Carver Owners Forum

Hello,
Dose anyone know the difficulty of replacing fuel tank's on 355 Carver.
What wold be the cost to replace one tank.

Sorry, 1997 355 Carver fuel tank.

There are 3 tanks on this boat - which one are you considering replacing?

Have never had the main tanks go bad so never had to assess replacement but I suspect you'd need to remove the engine on the side that needs to be replaced.

If it's for the auxiliary tank, I removed one by cutting an opening in the swim platform. Can't recall the requirements of trying to get it out through the aft cabin but I seem to recall cabinet work and cutting a fiberglass wall behind the bed. There is access back there now but not enough to pull the tank out. In any case, I determined it was easier to cut an opening in the swim platform, then glassing the piece back in. A decision was then made to cover with Nuteak rather than refinishing the non-skid. The bottom of the tank was full of pin holes. The tank was saved by replacing the bottom of it. Any good welding shop can do it.

I would also suggest you have a look at the quality of the welds a repair shop does on aluminum before you have them touch your tank.
This is "real" aluminum welding:

Thank you for your helpful information.
What a new tank will cost??
Abd what would be the labor on it.
All three tanks needs to be replaced .

Problem is labour rates vary way too much to determine a price for you and all boats are different. Tanks will be around $500 to $1000 depending on the size. The difficulty in removing the engine to allow room for replacement will determine the final outcome. A wild guess would be $10,000 to have all three changed.

Wow, have you got a project, all 3 tanks. This poor girl must have sat for years. It might be the easiest to cut the boat open to replace the tanks and have the holes all re-glassed. Good luck and let us know what you come up with and its cost. Mike

Mike beat me to the punch. With having all three tanks needing replacement - I would definately cut through the hull and remove/replace/reinstall and reglass. I would bet that it will be substantially more than the $10k Hans suggested.

You might consider - and nobody jump down my throat - that this be a good time to yank and rebuild the engines. With the engines out the access to the tanks is much simpler (not withstanding the aft tank). With regards to the aft tank, if so inclined you could simply take it off line.

By the time it's all said and done, I don't think it'll be any cheaper cutting through the hull. In fact, it might be worse. When it comes to patching her back together, even a repair with the best colour match will eventually be noticeable. The way to get around a colour match and the repair being noticeable later is to paint the entire hull....not cheap. Fairing back to it's original condition without leaving a trace of a repair is extremely time consuming. If taking this approach, you better make sure the fiberglass guy is very good at his trade (few and far between). There is a place for this kind of procedure but IMO this isn't one of them. You can remove one engine at a time and put it off to the side, they don't have to come out of the boat.

The only tank I would cut glass to remove is the aft one. Go through the swim platform as mentioned earlier. The repair doesn't have to be finish quality as you'd be rolling on a non-skid or it can be covered with a product such as Nuteak or similar product.

I agree that now would be a good time for rebuilds but it'll make the venture much more expensive. The wallet dictates which way you're going to proceed.