Fuel flow sensor/readout

[fozzy]

With the price of fuel going through the roof, I'm thinking of trying to monitor my fuel consumption a little better than relying on what my electric tank sender shows me at present.

When my tank is under half full, the gauge needle flops around like a dick in a shirtsleeve and its hard to know exactly how much I've got left unless I'm sitting still. If I had a better idea of flow it should give me a more accurate picture.

Are there any fuel flow senders and readouts available as aftermarket bits? I know Navman do a unit, does it interface with anything besides the Navman gear (I have a Garmin GPS for example). Donk is a 2 stroke Merc, not known for the best of economy anyway I guess.

Cheers,

Dave

[Spaniard_King]

Northstar have bought out navman and are now some navman stuff as northstar.

Some people have had problems with fuel senders but I have installed a few and use one myself. The northstar F210 will do what you want :)

[Fatenhappy]

Hi Fozzy ...

Realy all depends how far you want to go with this sort of thing and what you are after. I investigated all this sort of thing a couple of years back and got right into stuff that's NMEA 2000 compliant ..... its not expensive and it works very well ...

So whats this NMEA 2000 compliant stuff?

NMEA 2000 is a combined electrical and data specification for a marine networks for communication between marine electronic devices such as depth finders, chartplotters, navigation instruments, engines, tank level sensors, and GPS receivers. It has been defined by, and is controlled by, the US based National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA).

NMEA 2000 can be considered a successor to the MMEA 0183 standard.

Another distinction between the two protocols is that NMEA 2000 is a multiple-talker, multiple-listener data network whereas NMEA 0183 is a single-talker, multiple-listener serial communications protocol.

Or in short if you have a late model sounder, chartplotter etc thats NMEA 2000 compliant all you have to do is buy the fuel flow sensor from soneone like Lowrance and plug it in to that network. The control head (ie your sounder or plotter etc) acts like the processor for the whole system and you can simply read it off that.

Sounds like a lot of BS you might say. Well not so! I was looking for a pair of trim tab monitors for my previous boat when I finished up going down this route. Everyone here in Oz at the time was saying that they would be $700 - $800 minimum. I sourced a NMEA 2000 Lowrance system from America, landed here and installed for $314 AUD.

The beauty of this system is that everything is on the one network from fuel sensors, chart plotters, sounders ... everything and its so simple.

This will be used as the backbone in our shark cat Liquid-Remedy shortly when I start getting right into her revamp.

Cheers
Greg

[dicko1980]

I drained my fuel tank dry in the boat and filled it up in 10L increments and marked them on a dipstick. I use a Navman unit and have no problems at all but I still check fuel usage whilst the boat is on the trailer with the dipstick for my own curiosity to check the accuracy of the gauge.

Cheers
dicko

[gar26lw]

i fill up at service station to full. 41 ltr tank. i can never get it totally full some air so I reset tank full and have the tank capacity at 40l on the navman.

then i just go til it runs out and see if it matches. carry 42l spare so just dump that in and reset tank full. works fine. It seems pretty acurate.
never let it get to the point that im running on air with zero in reserve but i guess thats more the point of it.

[fozzy]

Thanks for the feedback guys. My GPS Manual says it's NMEA 0183 compliant, I might have to hassle someone to see if I can source a loaner NMEA 2000 device and see if it will talk.

[imported_QCR]

My Hooker is a bit like Robs (Dicko) except that I only have the stick. I have a 80 ltr tank and have the stick marked. I know how much it takes on the stick to go to the reef so I also know how much it takes to get home. In saying this I also know that I have a good reserve. I have been down the track of fuel flo metres and with this knowledge I know that barring the stick falling overboard or breaking it is still a fairly safe way of knowing exactly whats in the tank, couple this with common sense it works well. Of course I also have a tank that lets me use the stick unlike my last boat.

The result of this rambling is that after spending years at sea and having played with all types of electronic gagets sometimes the simplest is best.

PS: I have the latest Chart plotter and love playing around with it even though I know where I'm going so I guess I'm still a gadget juncky

[dicko1980]

My Hooker is a bit like Robs (Dicko) except that I only have the stick. I have a 80 ltr tank and have the stick marked. I know how much it takes on the stick to go to the reef so I also know how much it takes to get home. In saying this I also know that I have a good reserve. I have been down the track of fuel flo metres and with this knowledge I know that barring the stick falling overboard or breaking it is still a fairly safe way of knowing exactly whats in the tank, couple this with common sense it works well. Of course I also have a tank that lets me use the stick unlike my last boat.

The result of this rambling is that after spending years at sea and having played with all types of electronic gagets sometimes the simplest is best.

PS: I have the latest Chart plotter and love playing around with it even though I know where I'm going so I guess I'm still a gadget juncky

Hi Terry,

Its only taken me close to two years to finally get around to marking a dipstick for the boat, I needed a K.I.S.S backup plan for the navman when it pack in. Now with the new motor I only fill the tank to 100L max, and this will only ever be to go too the reef. I'm still surprised at how little fuel these things burn. Will be even better once the engine is lifted and propped right.

Cheers
Rob Dicko