Rob99fla

Many thanks for this. I think this is what has happened to my engine. I have the gasket and bolts plus a water pump gasket. My friend and I plan to do the job in a few weeks once I reach my safe winter mooring. I can use the boat with the cap off and keep an eye on water levels as I still need three days to get to Warwick (winter mooring). Good news about the head but we may get it checked and skimmed too. Will check water pump too. The engine has done just 2600 hours. The angle gauge is for the head bolts, right? Thanks for a great reply. Cheers. Rob

HI. Can anyone help? My boat has am Isuzu 42. It has been diagnosed by RCR (two engineers now) as having a leaking head gasket. The water will boil over when the engine works harder and the system keeps getting full of air (exhaust gas I assume). I am trying to source a head gasket and head bolts. Does anyone know of a place to get these and at a decent price? I have heard that the right parts can be available cheaper at motor factors if you know the part numbers instead of using chandlers where the price seems to hiked. Thanks in advance Rob

Going on my first trip down the Thames from Oxford to Brentford and up the GU. Got The River Thames Book and the map. Any good tips or advice would be appreciated. Bit worried about beyond Teddington lock and the tidal part but perhaps I'm being a wus pants. It's a 45' NB with a good 36 hp Lister engine. Have and anchor and life jackets but never used either yet. The boat is so equipped as it used to go on the river Trent earlier in its life. Reading about tides but already I'm confused! Done a few miles of canals so can handle the boat fairly well. Anyway, all help gratefully received. Rob

Hurry, Hurry. Look here on Ebay. Just bought 2. One for the boat and one for my mum (who has a dog and and getting on a bit now) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180996822391?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649 Rob

Hi. The panels arrived yesterday from Germany. Opened one and it looks fine. So, that part is done. Just need the controller to be delivered now and finally fit to the boat. Might wait until spring now. Hope this helps. Rob

Will let you know Les. I won't be fitting for a little while but will set up at to check the winter sun! I don't think we realise how much things cost from China. We judge all prices by our expensive Western standards. Best of luck Rob

Have you thought about a Henry. The newest model, http://www.numatic.co.uk/products4.aspx has an energy saving mode of 600W. In fact, it always starts in 600W mode. The power of a Henry is excellent, even in low power 600W mode. I use one with my 1200W Inverter with no problems. I suspect they work great on dog hairs and the build quality is excellent too. You can keep your very expensive Dyson's although I am a great admirer of James Dyson for marketing and selling (what I think) a grossly overpriced vacuum cleaner. Also, whenever I see office cleaners at work, they mostly seem to use Numatic vacuums (Henry's etc) with never a Dyson in site.

I have just bought 2 x 100W panels fro Ebay from this site:- http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150919722614#ht_3194wt_1182 and a Tracer MPPT 20A from here:- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20A-MPPT-Solar-Regulator-150V-PV-input-Battery-Charger-260W-520W-W-Meter-MT-5-/150920649768?pt=UK_Gadgets&hash=item2323925c28#ht_10035wt_1016 Total cost including carriage? Less than £210 the lot. I have not received them yet but both are marked as shipped and both sellers have a great rating so lets see if all is OK. Im my experience, Ebay is fine as long as the seller has a very good rating. I am sure someone is going to tell me they are not as good as other panels but I bet they are as I suspect many are now made in China these days like everything else. The same controller and similar panels from Midsummer Energy is £448. Nice profit if you can get it! I am going to replace an existing Siemens 80W panel a good few years old, I think with a standard type controller. I am hoping this setup will keep the batteries going for 3-4 days when moored up instead of the 2 days now. Just a point about Chinese products. I work in the CCTV industry. We buy CCTV lenses direct from a Chinese factory. They have been going since 1958. The lenses are very good quality and they have a good range of up to date lenses. We buy lenses for around £5-£15. The equivalent price here would be £40-£120 for basically the same thing and I suspect actually the same thing re-badged. Anyway, I will see how it goes. Rob

Many thanks for the re-assuring reply. I thought that the £4.5K was far too high. I think they might have taken advantage of the guys little knowledge. With regard to my oil. I am sure its the correct Lister oil that has been used throughout. The last owner was almost excessive about oil changes. Perhaps I'm exaggerating a little about the clean oil. I mean its not completely black. I love the engine even more now. Many thanks. Rob

Hello. My narrowboat, Beatrice, has a Lister LPWS4. It is a cracking little engine and has done around 2600 hours since new in 1996. I do know that the oil has been changed every 100 hours from new using genuine Lister oil and filters. So, the engine run lovely, uses no oil and even the oil looks clean between changes. I have noticed that in the manual, there are some builds of these engines that have 100 hour oil change and some builds have 250 oil change. I have no plans to change oil any less often but this is what happened. I met a full timer a week or so back in Warwick. We discussed engines as you do. He admitted he did not do engines himself but had servicing done for him. It seems we had exactly the same engine and build number which was build 047. His oil had only been changed at 250 hours from new. The engine had done over 8000 hours but needed a complete rebuild at 6000 hours costing over £4K (eekk!) So, can anyone explain why the builds of the engine have such a large difference in oil change intervals? By the way, I plan to keep changing my oil at 100 hours but I will use Golden Film (for canal boat engines)

I have only had my boat a year. It has the Thetford 200 flushing fresh water. I fitted a new seat when we got the boat. I gave it a clean but it was immaculate anyway. At first I tried the bio type fluids. Despite the claims, it did smell a bit after a days or so (it lasts about 2-3 days when we are both aboard). I changed to standard fluid and this worked better. I sometimes use a little more that directed though. But, this is the thing. We did still have a bit of a smell before the carpet was taken up in the bathroom and replaced with vinyl. (This was fitted by the excellent Mike Jerome Carpets of Southam, by the way) He took the Thetford out and fitted vinyl underneath and everything was siliconed at the edges. Guess what? We no longer have any smell whatsoever. We have just spent 3 weeks aboard with no smell. My partner has a very sensitive nose but she had no complaints. So, perhaps if there are smells, it might be worth looking under and around the loo itself Cheers Rob

Thanks for that interesting and useful information. The reason I am using the 3G router is being able to use the laptop with no ties anywhere on the boat (i.e. wifi) I am also planning to fit a CCTV camera for remote viewing and having a decent router makes this possible or at least easier to access. Out of interest, I picked up Three 3G Data SIMS on Ebay at a company called PrePaymania for £12.50 inc. postage. They were 3 GB for 3 months. The normal cost in the Three shop is £20.50. Might help if you dont require a contract or want to test one out.

Hi. I use a 3G Router. It is made by Teltonika and is a professional product. Available here:- http://www.3grouterstore.co.uk/3G/Teltonika_RUT-105_HSUPA_3G_Router.html This solution does cost more to set up but after that, its only the 3G SIM you need on any network. I am using (testing really) a Three data SIM at Napton Marina. I have an external antenna on the roof (6DB gain) and get a great signal and good, reliable speed. As a comparison, I have to stand on the roof to use my iPhone on Vodafone. I did also use the same setup on our trip up from Oxford and am positive I had a connection all the way. Perhaps this will help someone.

I have an account with a wholesaler but this looks OK and prices OK too:- http://www.alertelectrical.com/prod/133/scantronic-7-zone-panel-cw-on-board-keypad Not my sounder but these are loud http://www.alertelectrical.com/prod/1618/quadruple-piezo-sound-bomb-or-internal-sounder This is a dual-tech detector. Almost nil chance of false alarms (as long as located correctly) http://www.alertelectrical.com/prod/2431/scantronic-480-commercial-twintec-detector Door contacts (surface type) http://www.alertelectrical.com/prod/1129/burglar-alarm-surface-contact-brown Alarm cable on the same site. There are complete kits available but they contain an external sounder with extra current drain and who wants one of those on a narrow boat? I still think a loud internal sounder is best. The wiring on a basic alarm is fairly easy. The installation manual with the Scantronic is very good. The hard bit is concealing the wiring to make a neat job. One way is to remove parts of the panelling and use rods to push the cable through. If the alarm panel were in a cupboard one end, you would need to run a cable right to the other end if the doors were to be fitted with contacts. I would not recommend wireless alarms in a boat but other might have used them OK. I was lucky as a previous owner had already run a cable end to end for an old alarm (disconnected when I bought the boat) I just power mine straight from the boat battery power and connect to where the back up battery connects on the alarm panel. This does make the AC light flash on the panel but this does not affect operation on this panel. I am planning to use a small inverter to power the 240v side but have not got round to it yet. As for location of the dual tech sensor. Perhaps above the bow doors looking straight down the boat on in one corner but not mounted at 45 degrees. At an angle but looking more down the boat. I will enclose some photos when I next visit the boat. The microwave part detects movement toward and away from the detector whilst the PIR part detects movement across. Both can be adjusted so experiment by checking the LED when moving. Note: When you have not moved for perhaps 20-30 seconds, it takes more movement to trigger the LED (in alarm) again. Most dual-techs have dual colour LED's to assist setup. Once setup, they are very reliable. Even a hot stove that might set off the PIR side will not set off the microwave side but avoid looking at the stove if possible. If the stove were in the centre of the boat, perhaps a detector each side. I am happy to help where I can so just ask.

I can not agree with you there. A professional alarm (domestic or commercial - doesn't matter) must run on back up battery for at least 24 hours to comply with regulations. Actually, I believe the latest EU regulations are for a lot longer but we no longer do alarms so are a bit out of touch. Anyway, a 2.0 amp hour batter will easily keep a couple of PIR's going fo 24 hours or more so the battery on the boat will last for ages. I also have the front and back (Ok, bow and stern) fitted with magnetic contacts so no current drain there. An external sounder which would have flashing LED's does, of course, drain a battery more quickly. I have a Scantronic 9448 panel and an Optex dual technology sensor fitted. A dual-tech, as they are called, are higher current consumption than a standard PIR but less prone to false alarms (although a decent PIR such as Optex should almost never false alarm anyway). I have no external sounder so no current is drawn from that. I do, however, haver a very loud internal sounder which would scare the sh**t out of an intruder. My experience of alarms over the years is the intruder hates internal sounders as it is then impossible to know what is going on outside (ie the plod running down the towpath) Anyway, the proof as they say, is in the pudding. I leave my alarm on every time I leave the boat. I have left it for nearly three weeks. I also have, to be fair, an 80w solar panel and I turn everything else off. When I return to the boat, the batteries are nearly fully charged, even if they were a bit down when I left so so much for draining the batteries. By the way, I have never had a fasle alarm. I think cheap alarms are unreliable so you might end up turning them off. Hope this helps someone.

I know this probably sounds daft but how level should a boat be in the water. My boat, a 46 feet traditional, 1996 has 2 x 56 lb trimming weights on the starboard side. One in the kitchen cupboard and one in the engine bay. I was told these are to compensate for the equipment down the port side. When we moor up, there is a very slight lean to port. A pencil will roll down a table as an example. Now I know a boat floats on water and moves around, of course, but could I need another trimming weight (large lump of lead?) on the starboard side. If all of this this is just my naivety with narrowboats, everyone can have a good laugh as I don't mind.

I have some solar panels to fit soon. The existing aluminium frame is fixed with pop rivets and has been there many years so I guess pop rivet it is. I need to take cables from one panel to the next. I have seen profiled self adhesive trunking (sort of half moon shape and shallow). Perhaps some of this between the two panels? What I plan to do then is use a mastic bead between the roof and the trunking (the self adhesive tape raises the trunking off the roof a tiny bit). We do this on dry land as we install CCTV cables for what seems like a lifetime! I will then paint the trunking the same colour as the roof. I fitted an aerial cable. I used a light fitting to gain access to the inside where I threaded the cable through the roof lining by taking off the screws. Tricky but a completely hidden cable. Anyway, where I drilled the roof, I made it the same size as the cable and sealed with silicon. I thought a grommet would be too large a hole. There are a number of professional type self adhesive pads available. I have seen some in B&Q again. A red backing. These are very strong. Hope any of this helps.

Saw Dragons Den but only caught the end of this one. Seems like I have met this woman. Apparently, wait for it, she is the daughter-in-law of my father-in-law's sister and we met at a 70th last year. The difference with this product is that it contains special granules that completely absorb all moisture from the, no other word for it, poo and wee. Link to site is here:- http://www.boginabag.co.uk/ The Dragons are a clever lot so I suspect this product has it. I just love the pictures on the web site of people with no faces with their trousers down. You could get arrested for that down my way! Still prefer my Thetford but it doesn't fit in the rucksack so easily.

Having just installed a TV on the boat which had no aerial installed I took a chance on one of these:- http://www.parkmyauto.co.uk/parkmyauto-best-motorhome-caravan-boats-portable-indoor-outdoor-tv-aerial-arial-ariel-858-p.asp The thing is, it works just fine. I even split it using an F-splitter (so I can also use it for my DAB) from Toolstation:- http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Electrical/TV+Satellite/Wideband+TV+Satellite+Splitter+2+Way/d190/sd3084/p66100 Moored on the outskirts of Oxford near Yarnton. The area has not switched over to Freeview yet but all channels tuned in OK. Analogue pretty good too. Anyway, I am happy so far. Have yet to try in other areas but feedback from other users is very encouraging. Saw this too:- http://www.ybw.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-239615.html

Many thanks for the quick and exact reply. I will T across the 22mm pipes then. I suspected this would be the best option.

My NB has an Alde Comfort boiler in the tall cupboard with 22mm pipe around the boat. This is the usual aluminium fins around the pipe in the living areas at floor level. When I look at the boiler there is the usual flow and return pipe to the calorifier at which point the 22mm pipe then goes around the boat and back to the boiler. This is my question:- I want to fit a small chrome tower radiator in the bathroom. I managed to pick one up in Homebase for £5 just the right size. It can go on the side of the bathroom cabinet. In the cabinet, the 22mm flow and return pipes are easily accessible to cut into to fit the new rad. I was going to use plastic push fit. Now, would it be best to put the radiator across the flow and return and then control the heat to the radiator by the lock shield valve to just allow a little flow through the radiator and not upset the flow around the system or divert the flow pipe through the radiator (flow into the radiator then back out to continue the flow around the system) The problem here I see is that the 22mm pipe will be reduced to 15mm when it goes through the radiator valves, reducing the flow around the system. I want to do this before winter sets in as I dont fancy a cold bathroom. Any ideas wold be appreciated. I have a reasonably good knowledge of CH systems as I have installed a couple in my home over the years.

Mine did seem to leak oil for the first few hours. As I understand it, the generators are all filled with oil and run for a while before shipment. By this, I mean in the UK at the importers. The oil is then emptied out so they can be shipped to the end user. There is a special spout to empty the oil but I dont think they use this as it is sealed in the bag of bits. Therefore, when emptying the oil, some leaks down into the plastic case. This leaks out gradually for the first few hours. I found this out by ringing the dealer (GenpowerUK, the importer). It is fine now. Also, I had the no starting problem. This was caused by the spark plug cap (metal) coming loose. I pushed it on firmly and no problem since. To start this genny, you do need to carry out a procedure. Petrol tap on (of course), push the priming bulb around 20-30 times, choke full on the a good pull. This starts the genny on the first pull, in the main. I always leave it to run completely out of fuel and this procedure still works. If you start from hot, do the same thing but less choke. I have now used the generator for about a month now and have found it works well. I use it to heat the water by immersion (240v, 1kw) and to charge the battery (Mastervolt 40a charger). Once the immersion cuts out after about 1.5 hours on a 15L hot tank, the genny slows down to the lowest speed when only charging the batteries. At this low speed, it is very quiet. I have often thought it had cut out, to be honest. I also use the Henry vacuum (on 600w setting - best vacuum for a NB, in my opinion) when the genny is on but this also works fine on the inverter anyway. As said before, the Honda is probably better if you have 1K to spend. Dont knock Korean or Chinese stuff. Remember how people laughed at Japanese motorcycles in the 60's. Who has had the last laugh. Off subject, but Triumph make some cracking motorcycles these days. In my experience, Korean goods are second to none (Samsung, LG) and even Chinese goods are more than often excellent quality. Anyway, I hope this helps a few people that might consider this genny.

Hi. I have a Siemens SM55 55w solar panel with a Solsum 8.8 (8 amp) solar charge controller. This I inherited on my NB Beatrice, recently purchased. I was thinking of upgrading the solar panels to a single 100w or perhaps 2 x 100w. I might even just add a 100w to the existing panel. The question is, could I use the same controller and just add the new panel in parallel ? The solar controller just has 4 wires connected. One pair to the panel and one pair to the battery bank. Any advice appreciated. I would really like to keep the batteries topped up when away from hook up. I have a 12v fridge, stip type lights, usual water pumps and an inverter I normally use for a few hours TV (LG LED 240v) and charging computers etc. Thanks in advance Rob

I have just bought an LG 19LE3300 from here:- http://stores.ebay.co.uk/3monkeys/LED-/_i.html?_fsub=2613218011&_sid=1033984451&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322 Not tried on the boat yet but an excellent picture and good sound. Received quickly and company has a great Ebay rating. I bought an LED, thinking that perhaps the power saving on an LED TV would make for it not being 12V. Also a lot cheaper than a dedicated 12V model and as I have 1 1200W inverter, didn't think it would be a problem. I will see at the weekend when I try on the boat. Rob

Hi. I guess about 20 hours so far. I have only had it a short while. So far, so good, as they say. Cheers Rob