buy you new fuel tank before 2/28

Chris S.

Chris S.

Well-known member
I just stopped by my local marine store to buy a 3gal fuel tank and there was a sign stating that as of 2/28/11 the EPA will be changing the laws on all outboard fuel tanks being sold they have to have double the thickness of plastic and better fuel caps the price will almost double the 3gal at my local store will go from 24.99 to 49.99 and the new 6gal will be 55.99 as of 2/28 I'm sure most of you knew this but I had no idea so if any of you are thinking of getting a new fuel tank now is the time hope this helps
 
With an estimated 100,000 tons of gasoline being lost into the air each year through the tank and hose materials on recreational boats, I can see why they would want to control it. However, like most of their laws it can only effect newly manufactured equipment.

http://nepis.epa.gov/Adobe/PDF/P1002K24.PDF
This issue has been working its way through the rule making process for a decade or more it appears.

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/standards/nonroad/nonroadsi-evap.htm
According to footnote n on this page the requirements for portable tanks went into effect over a year ago.

Reading this page I would guess that even though a new plastic tank could be thicker to control vapor transmission, I think the real reason for the cost increases will be due to the new caps and fittings that seal the tank better. The tanks will have to be thicker to deal with the pressure increases due to lack of an open vent system like the old tank caps have. New tanks will have a pressure relief valve that is automatic when the engine is drawing fuel.

So by now the retailers have ran out of the old style of tanks and have little choice but to sell the newer ones that have been made since January 1, 2010.

If I had an pre 2010 motor I would not use a post 2010 tank due to the potential for fuel draw issues if the tank auto vent is too strong to allow the carb to pull fuel.

As Califorina goes, so does the rest of the US in time.
 
I had heard this was coming but didn't know it was NOW. Oh well I don't need another tank and don't care for the plastic ones anyhow due to the static electric problem. Am getting a bit tired of the nanny state. Seems like some days the only way to get any rights is to be an outlaw;-)
 
[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]"As California goes, so does the rest of the US in time."

Scary.....no wonder I have this politically incorrect wish for the San Andreas fault to shake the thing into the ocean....

Matt
[/font]
 
If your nervous about the venting issue with older motors, and you have a new tank, just leave the cap a little loose. There's more then one way to skin a cat.....
 
If your nervous about the venting issue with older motors, and you have a new tank, just leave the cap a little loose. There's more then one way to skin a cat.....
Click to expand...


Or drill a hole and put in your own vent.

Mark W
 
If your nervous about the venting issue with older motors, and you have a new tank, just leave the cap a little loose. There's more then one way to skin a cat.....
Click to expand...


Which makes the purpose of the new regulations pointless, but the EPA (and other feds) never understand what ALL the results of their changes will be. Too many of them have blinders on and can only see their toes.

I deal with Federal and State laws in my job and come across things like this all the time. Its real easy to state there will be a change, but on things like this the end result will not make much of a difference.
 
[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]"As California goes, so does the rest of the US in time."

Scary.....no wonder I have this politically incorrect wish for the San Andreas fault to shake the thing into the ocean....

Matt
[/font]
Click to expand...


In time California will be up here. Need to speed it up a little so that we can get in some good surfing.
 
EPA/// what a left wing influenced Bureacratic joke its turned into
Click to expand...


Yes, but at least the Cuyahoga River has not caught on fire for a while.

They must be doing something right.
 
Heard about this from our yamaha dealer he claimed 6 gallon tanks would be over $100. Have you priced a Yamaha brand fuel line with ends and primer bulb lately ?
 
EPA/// what a left wing influenced Bureacratic joke its turned into
Click to expand...


Yes, but at least the Cuyahoga River has not caught on fire for a while.

They must be doing something right.
Click to expand...

Yep, lots of people forget how terrible air and water quality was in this country back in the 60's and 70's before the Clean Air Act & Clean Water Act.
The Great lakes were all but dead, oil and chemicals pouring directly into our lakes and streams (still paying for that on many rivers, such as the Hudson).
Air pollution was so bad in some places, especially in steel towns like Birmingham and part of the northeast steel belt, the sky was reddish brown, and during inversions, people actually died from the pollution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donora_Smog_of_1948
Sure EPA goes overboard sometimes, but do we want to go back to the way it was or be like it is in China today??
What we need is common sense put back into the mix. But there seems to be a lack of that all around Washington DC, but then when has then been much at all?
 
Last edited:
I think most people would like a reasoned, balanced approach as most people agree clean water and air is a valuable public "good", but they do not like being regulated in the nature of this quote from C.S. Lewis: "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience...." Environmental activism may become a tyranny when a zealot incorporates that bias into regulations and research dollars, without an appropriate oppositional balance. The problem we have as a citizen is to discern what is a reasonable balance, that is where we fail. Thus, the pendulum of nonsense and opposition swings wildly and the zealots march on with "the approval of their own conscience..."
 
I think most people would like a reasoned, balanced approach as most people agree clean water and air is a valuable public "good", but they do not like being regulated in the nature of this quote from C.S. Lewis: "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience...." Environmental activism may become a tyranny when a zealot incorporates that bias into regulations and research dollars, without an appropriate oppositional balance. The problem we have as a citizen is to discern what is a reasonable balance, that is where we fail. Thus, the pendulum of nonsense and opposition swings wildly and the zealots march on with "the approval of their own conscience..."
Click to expand...


That about nails it across many aspects of environmental laws at many regulatory levels.

Moral Busybodies....I have know too many at the State level up here. They even ingore their own regulations since "it doesn't feel right" to them.
 
[font=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]"it doesn't feel right"....

Is that some California feeling? I must be smoking something.
[/font]
 
With an estimated 100,000 tons of gasoline being lost into the air each year through the tank and hose materials on recreational boats
Click to expand...

that's over 33 million gallons...right?
am I the only one that finds that to be comical? who comes up with that number?
 
Last edited:
ok seeing we want fuzzy math on 100,000 tons of gas ---


100,000*2000=200,000,000 lbs of gas

at 6.073 lbs/gal of gas

that is 32,932,652.73 gal

with 12.9 million reg boats in the US (2002 data)

you are loosing 2.553 gal a year out of your duck boat (on average)

So it is costing you in gas dollars a year $8.52 (3.30 a gal)

If a leak/fume proof tank cost you $20 more, it will take you 2.374 years (866.50 days @ 2.31 cents per day) to pay for the extra cost of the new tank.

And maybe a a tad less pollution also.

Ok enough fuzzy math
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top