Preventing gas showers

[lalijaca]

I thought I'd solved this problem over the weekend. I removed the Attwood fuel/surge vent unit cleaned it and reinsta. lled it after re- routing the line from the gas tank to the vent after finding the rear locker cover was sitting on the line.
Anyway fuelled up tonight and thinking I had fixed the issue, I had the fuel hose at full noise and wide open only to have the 3 litres I had just delivered now skyward and trying to shower me. Therefore problem not fixed.
Is it a fuel vent unit issue or something else. It took me close to 8 minutes to deliver 120 litres.
The boats a 21i.

[Dan and Christy]

Turn the fuel nozzle upside down and pour a little slower. Some people think it looks funny but it's not as bad as making it rain with fuel.

[WakerideN]

historical problem with these boats. only solution I have found pump slower. or wear a full hazmat suit?

[BCRider]

I also open both gas caps to let the air escape a bit better but I have still be showered as well. I find it's once you are near the top of the tank so if I'm right empty I know I can go full bore before I need to let off or stop every once in a while.

[Stingreye]

Since I upgraded from the Atwood to the Racor Fuel Air separator (big one), its been a big improvement. I could get a gas shower on the first 5 gallons of a 48 gallon empty tank with the Atwood P.O.S.
One way to test it is to replace the Atwood one with just a straight fitting and see if it fills and vents better with no surge valve. If so, they buy the big Racor one (its pricey) or just be careful because fuel will pour out the vent now when getting near full (but is it any more environmentally unfriendly than the atwood one that prevents the vent from flowing but it now comes out the filler!).

You will find in this study the Atwood one failed the test.
http://www.boatus.org/findings/40/

Its only an issue if I overfill (go full blast and think I used more fuel than I did)

OR THIS IS A BIG ONE:

Filling stinks if its at a station where the bow is high. Seems like it doesn't vent properly.

[lalijaca]

So it seems there is no real fix. When filling yesterday, the bow was nose down and the boat angled slightly so the filling neck was higher than the vent.
I tried turning the nozzle upside down, but this really did nothing. When it first happened, I had the nozzle at flat out for no more than 3 seconds when the first shower happened. I would think this is not enough time for the air to even pass up the fuel/surge vent.
My next thought is to replace the filling hose and use a more flexible hose and try and re-route it.

[Stingreye]

So it seems there is no real fix. When filling yesterday, the bow was nose down and the boat angled slightly so the filling neck was higher than the vent.
I tried turning the nozzle upside down, but this really did nothing. When it first happened, I had the nozzle at flat out for no more than 3 seconds when the first shower happened. I would think this is not enough time for the air to even pass up the fuel/surge vent.
My next thought is to replace the filling hose and use a more flexible hose and try and re-route it.

With the Racor LG100 instead of the Atwood, I only get a shower when its full (or that annoying bow up scenario). The Racor is expensive so maybe try replacing it with a straight fitting. It should vent better but you can/will get fuel pouring out the vent when it get near full. If that works, it might be worth paying the money for the Racor LG100 I have.

Here is where I bought it:
http://www.defender.com/product3.jsp...9060&id=133911

Here is a crappy video I made after installed the Racor. You can skip to 1:20 as its just filling 10 gallons in the beginning of the video.

I could only get 3-4 gallons of fuel in before getting nailed at the lowest flow setting before getting rid of the Atwood for the Racor. You can see here where it actually will shut off the handle when full. Of course I had to try to add more after it shut off and fuel splashed back at that point

[Stingreye]

Also check out the difference in size of the Atwood and Racor.

fuel air separator.jpg

[Ewok]

No matter what type of fuel vent you have, I've never been able to use a hose at full flow. I fill up at regular gas stations, turn the handle upside down and hold the pump at just barely on, it takes a long time but I haven't had a spill in a few years doing it that way.

[lalijaca]

As the fuel vent is easy to get to, I think I will remove it and replace it with a straight through fitting. Then re-try filling with Gas.

[Stingreye]

X2 on what Ewok said and after reading my response earlier:
I don't want it to sound like the Racor is a magic device. Still need to monitor it and baby it while filling up.

My previous 2 boats still needed to be monitored but generally no spilling as long as I was watching.

When I first bought my Tige, with an empty Fuel tank on the lowest setting it would spit fuel at me 3-5 times before I was full at the lowest setting at the local gas station.

Talking with a friend he thought the atwood surge valve might be stuck so I was looking for replacements when I saw the Boat US study on the Racor one.

When I pulled the atwood one out I could shake it but the ball may have been stuck and my TERRIBLE filling problems could have been related to a bad/stuck atwood valve.

So after adding the Racor one, I can now fill my boat similarly to my two previous boats (which requires more patience than my truck/car).

Hope that make sense.

[Stingreye]

As the fuel vent is easy to get to, I think I will remove it and replace it with a straight through fitting. Then re-try filling with Gas.

Good luck and report back. I am very curious if the valve is your problem

[IDBoating]

Use my solution: Fill from those big red plastic gas cans with the stupid California relief valves on them. The fuel dribbles out so slowly there's no way it can spit back. Back when they made Gas Cans for Men, you could loosen the relief valve and the fuel would just POUR out, nice and fast, because the air had no trouble getting into the can. Can't trust mere citizens with weapons of mass destruction like that anymore, I guess.

[dilpickle]

I don't know if it would work on the older boats, but I have found that if I open both caps & insert a custom large zip tie into the off side fill port to hold open the flapper in the valve I can then fill at full flow.

I put 50.7 gallons in my Z1 using this method & it did not click off prematurely or spill (or spray) a drop. You can see the vapors coming out the off side when doing this, but I can live with that.