Gas fumes in my boat make it unusable Help!

[Viper]

Source of the post .....Has anybody run their tanks that low on purpose?

Ya, lot's of people do when they've stopped boating and are selling their boat. As soon as the "For Sale" sign goes up there's very few if any trips to the gas dock. See it all the time. Also, rather than pay the costs of removal and repair, people will keep minimal fuel in a tank that has a leak higher up, usually a cracked welded seam. A sure sign of that is there's always a very obvious list/lean to the opposite side.

[Wsullivan71]

I had a similar problem this summer in my 2001 Carver 404. It was very frustrating. For the life of me I could not figure out where the smell was coming from. So one day I took the boat to fuel up and had my helper pump in the gas while I crawled through the bilges looking. Turned out that my auxiliary tank located just forward of the transom had a small leak at the weld seem in the bottom of the tank. Very hard to detect but I saw fuel dripping from the bottom of the tank when he was fueling it. I transferred all of the fuel out of that tank and no longer use it. Problem solved. I have two other tanks and don't go very far so I'm comfortable without it. From what I've read, the fuel tanks on the Carvers do not last long.