By Rich

Rover’s fuel tanks have the same removable top plates as the water tanks so we’re able to clean them too.

The residual fuel in the bottom of the tank (which lives below the pick up tubes) needs to be pumped out first.  On our boat it was well over a year old and smelled foul. This first step catches a lot of the microbe contamination we’re hunting for as well – clumps of which can be seen at the bottom of our 94 gallon port forward tank below.

These little balls of microbes are what love to clog up lift pumps, fuel lines and filters – usually at the absolute worst possible time such as the transition of a rough ocean inlet.

Because of the baffling in these tanks, there are considerable areas we can’t reach but with the last residues of fuel out of the tank we clean every surface we can with shop towels.

Now most of the tank looks clean enough to eat off of compared to where we started. From here we will keep any tanks not in use empty and continuously cycle fuel through them to prevent the residual fuel from going bad. Using this method we’ll also be polishing all of the fuel aboard continuously.

Two tanks down and two to go!