Does anyone have their gas tank and batteries in the same compartment? I need as much weight forward as possible but the only way to do it is to put my batteries in the same compartment as my gas tank. Think I'd need an extra fire extinguisher lol or would I be ok?

No problemo....

Just use some good quality cables....

I have mine under my front deck, but it's open. If I were you, I'd definitely put some kind of vents in there if you're gonna put that tank in the front compartment. I actually was thinkin that you had a built in tank right behind the deck. Is that just a step?

Lots of bass boats have batteries and fuel tanks in the same area together. I wouldn't worry about it.

Make SURE you vent that compartment.

I'd put the battery in a plastic box for extra saftey.

Are you running an onboard charger? The only time you should have any spark from the batteries is hooking and unhooking a charger. The enclosed battery boxes would be a safeguard. As mentioned above, this is done on bass boats all the time. You should be fine.

Camo thats my gun box. I wish my tank was built in. The compartment isn't sealed completely so hopefully I will be ok

Just make sure there's enough ventilation for the gas fumes to escape. Otherwise, best case scenario, you'll get a lil gas fume buzz when refueling or getting anything in/out of the storage. Worst case would be a lil arc from a loose battery cable & the front end of the boat says BOOM!!!

X2

That's what I'm worried about

You have been forewarned...heed the advice or possibly pay the price...

the bass boats are vented

When u say bass boats are vented are u referring to the compartment being vented or the tank?

The compartment is vented so the fumes will escape.

uscg rules any compartment that has any chance of fuel vapor must be vented , if the tank is the compartment then it does not have any room for vapors.

What constitutes vented? The compartment has a big lid that does not seal. Also the bottom across the back is open its about 3" high and the width of the boat. Think that's "vented" enough?

If you use a permenent tank you can run your fill an vent out the campartment. That should keep fumes out away from the battery

If your gas tank is going to vent into the compartment you are asking for trouble. Itsounds like it might be vented well enough while your traveling around, but when the boat is sitting for any amount of time the vapors will build to dangerous levels pretty quick. Permanent tanks are sometimes close to batteries or electrical, but the fumes are always vented outside of the boat due to coast guard regs.

on my last rig i had 2 batteries, onboard charger and a 12 gallon permanent tank all in the same compartment. at first with just a vent i could smell fumes in it all the time, so i bought a vent that you can run a hose from the tank to the vent and it pretty much got rid of all the fumes. i had one that was identical to the one in the link.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ACB-Boat ... iesQ5fGear

Well right now I just have the lil 6 gallon tank. Sounds like I need to get a permanent one with a vent I can run out the side of the hull. Anyone got a small one they wanna sell or places to check for one?

Wonder if you could take the plug out of the gas cap & somehow fasten a hose into it that you can run out of the compartment.

Those were my thoughts too Camo. I'm gonna check when I get home. Seems like I should be able to drill it out and thread it, right?

i may have to do that too, the vent on my gas tank wont work. i gotta crack open the gas cap every so often when im running.

Drilling the cap on a 6-gallon tank to put a fitting should work. Try to just drill the top so the internal backflow stuff in the cap may still work and keep gas out your vent. Will take a few minutes but will be well worth it.
Amarket.com used to have good prices on permanent tanks. It's an online "store" located in New Orleans area.

I have mine in the same compartment but installed an external vent for the gas tank. Like this, all fumes get expelled into the open air. I even have a Guest battery charger in that same compartment and haven't had any issues.

i would have a vent for that compartment if you have a slight leak , that would light off with that charger
when i said a vent was not talking about the tankif the tank is housed in a compartment that has room for other stuff it <the compartment needs to be vented > to the out side . yes some vent the tank out and it works but think of this all the coin your life , some one elses maybe , if ya roll the dice some times it comes up snake eyes .