Fuel pickup tube
- Thread starter thaeni
- Start date
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 23,496
Good question. On your boat the only one who can know for sure is you. Your boat is a 92 Hunter? I am guessing that you are not the original person to purchase the boat.
We can guess, that in a typical situation the intake will be about an inch give or take 0.38" . But the challenge is that previous owners or maintenance staff at a marina may have altered that distance.
To answer your question with a question, what causes you to ask this specific question?
We can guess, that in a typical situation the intake will be about an inch give or take 0.38" . But the challenge is that previous owners or maintenance staff at a marina may have altered that distance.
To answer your question with a question, what causes you to ask this specific question?
As John says, it should be less than the depth of the tank. The crud on the bottom of the tank needs to stay there or be cleaned out, not by the fuel filter.
When you remove the pickup tube, remove the screen at the bottom if it is still there. It is just waiting to cause problems.
When you remove the pickup tube, remove the screen at the bottom if it is still there. It is just waiting to cause problems.
As others suggest, you are best served by removing it, check to see if the tip is clogged or dirty and replace it as described above but consider putting it higher.
Most dont do that but consider a tube less than 1 inch off the bottom of a contaminated tank subject to motion - no real difference compared with sucking the bottom itself. You obviously lose some useable tank capacity by putting it higher. My opinion is that lose might 'buy' me less chance of primary filter clogging when I most need engine power.
Most dont do that but consider a tube less than 1 inch off the bottom of a contaminated tank subject to motion - no real difference compared with sucking the bottom itself. You obviously lose some useable tank capacity by putting it higher. My opinion is that lose might 'buy' me less chance of primary filter clogging when I most need engine power.
Used to be standard to have the pick-up tube located such that 10% of the tank capacity remained, hopefully so small amounts of water or gunk/sludge can just stay at the bottom.
This is how the Catalina factory set mine. Not only at the bottom but under pressure so it was pushing down and no real bologne slice.
My advice is to drain the tank and get a borscope to check how it's set through the sender unit whole.
My advice is to drain the tank and get a borscope to check how it's set through the sender unit whole.
Only you can pull the tube and measure/examine to learn the distance. FWIW, my pickup tube for BOTH my generator and auxilliary are about 3/8" off the bottom. The generator tube should be higher than the aux tube so that if you happen to run the generator until it is out of fuel, you still have a bit of fuel to run the aux. That would be a fail-safe, not normal practice.