RDS Manufacturing - Perry Florida
Posted: Apr 17th, '17, 17:55
Anyone have any experience with RDS Manufacturing in Perry, FL. Hard to believe, but two boatyards here in Northern CA are suggesting them for an aluminum fuel tank.
I'm in Texas and I purchased a tank from RDS in 2012 for my Chris Craft 30 Tournament Sportfisherman. If I remember right it was about 210 gallons.
They manufactured it to my specifications (I sent them a detailed drawing) and I was pleased with the tank. They were not inexpensive but seemed like a good value for what they manufactured. I had it shipped to Texas but I had a fork truck available to unload at the shipping dock.
They were recommended to me by a fellow that lived a few canals over from me at the time. He had used them when he replaced the tank in his Bertram 28 and was happy with them. That guy was friends with the owner of a good sized and well respected marine service business in Rockport Texas farther down the coast and they had used RDS a lot and had recommended them as well. Keep in mind this was all 5 years ago, but I suspect they're doing about the same quality of work.
I live south of Houston Texas and I was surprised that living within an hour of Houston and Galveston that there wasn't a closer viable option, but based on what research I did at the time, RDS seemed like the best option.
I'm sorry I can't give you any feedback on how well it held up. Once I received the tank I was just about to re-install it when I wound up buying another house that was not on the water and I never got the fuel tank back in my boat.
I coated it with epoxy like Capt. Patrick suggests in the article in the "Captains Corner" tips... Capt. Pat and this web site helped me a lot on that project. If you haven't ran across the tips page, here is a short cut. http://www.bertram31.com/proj/tips/index.htm There is a good write up on fuel tanks there.
I guess I can give you a little feedback on how it's held up.... If you take your time, prep it correctly, epoxy coat it, and then set it in the back of your shop on a pallet next to your boat, it'll look new for years and years if you blow the dust off of it occasionally. Can't believe it's been on the hard for 5 years. Oh well, such is life.
Good luck.
Danny