Gas Gauge Issue

[thozguys]

Has anyone else noticed how much the gas gauge jumps while the boat is motion. Since I primarliy use my boat to traverse the area around the channel islands in California, and the water is almost always 2 - 4' swells or bigger, getting a correct reading on how much fuel is left can be a crap shoot. Usually I try to find a protected cove to get an idea of the fuel reserves. I have tried replacing the sending unit on the tank, but in the process I noticed there are no baffles in the gas tank. Is this normal, does anyone else expience a bouncing fuel gauge? Is there a fix for a 2007 215? This keeps me close to shore for obvious safety concerns.

[NCangler]

My solution to this was to purchase a digital fuel gauge. It will enable you to monitor how much fuel you're burning at different speeds, how much you use on a trip, etc. If you keep fuel logs (I did for sales tax reimbursement in NC) you can pretty much know how much fuel is in there at any time.

[thozguys]

Would you have any recommendations on manufacturers and possible placement? Sorry for all the questions, but I have never seen a digital fuel gauge for a boat. Would I need to get another sending unit and would it be compatible with newly installed sending unit?

[NCangler]

On my first 210 Triumph I purchased a Navman 2100 fuel monitor. It was great. On my second Triumph (215 Chaos) I purchased the digital gauges that Yamaha had for the 150 4-stroke. I haven't checked for recent options but I'll do some searching.

[NCangler]

This looks like a good option and is very similar to the Navman I had:
F210-Fuel | Northstar

Someone else may have other suggestions too.

[NCangler]

This is the response from the factory:

There are no baffles in the tank. This is a phenomenon that is very
common in boats in general.

[OspreyVic]

We agree with NCAngler.

Before we took delivery of out boat in 2005, we had the dealer install a Floscan 5410-20A-1 with a 0-10 GPH scale single engine for all 4-cycle outboards PLUS 2-stroke Ficht, Optimax, and HPDI outboards (76 hp - 150 hp).

We have yet to hear from ANY boat owner that had a gas gauge that was accurate. We would be lost without our Floscan. Highly recommend it for all boat owners, especially those that leave sight of land.

[HighTechRedneck]

Depending on what fishfinder you have some digital gas gages hook to the gps so you can know how much gas you burned on a trip and what type of gas milage you are getting.

[thozguys]

I have a Garmin 4208 GPS, Radar, Sonar unit installed. There is a GFS 10 Fuel Flow Sensor from Garmin available but the max flow is 10-50 gallons per hour and the minimum is 2 gallons per hour. Would anyone happen to know what the typical flow rate is for a 2007 215 with a 150 Yamaha 4 cycle outboard is? Hopefully it is more than 2 gallons per hour as I really dont want to cut into the dash to install another instrument if possible.

Thank for all the great information, I reallly appreciate all the help.

[OspreyVic]

Sorry, but in our area, we put in a lot of time at under 2 gallons per hour. That is dictated by many mininum wake and no wake zones. Add to that the times when you might be slow trolling, and you need a gauge that will take that into consideration. At least that was our thought when we went with the Flowscan. Not perfect, but very close.