www.iFourWinns.com

We would like to look into adding a fuel flow gauge for our 318vista cruiser. Is this a complicated installation? And is it costly to have installed? I have heard that Floscan is the gauge to buy. Any thoughts?

Floscan seem to be the most accurate. Lowrance and Northstar also make some good units.
It's not a real difficult installation. You should have two meters for your 318.
It’s tempting to install one and simply double the flow, but this does more harm then good. You won’t know if the engines aren’t synched up properly, you won’t know if one’s burning more fuel then the other because of mechanical issues, and you may be deceived into thinking there’s more (or less) fuel aboard then there really is.

Here is an install of a Standard Horizon (Navman clone) meter on a Four Winns.(Courtest of Vista Al and his old 268)
http://www.boat-project.com/electro/proj-6.htm

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

Thanks very much. It sounds like a project to be handled by someone who has done this before.

It really is not that difficult. The Navman 3100 (Northstar F310) can read a twin engine application on just one monitor with appropriate cable.

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

Some GPS units have fuel flow meters you can add on. I have a Garmin and I added one through the can-net, cost about 200.00 (per engine). I was going to do a flowscan but its nice to have everything on the GPS display, plus I wired it into the fuel gauge so if I forget to add fuel manually when I put it in I can use the gauge reading to add the fuel.

Its pretty nice and after a few tanks of fuel its surpringly accurate, took me about an hour to run the wires to the GPS and splice the sensor in the fuel line.

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2006 Vista 248 5.7DP - SOLD
2011 Crownline E6 - SOLD
2007 Sea Ray 260 Sundancer

I have been considering one of these....



West marine (USA) has them on sale for $400 unfortunately you need to buy two transducers and all the other sensors you would like to add. I think the best bang for your buck is to buy a chartplotter that will take a fuel signal from a sensor.

Here's the link for more details
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=288&pID=11625

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Marc, Kathlin & Nathalie


'89 Chaparral Laser 32

'93 Vista 245, 5.8L w/ King Cobra

Former Boats
'01 H260, 7.4 VP Duoprop
'98 H200, 5.0 GL w/VP SX drive

There are two approaches to automatically determining your fuel flow - reading the data from the engines which electronically "estimates" the fuel flow and using fuel flow sensors (the method used for Floscan-like devices) which mechanically measures fuel flow. Technically, the mechanical method should be more accurate but I believe any difference would be negligible. I have my engine data interfaced with my NMEA 2000 network and can display the info on my E-80 or ST-70 displays. There are many ways to go to get the info on your helm (as we've already seen in this thread). Do a search, but here are a couple of other threads worth reviewing:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2367
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1748
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=2991

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Previously:
2008 V358/Volvo 5.7 GXi Inboards

[quote="millhaven_nice_guy"I think the best bang for your buck is to buy a chartplotter that will take a fuel signal from a sensor.[/quote]

I disagree. Because there's not enough room on most chartplotters to waste showing this data. That and several of the fuel gauges have the ability to track consumption and calculate mileage and more. The chartplotter will only show the current flow rates, that's it.

Better to get a separate gauge with fuel management features. I've got a lowrance setup and it's worked decently.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

[quote The chartplotter will only show the current flow rates, that's it.[/quote]

A bit of a generalisation; my Navman 5600 can display not only flow rate, but also consumption per nautical mile ( or km, or statute mile), range remaining, fuel level in the tank, total fuel used since last reset.

Graham

Na, even the cheap 530 Garmin and flow meter I have shows GPH, MPG, distance, fuel remaining etc and you can even wire in the boats fuel gauge to it (I did that and it works OK if you calibrate it correctly).

Its nice to pull up to the fuel dock and say 'I need 29.7 gallns of fuel' and know its full without taking the chance of fuel blowing baack. As far as screen real estate two quick pushes of a button turns off all the numbers. Plus I dont need any more add-on gauges, have plenty already..

Even with the numbers on you can still see enough to know where you are going:

I prefer using the limited screen resolution for showing charts and more useful data like depth, time, lat/lon. Some plotters make it easier than others to swap things around but I prefer to not do that underway. I also like having the fuel data visible. So for me it was a smart choice to get a separate display. The display can also show more than just fuel data (all network data can be shown). When on the hook I usually leave a page on it that shows either the time or the depth & temp. I have the various sensors and gauge on a separate breaker from it. This way I can shut off the chartplotter and save the battery drain. If we're on the hook and swimming the depth/temp page answers the questions for my wife, saving me from looking it up, again, and again...

The nice part is there are choices here. With networked sensors like these you can set it up any number of different ways. You can often mix-and-match the components too. Bearing in mind most sensors will *require* you use a display from the same vendor to set them up. But once set up you can show the data on just about any network compatible display. I've got the E-80 chartplotter and the Lowrance LMF-200 displays at the helm and then a Raymarine ST60+ down in the cabin (showing depth/time/temp). All capable of showing all of the sensor values.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

How does a generator drawing from the tank effect the fuel flow meter? I assume it will have some effect, most noticably on the fuel remaining unless there is a way to wire the generator fuel line in?

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2007 358 T-5.7GXi IB
Previous Boats
'08 H240, '08 V318, '04 268, '04 225

Hi

I would look into the Lowrance, not as good as Garmin, but it work for less$$$. It can display 2 engines at the same time. I have had the Navman type, the flow sensor must must be installed vertically. Also it kept defaulting to liters.

I would just and a flow sensor to the generator's fuel line. With Lowreance, you can have up to 4 enginges. I am not sure of the others.

Does a spell checker come with the Lowrance ?

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy