need some expert advice

[LarryG]

I have a medical problem we wont go into.Heres what I need.Is there a way to ground a portable plastic gas tank, it weighs almost 50 lbs full, and that is far over my restriction. It is also in a cumbersome position in my boat. Thanks for the help.Ohby the way, the tank on my riding mower is also plastic, and there is no warning attached to it, why?

[Tyme2fish]

I'm no expert and no electrician but here's my idea. Could you attach (duct tape) a wire to the tank and then ground same wire to the trailer frame to dissipate the static charge?

[CTFSHWHISKER]

your mower tank is probably held down by bolts that go into the frame.use a shortest sheetmatal screw and a piece of auto eletric wire,crimp a small eye on the ends.

[Moose1am]

I have an antistatic mat for my computer. It has a grounding wire attached to the corner of the mat. I wonder if you could get one of these and put it under your plastic gas tank on the floor of your boat and then ground the mat to the boat somewhere?

Plastic may not conduct electricity very well. Most plastics are used as insulating material. We put plastic and rubber over the top of wires to insulate them.

But maybe just maybe any static electricity on the tank could be bleed off though the grounding mat.

I would not make any holes in the plastic gas tank. Remember that the tank may be under pressure in the hot summer months and you would not want gas fume coming out of the tank into a unvented storage compartment of your boat. If you get the right amount of fumes in the compartment and the right amount of oxygen and then get a spark it could blow up.

I use the 6 gallon metal gas tanks in my boat. I like metal better than plastic for some reason. I never thought about grounding my gas tank though.

I have a medical problem we wont go into.Heres what I need.Is there a way to ground a portable plastic gas tank, it weighs almost 50 lbs full, and that is far over my restriction. It is also in a cumbersome position in my boat. Thanks for the help.Ohby the way, the tank on my riding mower is also plastic, and there is no warning attached to it, why?

[HURRICANEBOB]

This might help, the boating safety folks say in some cases you SHOULD NOT ground a plastic gas tank, here's teh article:

Plastic Fuel Fill Grounding



Recent events have caused the boating industry to examine the policy regarding the bonding of plastic body fuel fills with metallic caps and retaining chains. Existing USCG & ABYC policy states that the bonding of these components is voluntary. A study by IMANNA Laboratories has shown that connecting the metallic retaining chain and cap of a plastic body fuel fill assembly to a boats bonding system may result in electrostatic discharge from a land-based fuel pump nozzle to the metallic components of the assembly when the boat is not in the water. This condition does not exist when the boat is in the water due to the equalizations of the ground potentials between the fuel pump nozzle and the boat’s bonding system.

It is recommended by ABYC and the USCG that new installations of this type of fuel fill assembly DO NOT INCLUDE any attachment to the boats bonding system. The U.S. Coast Guard and ABYC still require that METALLIC body fuel fills be bonded. There have been no reported explosions or fires resulting from this phenomenon. Therefore no substantial risk of personal injury to the public exists, and formal defect notification (recall) by boat and/or equipment manufacturers is not required by the Coast Guard in this case. The ABYC Project Technical Committee has included this topic in the soon to be published H-24 Gasoline Fuel Systems on Boats that eliminates the bonding connection for plastic body fuel fills with metallic caps and retaining chains.

For further information contact:

John Adey, ABYC (410) 956-1050 ex, 29 [email protected]

[artcarney_agr]

Do new Rangers come with metal caps? My 2000 Ranger has a plastic one and now that I recall, I can't remember seeing any of the new ones with a metal cap...is the artcile above the reason why? As a matter of fact, I don't remember any jet-ski having a metal one either! When was that article published?