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Fuel tank dip stick

Jeff Vaughan

Well Known Member
There have been some questions regarding my RV 12 fuel tank dip stick
Here goes. I made it from 1/4? square stick a spruce rib material from my current Pober Jr. ace project. I rounded one end. The stick bends slightly when inserted and it will travel all the way to the bottom of the tank. When I calculated the fuel tank sender I made a mark at each 2 gallon increment. I used a black ball point pen. Recently I installed a new CIES sender so I had the side of the tank open and I took the photo below. Using the dip stick you can also very accurately adjust the RED cube fuel flow.
https://imgur.com/gallery/lc25Jvh
https://imgur.com/gallery/6GRLlJw
 
I use the wood dowel a lot. It is absolute, no chance for error. I always had a problem reading it on a second dip if it had not dried out completely.
My fix was to brush a thin coat of JB Weld, (slow set) on the dowel. A heat gun helps thin it out for a even coat. Once dried sand it smooth with #240 and put the measure marks on with a sharpie. The contrast of the gas on the JB Weld makes reading it extremely easy.
 
I question the accuracy of the 2 gallon mark at the bottom of your dip stick. The filler neck is positioned at the aft end of the fuel tank. The bottom of the tank is slanted toward the front side such that if only ~ 1 gallon of fuel is present it would be mostly distributed in the front portion of the tank and may not even wet the dip stick until additional fuel is added. I?m guessing at 1 gallon ? might be something less. So, the 0-2 gallon mark will be shorter than rest of the 2 gallon increments just because of the angle in the bottom of the tank. Once the dip stick is ?wetted? the incremental marks will be uniformly distributed. Can?t help myself ? retired engineer here?

 
if it was me [and there was a time when it was] i would want to start with my tank empty and make my own marks on my own dipstick s i filled it.
 
I just dip it with a length of translucent brake hose, put my thump over the end and see what the level is when I pull it out. I calibrated mine during initial tank fill at 5. 10, 15 and 20 gallons. The 20 gal mark puts you into the filler neck so the distance between 15 and 20 isn?t the same as the 5-10-15 intervals. It looks to me like once you get above the sloped bottom region the relationship is 1 gal=1?.
 
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