lewisericeric

I feel like I've won the lottery right now!! Best Saturday night ever!!! Thanks again Nick, so much - and to everyone else - but you've really put my mind at ease and cleared things up for me. Really appreciate you taking the time out to create the responses too and all very clear and easy to understand!! 😁

Hi Nick, Thanks so, so much for your advice on this one. You've really saved my life!!! Is that what it means under 'cycle life' then that they can be charged with a voltage of up to 14.7? I can never get my head around anything technical like that so I'm never sure if that's what it means or if it's relating to something else somehow! And everywhere I read online, say gel should be charged no more than 14.2. If I charge up to 14.7 and that's what that line out of the specs mean, that I copied and pasted in my previous response, I'm good to go?

It worked!!! However, slight problem. I have tubular gel batteries, and the voltage on my smartgauge is showing between 14.5 and 14.6 I thought gel had to be charged at a lower rate? But in the specs on my battery sheet, I see this. Cycle Use: Initial Charging Current:less than 20.1A Voltage 14.4V~14.7V at 25 C(77 F) Temp.Coefficient -30mV/ C Do any tech guys know if this means they can be charged up to 14.7??? These are tubular, deep cycle gel, not ordinary gel or AGM

Could I use a toaster? Not got a lightbulb, that's the next biggest thing I have, the toaster haha. Boom!

Interesting, Nicknorman, thanks. So putting a load on first and then connecting shoreline/Victron could be a way around??? Not got 100w bulb, anything I've got over 5/10watts would be a toaster!!!! Could I bash that on do we reckon?! I don't seem to have any options on my Victron Multiplus to be able to change any settings? I was always under the assumption that you needed some sort of 'software' to be able to edit the settings rather than having the settings on the box, as per Sterling inverters, for example?

I had the same issues with charging on Sterling inverters too. Blew up a Honda generator and a Hyundai. That was my old boat. This boat is a victron. A more 'basic' generator and still problems. Don't know how you all do it haha. I have an inverter/charger combi unit. The Victron Multiplius, and yes I did try switching to 'charge' only but still nothing. Interesting about the earth/neutral, but it is a normal threepin plug that goes into the generator so will have the earth/neutral connected already? Then there's the round shoreline plug the other end which goes into my boat? Currently I've plugged in a battery charger into the generator and have that directly onto the batteries, but what a hassle this all is.... If I could just get the gennie to work via the shoreline cable, there'd hardly be any issue while I'm waiting for my alternator to be looked at under warranty

Cheers Bod, no switches, Victron's do it automatically. You can only change it to on or 'charger only' Both options result in the unit quickly going into bulk for a split second and then switching off.

Last time I was on a shoreline bollard, the unit kicked into the 'mains' and charging/bulk function, as it should do.

I possibly posted on this many years ago.... I've currently got an alternator problem, so a friend had leant me their generator to charge. The generator is this one: New tab (ebay.co.uk) I've got the same issue again when trying to plug this generator into the shoreline entry on my boat, my Victron 3000w inverter lights up to show 'bulk' charging, then the unit switches off. (the inverter switches off, not the generator) so nothing happens. How do other boaters charge via generators? Previously on my last boat, I had a Hyundai suitcase generator, which didn't charge, with a Sterling inverter. I then had a Honda suitcase generator on this boat which didn't charge and caused issues with the inverter. Honda looked into this and actually confirmed that it's because suitcase generators have their own inverters, so butt heads with inverters on boats .Fine, I thought, I understand that.... But now, this is a 'regular' generator, so expected it to work? What's the issue or is there something I'm missing?????? Any help appreciated. Thanks Lewis

Thanks Nick What's the answer then? Just leave and monitor? Just not a nice thought thinking that the floor is damp underneath me

The reason I've saisd I don't think it's a leak is the base plate is 'moist' to the same degree through all different places. So right at the front of the boat (bedroom) where I can access it from the front step. Inside the wardrobe, abutting the bathroom and gives me access to the shower drainage (that's not leaking) and then right at the back stern steps. There's not one place which is more damp than the other. As the boat also has a natural tilt back as my water tank is often half empty(!) if it was a leak, I also wouldn't have thought it would 'spread' to the front of the boat?

Hi Everyone Hope you're as well as can be. I'm just wondering if other people have 'damp' bilges, in the living space of their boat? I have two access holes to under the floor where I can check in the bilge for leaks etc. One is in the kitchen steps at the back of the boat and another is under the false floor in the wardrobe at the front of the boat. I was doing a check today and noticed that the steel is damp in the bilge. I took some video footage, wedging my phone down there and there is some rusting and the steel under flash light looks quite, erm, 'moist'. There's no accumulated water and it's not possible for it to be a leak as there are steel support beams so each 'section' would have to fill up before it poured into another one and the level of dampness is the same at the very back of the boat as well as at the front of the boat. Is this normal? I don't remember if my old narrowboat had the same issues to be honest, but that was a long time ago. Is there any way to eradicate this? I thought for the bilge to be damp or condensate like that, the moist air would have to have got underneath that space somehow? More to the point, how can I dry it out? Obviously I can't wedge a dehumidifier down there but I was thinking of maybe fitting an extractor fan into one of the access holes (perhaps in the kitchen steps) to 'pull' out the damp air and that would dry? Is it maybe a seasonal thing as we're moving from winter into spring and the warmer weather we've been having. Rattling now, I'll head off and see if you geniuses can solve it! Thanks! Edit - Boat is a 60ft widebeam, modern, two years old. Engine bilge can't leak into living space - it's separate.

Maybe! Different boat these days now though! Different boat, same problems, as always haha

Up near Warrington.

Yes, that's what I was hoping actually.... I'll have a look around!

Thank you everyone for your responses. It looks like a screw has come loose/come off my fuel injectors. That's back in place now, but now it's the headache of cleanup! Thanks for the tip about fuel polishers as I'll give that a go. Even if I have to bottle it first and then take it to them as I think we had around 200-250 litres!!!

Hi all Wondering if anybody can help. It seems my entire fuel tank has empties in my bilge. At some point between having my engine on this morning and switching it off! I noticed yesterday quite a bit of grey-ish smoke from the exhaust and was a bit concerned and now this has happened today. I didn't even think the contents of the fuel tank could completely empty. Will I even be able to use this fuel now? (Circa £150!) My engine is a Canalline 52, have had issues with injectors last year but the boat/engine is only two years old. Apparently there was a known issue with the injectors on this particular batch of engines from 2018, but these were replaced and I cannot see anything that looks too out of the ordinary as to how this could have happened. Have called engineer, just wondering if anybody could advise in meantime if they know of anything obvious that I might be able to look at myself in case the engineer cannot come for some time.... Thank you!

Hi Alan, Ah, that's really useful - thanks! And I'm glad I'm not missing a thermostat from my system! Well, I am but you know what I mean!

Thanks Robbo, that's what I read too earlier on. Just wonder how to keep it on and cycling like Alan does as we have no thermostat fitted to ours - it's on or it's off!

That's what I don't understand Alan - there is no room thermostat on this one! It's just switched on and off via the Webasto control panel??

Should they be limited though in terms of how long they're used for each day? Or can I leave on for hours at a time? Any issues with safety to the unit doing that?

Cheers Robbo, It's the themo top C that we have fitted - just the small 5.2kw unit

Hi everyone, Just a quick question about webasto central heating... firstly, are these units built to be on for long periods of time or are they more 'delicate' and should be only used for a couple of hours each time? I've looked on the Webasto site and can't see anything specifically related to this or my instruction manual. Also, fuel usage seems to be a bit of a mystery too with just minimum and maximum amounts. Also, our Webasto has no thermostat or anything so what ambient temperature are these units set up to by default, if applicable? It must heat the rads/water up to a certain Celsius so as not to boil the system - anyone know?

Thanks for all the responses!

Hi everyone, I was just wanting to ask a bit of advice about a pram cover for my new widebeam. I've been given a quote of £3,800 with one company and was just wanting to put feelers out to see if people have paid something along similar lines. My boat is a 60ft x 12 and has an 8ft cruiser stern. I haven't contacted Kinver yet - who seem to be the most popular - as I'm up north and not sure if they service the north network but will probably give them a call on Monday. Anyone with a widebeam who's had a pram cover fitted and willing to let me know what they paid for it? Cheers! Lewis