Carver Owners Forum

Hey all I am purchasing a 1988 4207 Carver. The water tank is currently a Bladder and I want to replace it with a plastic tank. Does anyone have dimensions of the location where the fresh water tank/bladder is located? also is the floor flat or is it tapered to match the hull?
I'm also going to replace the waste tanks and hoses as the appear to be original, I also need the dimensions of them. I won't have access to the boat for about 8 days and would like to get the tanks ordered up ASAP!

Welcome aboard. If you contact Carver with your hull number, they will give you supplier information and part numbers. The issue is that many tank suppliers from that era are no longer around. If that's the case, a Google search of the supplier name usually leads you to a company that has acquired the original supplier. They've usually retained the blueprints for older builds and may have the means to build the exact items you need.

This company produced many of the carver oem tanks. https://www.trioniccorp.com/

If you do get the dimensions of the area and aren't concerned about getting the exact same tank sizes as it was manufactured with, then check out what greatlakesskipper has in stock. They have quite a variety of "new old stock" they bought out from manufacturers and sell them much lower. I replaced my two original Carver 40 gal waste tanks with two 34 gallon tanks. The different shape also allowed for a bunch of storage around the one tank that wasn't available before. They also ship much cheaper than most of the manufacturers. I bought and shipped two tanks for less than just the price of one brand new tank (without the shipping, which was substantial).

I just bought an '87 4207. I'm not sure what the complete original installation looked like. When I got the boat it had a torn bladder sitting in what looked like the original fiberglass "coffin" tank. I call it a coffin because that is what it looked like, a long rectangular box with out a top and the back cut out. I don't know if the tank originally came with a top and back and was integral to containing water all by itself, or somebody did indeed modify it by cutting off the top and the back. I know the "coffin" was factory installed because there is no way to remove it except by cutting it into bits with a sawzall and pulling the bits out through the kitchen floor access, which is precisely what I did. Once removed you are left with the bottom of the V shaped hull going forward about 6 feet. It is actually a very large space. Might be useful for storage except it is also the bilge. Normally dry, if the pumps are working properly. You could still put a flexible bladder in there, no way you could put anything but a tiny hard sided tank in the space, not unless you cut up the kitchen/V berth floor area to allow installation.
I ditched the whole fresh water tank, I hate the idea of carrying around 1000+ lbs of dead weight in water so I designed an on demand water purification system using particulate, charcoal, chemical and UV filters mounted in series. I'm only exposed to fresh water so the additional complexity and expense of a reverse osmosis system was avoided. The old tank all by itself weighted close to 100lbs (I am a pilot, and pilots my nature HATE hauling around any unnecessary weight!)

Sounds like a expensive option to your old water tank, how is it working out?

So far it is working perfectly. I only use it when cruising, not at the dock. The system (filters etc.) will flow over 7 US gallons/minute, far more than the pump will supply.

Peter Briden, Your older post about cutting coffin wall to get to your water bladder is exactly a problem of mine except I want to save mine but it leaks and needs a patch. I’m afraid to saws all it for fear of cutting the bladder. Do you have a picture of your work or can you tell me how far the bladder was from where you cut? Thank you for any advice or pics.