a tank or so on it because I don't want to have the same issue where it's reading incorrectly and you're stranded because of that. So, whenever it gets to around that 1/4 tank mark, I'll go and fill it up, or at least add 40-50 gallons or more to it so that I know the tank will be at least halfway full at that point. As others have mentioned, other ways like a NMEA-2000 connection telling you about your fuel economy can also help out quite a bit with knowing how much fuel you've got left. The fuel gauge/sending unit on my mustang is terrible and I don't even rely on it anymore. I hardly put any miles on the car but when I do anything more than 20 or so miles of driving, I'll either add some fuel to it beforehand or top of the tank so I know I've got more than I need. I've also just gone off the odometer before as well where I'll fill up the tank every 150 miles or so as I guess the old Ford/mustang fuel sending units are notorious for being inaccurate. I've replaced the one on my car multiple times now and it still hasn't really gotten any better to where even when the tank is completely full, it still only shows 3/4 of a tank. At the end of the day, it's great that we can laugh at ourselves and realize it could've been much worse and much more expensive, like having to replace the motor or spend thousands on repairs. A few gallons of fuel and a good laugh is a much better alternative to the former.

 

[blynch]

Same thing happened to me last season! By some divine intervention we ran out of gas not a mile inside our harbor's breakwater after getting absolutely lashed on a long, rough ride across the sound. Lesson learned, when the fuel gage barely moves for several trips the sender is shot

Even worse, I spent a week thinking I killed my engine until I learned there's a several step process required to re-fire an ETEC after you run it dry. Everyone learns the hard way once in a while.

 

[Fishtales]

It happens... I had a friend that forgot his plug. Had to quickly motor back to the dock and get it before she sank.

 

[Father's Day]

I fill up every second or third trip out depending how far out i go. I never depend on my gauge
Stay safe and have fun

 

[Hookup1]

My best screwup was premature launch of my 15' Terry bass boat at Smith Mountain Lake. Did trailer roller work that Winter. Lake was low and a steep ramp. Dropped the boat 20' short of the water! Pushed it in, back on trailer, looked ok, back in water, went fishing.

 

[Mustang65fbk]

My uncle forgot the plug for one of his boats one time. And one of the guys on the Arima owners forum unhooked the safety chain on his roller trailer before he had the boat in the water and the boat rolled off the trailer onto the ramp. There was quite a bit of fiberglass/hull damage that he had to have fixed before he could use the boat again. Always put the plug in, it also doesn't hurt to have a spare, and never take off the safety chain on the trailer until the boat is fully in the water. It saves a second or two but it's not worth the possibility of the boat falling off the trailer and doing considerable damage to it.

 

[Sauza45]

I know what you mean about jumping to the werst case. I was out on the boat and another boater need a toe back to the ramp. He said the engine just stopped and wont restart.
as we get back to the dock he realized he did not have it in neutral.

 

[Mustang65fbk]

Before I had my Grady White I had a boat called an Arima, it was a 21' fiberglass fishing boat that's made out here in the PNW. Anyway, I was at the ramp taking the boat out, my old man had the boat on the dock with a line tied to it and I was backing up the truck and the trailer to pull it out since he can't turn his neck or back that way anymore. As I'm backing up I hear someone start whistling and yelling really loud, so I get out of the truck and look to see what's going on. Another boat dropped off their husband on the dock from the open bow section and right as they were about to step off, the wife at the helm slammed it into reverse and the husband goes into the water. I went running down and he's clutching onto the dock trying to pull himself up, he was probably oh idk maybe in his 60's or slightly older. I went down to the end of the dock, put my arms underneath his armpits and lifted him up and out of the water, though I'm not sure why he didn't just do a hand over hand type of movement and worked himself up the dock until he could stand. Anyway, if you're even remotely into boating, you'll see a bunch of crazy stuff happen, especially at the docks. There's entire channels on YouTube devoted to just watching people pull in and depart the docks with their trailers and so forth. It's quite entertaining to watch...

 

[Parthery]

Get the WEMA style....if you call GW Cust Serv they will tell you the depth of the tank. Order one 1/2" shorter so it will read empty but leave a bit of reserve for you in the tank.

PS - There are two kinds of people...those who run out of gas and those who WILL run out of gas someday. Welcome to the club.

 

[Beyond A Wake]

Laughing at everybody's mistakes......
I go out on boat one day (kept on rack at marina so launched when I get there) get back later than they retrieve boats. Boats in water over night and I come back in the morning to go out again.
Jump on board open the head compartment and wonder why all lifejackets have popped and inflated?? Why is their ankle deep water in the head???/
If there is a leak somewhere why is bilge pump not running???
Boat gets hauled up with forklift and first we notice that the drain plug had been cross threaded-------- slow leak but enough, who did it, Marina but of their good will as I am supposed to make sure the plug is there when they launch the boat. Ok so that was the reason for water but why not pumped out?

It turns out the boat was kept on a lift on Lake Lanier (GA) and I bought it from this friend who is meticulous and spares no cost. BUT I found out that since it was on a lift it does get below freezing in North GA and the pump held some water that froze and cracked the casing, reason found and resolved by installing new pump. Fortunately motors drain when out of water so the motor didn't suffer from the cold.

Lessons we all learn, when close to freezing make sure all precautions are taken and freeze damage eliminated.

H
ps on my boat at that lake (a Sedan Bridge) I winterized the top part and kept rest warm able to use it all winter long. All good until winter storm takes out power for an extended period of time and heaters stop working etc....... So be on your watch.

 

[keef]

I’ve got so many boat stories it would take half a day to post them here.