Tracking club boat Fuel usage

[dk7500]

I am looking for info on a good ways to track fuel usage on a club boat. I would like to find a way to track it electronically per skier, with some sort of fuel flow meter. dose anyone have any experience with this?

[Wayne]

How much are you looking to spend? Onasoki makes a fuel flow meter that has a control box with functionality similar to a cars odometer. The box also has analog outputs for flow rate and accumulated volume. I've used them for fuel economy studies in cars when I worked at an OEM. Probably overkill for you since the last one i bought was $10k, but it was accurate to fractions of a milliliter. There are cheaper off the shelf units for marine applications that have a display which shows fuel flow rate and accumulated volume with a reset button. Lowrance and Flowscan make them and are more reasonable units for your purpose.

[Waternut]

I don't have any experience with this but have considered it for myself... Seems like a basic version of what you're looking for. Do you guys have someone that is basically using more than their fair share or something? http://www.amazon.com/FUEL-CHESAPEAKE-Stainless-Steel-WHITE/dp/B005BI7MZW

 

There a few different versions and manufacturers of gauges like this so do your homework as even a quick search is showing mixed reviews on some.

 

Here is a thread with some guys talking about mpg and gallons per hour. They also talk about the things required to get the best results with the gauges they use. http://www.thehulltruth.com/boating-forum/60335-yamaha-fuel-management-system-any-other-system-questions.html

[ntx]

We use the flowscan meter. It has some pros and cons. We run it on two club boats and the calibration is off slightly. Since slalom requires a lot of time at low rpm's (sitting at the end of the lake to shorten) the low rpm settings are critical to get very accurate. We have used them for about eight years and have them set on a plate to allow us to transfer them when we upgrade boats. Nautique has a fuel system that returns unused fuel back to the tank. Two sensors are used. One measures fuel from the tank to the motor and the other measures fuel from the motor back to the tank. The display shows the actual used fuel. Installation is pretty easy and we have had very few problems. We have replace a set of sensors but no problems with the display. PM me if you would like more info.

[dk7500]

Thanks guy, you feed back is great.

ntx,

Do you know what model flowscan meter you would recommend they have many to chose from?

We currently have a 2013 Centurion carbon pro with the PCM EX343 5.7L motor, do you know if it has a fuel system that returns unused fuel back to the tank like you mention with the Nautique?

Any other info is greatly appreciated.

[gsm_peter]

Mercury and Mercrusier has the Smart Craft system.

There is a resonable accurate fuel consumption in one of the meters.

I have this on my outboard but it is supposed to be identical on the inboards.

I would assume that system can be used for those engines.

 

We use a very accurate simple old fasion system in our club.

Each member brings his own can and then we change cans for each skier.

Personally I would prefere an identifier (pin,cc or similar) thath trigger a measurment and send a mail to google docs with my fuel depth.

Modern boats should have this as an option.