Removing gas tank from Sea Hunt Boat

[jsnow]

I have been trying to remove the gas tank from my boat alll weekend and have not gotten to far. I say I ,I think is has been a neighborhood project. My dad and I started and then my nextdoor neighbor can over and then the neighbor across the street cam over and we all tried to get this D*&%m tank out. I think I have narrowed it down to the tank. So that is where I am now. I removed all the gas from it undid the screws that I thought held it in, which was a job in it's self. But the tank will not budge. Does anyone have ANY suggestion? on how to get the tank out? The tank is only three years old and I would not suspect it to leak but it appears that it is. HELP

[mike11]

try "sea hunt owners forum"
google the above & you'll find it...............

[Sandtiger]

Is there foam under it? Read this whole thing first. If so, go to West Marine or Boater's World and get about 10 feet of 1/8" or 3/16" cable (sail boater's use this stuff mostly). IF you can get under then end of the tank, feed the cable under and then with two people try pulling the cable back and forth while applying pressure towards the opposite end of the tank.

If you cannot get from one end to the other get as much as you can and then get two bottle jacks placed on pieces of plywood about 1 foot square each (to distribute the load across the deck of the boat) and palce one on one side of the tank and one on the other side (near the end of the tank). Now suspend a 4" x 4" piece of wood across the top of the jacks. Use whatever is required (strap, chain, cable (heavier than used for cutting the foam), etc. I used a piece of anchor chain) and place it under the end of the tank and then wrap each end around the 4 x 4 as tight as you can get it. Start jacking.

Now I do NOT know ow the tank is held in place. Ths is how I have removed two tanks over the years and it worked for me. Please also note that depending on how the tank is mounted, it may do some damage to the boat. Just analyze the situation carefully before trying anything that is suggested.

Putting the tank back in was much easier. I did not use foam at all. I built a shelf, fiberglassed it, then glassed it in place in the bottom of the boat, then went thru a whole process to mount it into the hull. I believe it is mounted 100% better than Wellcraft mounted the original.

This is the basic idea of how I re-installed the new tank. I made a few modifications to the overall process;

http://www.yachtsurvey.com/fueltank.htm