Kevin,

I am in the process of restoring a pontoon boat and doing some research on the fuel system.

If using a plastic fuel tank with rubber hoses that go from the tank to the metal deck fill on the side of the railings, should you ground the metal inlet to eliminate any static charge?

The U.S Coast Guard’s Boating Safety website says that any portion of the fuel system that is metallic has to be grounded. This confuses me because if you ground the inlet, it will essentially ground the entire marine electrical system, which could potentially cause corrosion issues.

Any advice you can give me would be great.

Thank you,

Bill

Hi Bill,

It is important to ground all of your boat’s metal fuel fill components together to prevent accidental, static discharge.

When fuel flows down a hose, the swirling action creates a static buildup. If the fill is not grounded to the tank, there is a change of a static discharge when the pump is removed from the fill which can cause an explosion. If the fuel fill is made of plastic, this static ground wire is not required.

Galvanic corrosion (the corrosion that occurs when dis-similar metals are electrically connected) will not be a concern. To cause galvanic corrosion, the two pieces of metal need to be electrically connected and submerged in the same body of electrolyte (water). If your boat’s fuel fill and tank are continuously under water, you have more serious concerns than galvanic corrosion.

Please let me know if you have any other questions,

Kevin

Kevin,

Thank you for quick response.

The way the boat was originally wired, there was a tank ground wire from the filler to the negative terminal of the battery.

The tank is plastic so I do not think bonding them together would discharge the static energy. The only metallic portion of the fuel system is the filler.

Is this the correct way to go about this?

Again, thank you for your help.

Bill

Bill,

Beyond connecting all metal components in fuel system that can come it contact with fuel, the system must also be connected to the boat ground.

The full intent of this practice is to give a low resistance path back to ground – metal fill – wire to tank – tank – to ground on boat – ground connected to metal underwater gear – boat in water – that will help prevent static discharge buildup.

• If your boat fuel tank has a fuel gauge sending unit, connect the static ground to the sender and the sender ground to the battery negative/ground bus.
• If your boat does not have a sender, connect the static ground wire directly to the battery negative/ground bus.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Kevin,

This clears it all up.

Thank you very much for your help.

Bill

Hello Kevin,

I have a Wellcraft Portofino that I have owned for several years.

When I bought the boat it had an AM/FM CD player in the cockpit that worked fine. I added a car style radio to the salon about three years ago. I wired the unit properly and attached the “memory” lead to an empty, fused position on the same 12 volt bus as the cockpit radio.

From day one the salon radio would lose it’s memory on engine start while the cockpit radio did not. In between engines starts is not a problem. I double checked my wiring, which seemed good and wrote the problem up to buying a cheap radio on sale.

Midway through last season I replaced the cockpit AM/FM radio with a new Sony Marine unit. I now have the same problem with this radio! The tuner memory holds until I start engines. I just don’t get it!

The marine electrical is set up with two battery banks. The starboard bank is a 4-D and starts that engine and navigation equipment including the cockpit Sony radio. The port bank is a bank of four 6 volt deep cycle batteries wired series/parallel for 12 volts that start the port engine and also supplies the house.

I have checked all of the radio connections. I have switched the memory lead from the original fuse panel to different bus bars. Nothing has helped, as soon as I start an engine with the same battery bank the the AM/FM radio memory leads are attached to, the memories go blank.

I am starting to think that this is a surge problem. I believe I have confirmed this by using my master boat battery switches to start engines on the battery bank that does not have the radio memory. If I do that there is no memory loss. Starting and running my boat in this manner is not practical for me and leaves open the possibility of draining the wrong battery bank.

This situation is really starting to drive me nuts, I’d greatly appreciate any recommendations you may have.

Thank you,

Michael

Hi Mike,

Stereo memory circuits are sensitive to low voltage and you are suffering for a voltage drop “stack up” and will reset after only a few milliseconds of low voltage. This is very common with newer, higher draw, higher tech stereos.

The power feed to your helm has a drop. The more current that you draw through it, the more the voltage drop in the circuit. When higher draw devices such as bilge blowers, cockpit lights, stereos, the voltage drop is even higher. Slightly corroded connections induce voltage drops. When you start the engine, the source voltage (the battery) drops lower which makes the stereo input voltage that much lower.

Solution:

• Increase the size of the power feed wiring and ground to your helm panel.
• Run a dedicated power and ground lead from the battery to the stereo.
• Make sure you use circuit protection at the source of power. An increase of 0.1 volts will mean the difference between the stereo memory resetting and remaining.

Hope this helps,

Kevin

Hello Kevin,

I have a 1989 Four Winns Liberator 201 with a 350 OMC motor. I pulled the boat out of winterization today and wanted to check everything before I put the boat in the water.

When I went to hit the boat horn to test it, the horn sounded weak and eventually faded and did not work.

Next the navigation lights would not turn on. But when I hit the horn, the lights will turn on until the horn is released then they go off. Not sure if it could be a bad ground or short in the wiring.

I removed the access cover and found someone has cut and spliced wires on the boat before. There are also some wires disconnected and zip tied up and others just cut.

The boat blower motor did work when starting the boat but now it also will not turn on. I’m not an expert in marine electrical by any means but would like to find the issue my self. I have a voltmeter but never used it other than checking glow plug relays on diesel engines. I have used a test light on trailers – checking for power and such so I do have a little knowledge but not where to start on this project.

Any help would be great.

Thanks

Mark

Hi Mark,

I’m a HUGE Liberator fan. I worked at Four Winns during the era after their production.

There are few marine wiring items to check since several things have quit working.

• Main engine plug – round plug 1 1/4″ diameter on the starboard side of the engine. Unplug and check terminals
• Boat harness ground – check ground connection on rear bell housing of the engine
• Helm fuse block – check ground and power leads on the main fuse block under the helm

Once your find the corroded connection, replace as necessary.

Good luck,

Kevin