Has anyone Remounted the fuel tanks on an Eliminator Daytona 21?

[Li'l Toy]

As some may know, the long round tanks in the sponson are held in by steel strap brackets that bolt through the hull in 4 places on each side. We are recoring Li'l Toy, and I want to mount the tanks without bolting through the hull. If you have done this or know of it being done, can you share some knowledge?

Thanks

[Tripps]

I have a 23 tanks r rectangular with brackets welded to ends and bolted into cross brace that runs from bottom to deck

[HavasuDreamin']

I had a 19' Eliminator Daytona that was done the same way. Straps in the tunnels through bolted thru the bottom. I had them removed, the bottom glassed over, and re-gelled to make it look like they were never there. I had an aluminum tank fabricated to fit in my center pod between the stringers. It was about a 1/4" under the top of the stringer so the rear bench would go back over the top of it. It solved three problems 1) drag in the water from the through bolt 2) uneven tank draining 3) tank was mounted more towards the rear, so the boat flew better when the tank was full.

I would highly recommend this route.

[Li'l Toy]

Thanks guys. Havasu, did you lose capacity making the in the pod tank? I have 50 gallons now, probably not ready to go to the expense of having a tank fabbed up, but it seems like I would lose volume if I go to 1 center mount tank.

[XstreamVking]

Replace the metal straps with some glass ones. Put some tape or wax paper on the surface of the tanks where the straps go. Also where they attach to the hull. Lay 2 strips of 1708 bi axial glass, one on top of the other and let it harden. Pull glass off the tanks and sand them smooth and paint them pretty. Leave the ends of the straps clean and glass securely to the hull over the ends to hold the tanks. I have installed under gunnel tanks this way before. If you have to remove them in the future just cut the glass straps.

[Li'l Toy]

I like the way you think. My only concern is, if you are not really spreading the load of the tank but have it pretty much as a point of contact on the bottom of the boat, are you going to build up stressors that are too much for the fiberglass to handle

[XstreamVking]

You could make a cradle for the tank to rest on. It would spread the load. If you have core on the hull under the tanks, a second layer of core with the cradle built from penske board on top of that would seem to be sufficient. Cradle could be as simple as two or three boards glassed in at the correct angle to fit the tank running the tanks length. Or, you could make a glass piece off the tank and glass that to the supports for a real nice custom piece. With a cradle like that the tank can't go anywhere.