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I just bought a 1989 outrage 22. Instead of having the rear livewell in the hull cavity, the fuel tank extends all the way back to about 6" forward of the splashwell. I aske the seller about this and he said this is the "larger fuel tank option". He said the larger 70 gallon tank (instead of 45gal) takes up the space where the livewell normally is. Has anyone seen an outrage like this before, or did the previous owner do a modification?
I have caulked all floor seams and I still get water in the tank cavity (where the livewell normally is) when I wash the boat or it rains. There is a rule 500 auto bilge pump installed in the cavity, so I can get most of the water out (although I would prefer a dry-bilge system with a pump mounted on the gunnel). Any ideas where the water comes from? I would figure it would flow down the channels on either side of the cavity and go into the two side sumps and out the drains.
The 22 foot Whalers came standard with a 77 gallon fuel tank. The optional Extra Capacity Tank was 129 gallons and was fit to the hull by using the space in the live well as you describe.
The extra capacity is nice but the center of gravity of these boat is shifted sternward quite a bit so you need to be more careful about the weight in the stern. Ironically, it was 22s with twins that often needed the extra fuel capacity but because the extra weight they suffered from stern squat, water over the transom and sometimes an annoying porpoising.
Thanks for the info, gents. I just spent a bunch of time ove the last couple months moving the batteries from inside the console to the stern area. Might not have been a good idea from a weight distribution perspective, but servicability and storage are dramatically improved with the batteries in the stern. Took it out last night for a test drive and it rode great with 1/2 a tank.
I'm still frustrated by the water getting into the fuel tank cavity, but any solutions involving a major tear-apart will have to wait until the fish are gone for winter!
This is a most excellent article by Jeff that shows what lies beneath.
I know you have the larger tank that extends into the fish box, but you can see by looking at the channels beneath the floor why you get rain water in there.
There are two pages so make sure you go to the second page for his solution.
