[drake33]

Playing the weight game on the boat I am building and cant decide where I want to put some bigger objects like the 3 troller batteries and gas tank. Plan on upgrading to yamaha 175 SHO which weighs 480 lbs. want run atleast 32 gallons of fuel. Where would some of you run the tank or troller batts. Even thinking possibly run two tank on port and starboard under cat walk. Any opinions?

 

[crfishhunter]

I would put the fuel cell mid way under council or just behind battery's you may have to play with

 

[drake33]

Im thinking about putting a 40 gallon tank right behind the front deck with is 6 ft. But didnt know if it make the boat to bow heavy.

 

[bowmandan]

Keep the gas tank at the back, batteries under enter counsel. Fish barells should counter the gas tank if fish barells are to the front. Don't weigh down the front end when empty as I would be worried about running in waves

 

[Magnolia Outdoors Guy]

The beauty of having your batteries beneath the console is compacting your electrical system and shortening the length of your circuits. I'd say the best place for your fuel tank is the place where the boat sits the same angle whether full or not. For most folks that's going to be about 2/3's or more back from the front, maybe beneath the console seat. Seems a boat with a shooting deck will need more weight rearward.

 

[eshaw]

Weight distribution depends a lot on the dimensions of your boat, for example, the length and width. If it were me I'd look at ones that were comparable to mine and see what their owners did to displace weight. When I built my boat I floated it with the weights I expected to use and took it from there. That's a big honkin engine for the transom. The gas tank would be best mounted towards the rear to keep gas lines short but if you're running a 30 gallon that's going to be a good bit of weight also.
I'd keep the batteries amid ship if it were me. I wouldn't permanently mount them until I could float it. If you're running a console they could be mounted there or in a forward compartment. It's going to depend a lot on how many people will be shooting, weight of the platform, etc.. If you're running lights will they be HPS? You'll have ballasts and their weight will be need to be considered. It's not that terrible much but it all adds up.
What I'm getting at is there are a ton of factors. You haven't mentioned whether or not you'll be running pods (I think I see them?) or a kicker. They'll need considered also.

 

[drake33]

Weight distribution depends a lot on the dimensions of your boat, for example, the length and width. If it were me I'd look at ones that were comparable to mine and see what their owners did to displace weight. When I built my boat I floated it with the weights I expected to use and took it from there. That's a big honkin engine for the transom. The gas tank would be best mounted towards the rear to keep gas lines short but if you're running a 30 gallon that's going to be a good bit of weight also.
I'd keep the batteries amid ship if it were me. I wouldn't permanently mount them until I could float it. If you're running a console they could be mounted there or in a forward compartment. It's going to depend a lot on how many people will be shooting, weight of the platform, etc.. If you're running lights will they be HPS? You'll have ballasts and their weight will be need to be considered. It's not that terrible much but it all adds up.
What I'm getting at is there are a ton of factors. You haven't mentioned whether or not you'll be running pods (I think I see them?) or a kicker. They'll need considered also.

Boat is 19'3" width is 60 on floor. No kicker on troller 36 volt. No pods.

Running hps but have remote ballast setup. Flush deck.

The boat will be general purpose used for bowfishing and fishing and hunting.

 

[Kajun]

I originally built and used a 33 gallon tank in my center console which is about 2/3rds of the boats length from the front. It worked well and didn't make any difference to how the boat sat or performed no matter how much fuel was in it. I did however need more weight in the back of the boat due to running a 140 / 4 cyl instead of the 150 / V6 that I had originally planned, so I had to build another tank and placed it under the fan deck.

 

[Magnolia Outdoors Guy]

This guy made a science out of it but it made my head hurt to read it: http://microship.com/balance-your-boat-with-a-center-of-gravity-database/

Basically, from what I gathered after looking at the above site and others, your desired center of gravity line should be the appropriate angle from bow to stern on your craft that provides a stable platform at drift while allowing your boat to quickly plane, not porpoise, and behave well when cutting power from plane. If your boat pops up on plane, porpoises, understeers, and rears like a wild horse when coming off plane, yawing at the front and water nearing the height of your transom, too much weight is in the back. If your bow plows water, is slow to plane, wets you when running, oversteers, & dives when coming off plane, too much weight in the front.

I put my boat in the water to mark the water line before the motor was installed but frankly, it floated so high on the water their was nothing to mark. If the plugs had not been at the bottom of corrugations, I could have pulled them in calm water and it wouldn't have sank. Trying it again after the motor was mounted I noticed it appeared that more of my bow was out of the water than I expected but when my brother and a buddy climbed aboard it and moved from back to front I noted the spot when the rise in my bow submerged and that's where I put a large battery bank that was approximately the same weight as the two of them together. I put centered the 28 gal fuel tank directly behind them. It seems to have worked out well. When looking at the faint water line marks on the boat the margins between them seem pretty consistent.

Like others, I would suggest trial and error by temporarily rigging your boat with batteries and portable fuel tanks and using a couple of buddies as ballast to give you an idea how your boat behaves with the weight distributed in different ways.