How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

[Kevinsheehy]

I am buying a 19' Bayliner Capri with a Volvo Penta I/O engine and I am just curious on what I would expect a full day on the lake of cruising and wakeboarding would use in gallons of gas. REAL ROUGH guesses are fine, Just trying to get an idea if I fill up the 30 gallon tank in the morning if I would have a full day of fun without too much worry. I know it sounds stupid but I know nothing about boats and just trying to get a decent baseline of info before I go out.

 

[Lrider]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

if you play hard 2 tanks min boats do not get great mpg

 

[H20Rat]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

A full day, as in 8 hours engine run time or close to it? You will easily burn through that tank and probably a second.

As a GENERAL rule of thumb, take your horsepower, divide it by 10. That is the max gallons per hour you will burn at full throttle. Just cruising isn't bad, you might be half that or less, wakeboarding can suck some gas though.

 

[Kevinsheehy]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

Interesting, Appreciate the info

 

[jkust]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

I am buying a 19' Bayliner Capri with a Volvo Penta I/O engine and I am just curious on what I would expect a full day on the lake of cruising and wakeboarding would use in gallons of gas. REAL ROUGH guesses are fine, Just trying to get an idea if I fill up the 30 gallon tank in the morning if I would have a full day of fun without too much worry. I know it sounds stupid but I know nothing about boats and just trying to get a decent baseline of info before I go out.

The Volvo comes in more than one size. A v8 will use more gas than a v6 etc. What HP engine is it? What year is it? I assume it is an older boat given the relationship with Mercruiser.

 

[Lrider]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

Wow don't know what hp Volvo's are but it sounds about right. my buddies 150 gets about 4 hours from his 60 gal tank - he does play hard - full throttle or no throttle no middle for him

 

[Kevinsheehy]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

The boat is a 1984 and not sure of the engine year, I think it says 270 volvo on the back of the boat

 

[Lrider]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

if you search the forums you will find a lot about 80's volvos

 

[hazmat5760]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

Ouch. That means I wouldn't even get 2 hours out of my 42 gallon tank if I played at full throttle the whole time.

 

[brick75]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

It really depends on your own situation. Most people will find a nice beach to hang out on for a good part of the day, and go out a few times to wakeboard/tube for maybe an hour or so each time. I couldn't imagine having 8+ hours of actual run time on a boat in a day, but I suppose some people might do it.

With the V6 I had, I could do this type of day on 10 gallons easily. I didn't have to travel too far from the ramp to beach though. What really burns the gas is when you're cruising a higher speeds for long periods of time (especially if you have a V8).

 

[H20Rat]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

The Volvo comes in more than one size. A v8 will use more gas than a v6 etc. What HP engine is it? What year is it? I assume it is an older boat given the relationship with Mercruiser.

there was a recent comparison (boattest?) that did identical boats, with various engine configs. Turns out that in most cases, the bigger engines got BETTER mileage at identical cruising speeds. Obviously the bigger engine is going to burn more at WOT, but at less than that, that rule doesn't apply.

Problem is that if you have more power, you tend to use it!

 

[reap182]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

Depends on the amount of people (and weight of said) in the boat also. Along with coolers,bags, etc....

 

[jkust]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

there was a recent comparison (boattest?) that did identical boats, with various engine configs. Turns out that in most cases, the bigger engines got BETTER mileage at identical cruising speeds. Obviously the bigger engine is going to burn more at WOT, but at less than that, that rule doesn't apply.

Problem is that if you have more power, you tend to use it!

Thanks I realize that having seen these comparison's for the 4 cylinders vs 6 cylinders in response to the many threads claiming justification for the 3.0 vs the 4.3 is better mileage when reality disproves it. I haven't seen that comparison for the 6 vs the 8 cylinder so that is why I mentioned it plus a v8 could be a small 5.0 or a big block 454. I figured that if at any time you'd see the poorer mileage with a v8 it'd be when playing around.

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

I had my 20' chaparral out yesterday with wife two daughters and their two friends, I pulled those girls two at a time on a large tube till they had enough then cruised to the marina for ice cream, tooled around for a while at dusk and then trailered and headed for home, my arm was actually getting fatigued from working the throttle, I used not quite half a 30gal tank and that's with a V8! Don't know how many hrs. but I do know I'm beat, was on the water around 5 off about dusk, so yea 30 gal. is plenty for what I do.

 

[AZBoatDreamer]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

FWIW. For the Very short time I owned my Boat we only Ski, Tube, WakeBoard for an hour each 1 day outing and we had enough. The rest of the time we are Swimming around relaxing. Water Sports takes alot out of a person and couldn't image going at it 8 hours even with alot of people in a boat.

 

[dirtyoldman]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

FWIW. For the Very short time I owned my Boat we only Ski, Tube, WakeBoard for an hour each 1 day outing and we had enough. The rest of the time we are Swimming around relaxing. Water Sports takes alot out of a person and couldn't image going at it 8 hours even with alot of people in a boat.

I think it depends a lot on the person and location. Around here, we have small lakes and don't spend but ten minutes getting anywhere in the lake. Like you said, watersports wears people out. I took the family out a day and a half this weekend and we didn't burn through ten gallons both days.

 

[Lrider]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

Been reading the posts here, one of the things I noticed is that it appears that most of the boats here have less than 40 gal tanks - maybe I am wrong

My boat is 17.5 ft weighs about 1500 dry has a 88 hp engine, rated to 125 hp and

Has a 65 gallon tank

wow

 

[Hansolo99]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

I have a 4.3 in my 19 footer and I can tell you I use maybe 1/2-3/4 tank at the most and we wakeboard all day. Of course I am easy on the throttle. The more gas I give the more I waste..........

 

[riptide09]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

Johnson V4 115 HP Outboard. (2 stroke, carbs) I kept track a few weeks ago so I would have an idea. This weekend, Memorial Day, would have been a good time but due to my son using and gassing up the boat in addition to myself there were no records kept.

3 hours at 2200 - 2500 RPM - 11.06 gallons.

1 hour at 2200 - 2500 RPM and 1 hours at about 4000 RPM - 8.6 gallons.

In each case 4 adults in boat, cooler of drinks/ice and that was about it.

 

[northernmerc]

Re: How much GAS would I use on in a day on the lake

Many of the horror stories above sound about right for outboards, not for inboards.

We have a 4.3 Mercruiser on an 18 1/2 SeaRay. The tank is less than 20 gallons, and I don't think we have ever used a full tank in a day in the 18 years that we have owned it. A tank will last many days of several hours a day use.