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A nice big lorry would be my choice.

Whilst visiting the Nelson yesterday I picked up the March copy of towpath telegraph. An article inside was about a chap who has adapted a NB so that it is seaworthy. He has had a practice crossing the wash and intends to go to Liverpool wait for some nice weather and then go to Holyhead, after that he is going to wait for some more nice weather and cross to Dublin. It’s all for charity apparently. I wonder if there is anything the coastguard can do to stop him. We took our NB to Ireland but on the back of a lorry and the crossings we did by normal ferry and the high speed one would put anyone off even thinking a NB could make it.

Is the immersion heater your sole means to heat water? I'd forget about the Jackery...I know they are everywhere on Youtube but that's because all the vanlifers and narrowboat vloggers have been given them for free to 'review' (advertise really). Your boat with it's battery bank and solar is essentially a giant Jackery anyway. The best generator in your budget is a Honda EU22......powerful enough to easily power a 1kw immersion. It actually might be slightly over your budget these days, but you'll still be able to afford it if you don't buy a Jackery.

So where they CCing on about 100 hours a year, I do that in a month

Oh no there aren’t etc.

Nope. It's not the wasp's fault it annoys the hell out of me, but nobody suggests I should be swatted rather than the wasp. Well, maybe some do, but it's disproportionate (in my opinion, anyway). Shooting the owner still leaves the problem of the dog. Shooting the dog (and banning them from future ownership) removes the problem - usually the owners are perfectly nice people, they just think erroneously that their dogs are lovely, when they're not. Dog people usually have no concept of what their dogs are really like or how antisocial they are.

No. Freedom to do what you want as long as it does not put any 3rd party at risk.

Yes. I was wrong. The other posters are right. Mixed up my Shardlows and Sawleys. In my defence, they both begin with S!

Simple. Legal requirement that any dog found without an up to date chip with full home address and owner info is immediately put down. No fine, no rescue centre - they can concentrate on legally held dogs that an owner can no longer look after. Any complaint about dog misbehavour (nuisance barking etc) gets the dog scanned. You swat wasps when they are a nuisance. Most dogs are just bigger nuisances.

They come they go. On twatter tock tick and witter until you’ve been on for 45 years your’e a quitter. they keep a log buy a composting bog Shout on media about their ills quit when it wont pay the bills. the old farts with their listers Hands red with windlass blisters nod their grey heads and say wasn't like that in my day

Not if you were Bernard Matthews

Vauxhall Chevette - It's Whatever You Want it to Be!

I've a Kipor, which does ok but weighs a ton and isn't exactly quiet. Very reliable though - not been run for a year and started fifth pull yesterday. I don't think an immersion heater is an efficient way to heat your water while out and about, though. You'd be going through a fair bit of petrol.

In an absolutely ideal world, it does not matter. In the real world, "last" battery or arranged so the total of the number of positive steps from the main cable to any battery plus the number of negative steps from the main cable to any battery is the same for every battery. Even then most folks do not notice if they have a less than perfect set up. There are some diagrams on Gibbo's website and someone will be along with a linky. N

Dont forget the tie wrap

It used to be a regular trip for us - our boat mooring was in Holyhead and it was a 'Friday Evening" 3 hour trip (60 miles) to Dun laoghaire, Train into Dublin, then back to Holyhead Sunday afternoon and back home for work on Monday. On alternate weekends we'd nip up to the Isle-of-Man (60 miles - 3 hours) for the weekend. Diesel 28p litre in Holyhead Fish-Dock.

🤣 Thinking about it, probably not!

Why don't you buy a proper parts list and manual? BMC parts list have exploded views that are very helpful in seeing what you are dealing with. The skew gears have nothing to do with the injector pump apart from they provide the drive. You can take the pump off and put it back without touching the gears. One is machined onto the camshaft and think it also drives the oil pump. Saying the oil pump is outside tolerance without giving the supporting data might indicate they found wear in the drive gear which is part of the pump shaft. If they did the there is every chance the camshaft gear is worn and in turn the pump drive gear. In general terms if one part of a gear train is worn then the rest are likely to be as well. Just like the oil pump drive gear is part of it's drive shaft so the injection pump drive gear is part of the shaft that drives the injection pump. I have Rather suspect the pump drive shaft is forged, then the skew gear machined and finally the important parts are hardened. So, in the depths of the engine, above and to one side of the crankshaft is the camshaft. With the sump off you can visually inspect the skew gears but you would have to turn the camshaft so you can see all parts of all three gears. With the sump on to view the gears you would have to take the injection pump off, the pump mounting block off the engine and then draw the pump drive shaft. That will allow a close inspection of the gear on the drive shaft but you will need a torch and squinting down a hole in the block to view the gear on the camshaft. As all the gears are machined into their respective shafts there are no fixings or lock tabs. I am not 100% sure about the oil pump drive gear because of the age since I have had one out. It might be a press fit on the shaft with a key. It may of may not be retained by a cross pin. Careful inspection if the pump should show how it is fitted.

Hi NobbyHall, send me a private message and I will help you before you proceed This is a link for the starting: http://www.sky-net.org.uk/kelvin/articles/they_dont.html

Replying to SteveE's post..... I have met the gentlman you speak of, he pops into our health food shop in Rugeley and has been back again today. I am amazed since he certainly doesn't look the age that he is! He was telling me of his upbringing on the boat with his parents and siblings. The parents had the boatman's cabin and the children slept on top of the load in the boat. The worst and most uncomfortable load being coal. He used to ask his dad to travel up to pick up acid in carboys since this was the most comfortable load. The glass containers would be encased in strong wire cubes and packed with straw. They would pull the straw up so that it made an even and soft "mattress". I can fully understand his stance on modern boaters "they don't understand" since this way of life so many years ago was so difficult. Windy weather was the worse with his one brother on one side of the 40 tonne boat trying to stop it being blown across the cannal, whilst the other brother at the other side manned the barge pole stopping it hitting the side when it was blown the other way. Yes this man could not read or write. They were never in one place long enough for him to attend school. If he did, he would find himself put at he back of the class and largeley ignored. However, he was too essential to the family's living to be afforded school. He did learn to read and write when he joined the marines. I really do admire this chap since he has never stopped working throughout his life. His work being heavy manual work. He had to be tough to survive

In soft ground (especially if you can't use springs), the best way to use (four!) mooring spikes -- preferably with loops! -- is: -- if possible, position them so the rope from the boat stud is at least 45 degrees to the bank (ahead of bow stud, behind stern dolly) -- put the first spike in at right angles to the canal edge tilting away from it (as Alan described), with the loop facing away from the boat -- put the second spike in through the loop of the first one, parallel to the canal edge, tilted away from the boat midpoint with loop facing away (up/downstream) -- put the rope through *both* loops (with these behind the spikes, not in front) and tie back on the boat. Looked at from above, the two spikes form an "arrowhead" pointing away from the boat at 45 degrees, with the rope forming the "shaft" of the arrow towards the boat -- a bit like a dug-in anchor. Because they're both tilted away from the boat, they're difficult to pull out even under a lot of force -- normally in soft ground a spike tilts over and then pulls out, but here the other one helps to stop this. Having the loops facing away from the boat means the rope pulls on the (strong) spike, not the (weak) loop which can break the weld and detach it. Having the rope through both loops also makes it very difficult for vandals to pull either pin out, if they try and pull one spike out the other one stops it. The other key point is to get the ropes angled away from the boat by at least 45 degrees, maybe even a bit more (further away from boat). People often make the mistake of having the ropes closer to a right angle (straighter from boat to bank), but when a passing boat moves your boat backwards and forwards this leads to big tensions in the ropes (multiplied by 1/cos theta if you want to be picky...) and helps pull the spikes out. If there isn't enough space to run the ropes outwards away from the boat, they can also be run inwards but this is often difficult because the hull/cabin gets in the way and you fall over the ropes. Using springs is also good but single spikes are less resistant to pulling out, either in soft ground or by vandals. Of course if you have 8 spikes then double-spiked with springs is the bees knees... 🙂 I've never had spikes pull out when moored like this, even in soft ground. See drawing below...

https://www.moss-europe.co.uk/shop-by-model/mg/mgb-c-v8

I'm sure he's not the first but I remember a post from @IanD about using 2 pegs at angles through each other which, apart from mooring in total slop, makes it very hard for them to be removed by passing boats. And also difficult for passing miscreants, if knots are back on the boat. I.e. they can't easily pull your pin out.

That is not correct - 'perpendicular to' means at 90 degrees to. If you are below a high bank so your lines are actually coming 'down hill' having a mooring pin perpendicular to the line would mean that it is actually sloping towards you and the line could slide off the top of the pin, or once reaching a critical angle, would just pull the pin out of the ground. A mooring pin should be at an angle at least 30 degrees (45 degrees is better) away from the boat so the mooring line is pulling into the angle between the ground and the pin. The lower the boat is in relatation to the pin the more effort it will take to move it.

Have you ever steered a full length narrow boat . I mean a 72 foot ex working boat. They are a joy. The canal was built for them, they fit locks they fit landing stages and they boat well. The only issue is mooring as moderns are generally 57 ft. The only time we had wind issues was getting off the bank in a gale with the butty, and the motor bow up and clothed up. Our current motor has the bow down and will come off the bank with one hand while slab sided boats struggle. Of course you can’t go everywhere but where you can go a full length boat is by far the easiest. The canals were designed around 72 ft or so.

This is somewhat typical of many " redidents " in many locations. In our fabulous local riverside park there are nine dog bins, one every 50 yards ish. There are also a couple or three in town. The bins are emptied twice a day at best and never less than once a day, all year round. There is no council cost involvement to the council apart from poo bags and bin bags, equipment and disposal of said bags. Members of the local " residents " my wife included, dont spout off and moan on social meeja, they have a litter picking group who once a month visit various areas and remove rubbish. They also have a rota to clear the dog poo bins in the park when the park staff are not working. Its easy to set up such groups, our local councilor turns up and does the litter pick with residents every month and supplies yellow jackets, gloves etc. Same applies on canal boats, there are those that moan and groan about dirty areas and rubbish and there are those like " @Maffi"

In yesterday's episode in York he seemed to have left the boat on the mooring with 2 mooring lines coming from the centre of his roof as well as those from his bow and stern. He was later commenting on how the large river taxis rocked his boat as they passed.