Purchased a 386 last fall and have been making many upgrades. Installed a generator over the winter and am enjoying AC away from the dock here on the Chesapeake. Installed a 3.5 kw Next Gen in the starboard aft locker. My issue is the small size of my fuel tank, only 30 gallons. Seems like I am at the gas pumps every other day. Am carrying a 5 gallon Jerry jug for emergency but really need a bigger tank. Has anyone added a second fuel tank or a larger tank on this boat? My other related issue is that fuel sender is not giving me anything close to an accurate reading. Told me I had 3/4 tank when I had less than 5 gals. How can I fix this?
Fuel tank for 386
- Thread starter Waltsailor
- Start date
“Told me I had 3/4 tank when I had less than 5 gals. How can I fix this?” You cannot, it is related to the shape of the tank. The gauge is for a rectangular linear tank and Hunter installed a shape following the hull on the inside. I have a H38 with a comparable tank size and I “know” 3/4 means 1/2, 1/2 means 1/4 and 1/4 means as good as empty. I keep a running tab of engine hours since filling up and I call that my “Tank Hours”. If I am approaching 30 tank hours its fill up time.
Congratulations on your new Hunter 386!! I owned one for nearly 9 years and loved the boat. Since we most weekends all year round we only went through a few tanks (30 gallons tank capacity) of diesel during that time period. At 1/2 - 3/4 gph fuel consumption that would give you a 240 - 360 mile range motoring only. But now that you have a generator I can see why you might want a second or larger tank.
Remnds me of an article in a magazine decades ago. Guy is low on fuel, manages to tie up at the fuel dock, but after they closed for the nght. Next morning, the yard worker bangs on the hull and says the guy needs to move his boat. Skipper says he was waiting for the gas dock to open. Tank topped off, the guy goes to leave and the engine just does not want to run right. He asks the yard man "how much water is in your diese fuel?". Worker says none, but you asked for gas and was at the gas pump. Moral of the story, learn the seaman-like language and ask for what you want.
Generator consumes about 1/4 gal per hour. I put 56 hours on the generator so that computes to 14 gallons, engine consumes somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 gph had run 15 hours and used 7 1/2 to 11 gals. I took 23.7 gals at the fuel dock.
This thread might be useful on interrupting your fuel level monitor:
Post #5 in this thread might be useful for adding an additional fuel tank in the port stern lazarette: Hunter 41 Extra Fuel Tank
Hunter Tank Monitor
This monitor (picture attached) is original equipment on 2004 Hunter 386LE. It reads full tanks empty and empty tanks full and WILL be replaced. Cursory knowlege (and common since) lead me away from replacing with same and I'm a betting some of you fellas have had similar problems here. If so...
forums.sailboatowners.com
Post #5 in this thread might be useful for adding an additional fuel tank in the port stern lazarette: Hunter 41 Extra Fuel Tank
My fuel gauge on my 386 was always wildly off. I followed the calibration instructions that is somewhere in that link above from Snake River and it completely fixed my gauge(tank level monitor). You do have to remove the sensor rod from the tank if you don't wanna drain it but that wasn't too difficult. Then you force a reset to the system by using a jumper wire at the sensor harness to force it to calibrate empty, and then full once you place the sensor back in the tank. You wanna make sure the tank is full of fuel. Mine works like a charm now.
Since the fuel tank is so easily accessible from the aft port locker, this is what I did.....
Used a sharpie to place a line at the fuel level in the tank. Then filled the tank and noted the gallons adjacent to the line I drew.
Did this a few times for various fuel levels and had sort of a ladder of sharpie marks with a gallon notation beside each mark.
All I needed to do was lift the locker lid and check the level. Although very accurate, I get that it is not the proper setup, and it would be nice to have the installed equipment work properly.Still, it works for me.
Used a sharpie to place a line at the fuel level in the tank. Then filled the tank and noted the gallons adjacent to the line I drew.
Did this a few times for various fuel levels and had sort of a ladder of sharpie marks with a gallon notation beside each mark.
All I needed to do was lift the locker lid and check the level. Although very accurate, I get that it is not the proper setup, and it would be nice to have the installed equipment work properly.Still, it works for me.