Dear me, I'm talking bollox! :lol: there's hardly a lot of light in a blizzard is there , don't you have lights on your boat for when it's dark or overcast?

 

I don't need the doors open to light the interior when its dark or overcast - I have properly sized windows that let in enough light even on dull days.

 

And what are doors and hatches for if not to open and let in air and light

 

Entering and exiting the boat?

 

, maybe yours are sealed up and you enter and exit through bus windows

 

Clearly brainwashed or aspirational for portholes

 

I'd say he was thinking clearly - you seem to be the one who has talked yourself into believing portholes let in as much light as larger windows. The plain truth, is that they don't.

 

PS just because its cold or windy doesn't mean its also cloudy or night time.....

It really is that simple

 

...except that you can still see into a boat, through a porthole....

Choose quieter mooring spots?

 

Mirror tinting?

 

Draw the curtains the towpath side? (Maybe only in the area you're in, ie let the light come in the kitchen/other areas)

 

Ignore them and carry on?

How long is it?

 

The entire length of the Bridgewater Canal, including the 2 branches (Preston Brook and Leigh) has got to be quite long...

So they don't want you to make recurring payments or everyday transactions by debit card but are happy for you to do so with cash? Sounds rather odd to me.

 

I suggest you go into your local branch and point out that unless they can either continue the debit card on this account or transfer you to another account on similar terms with debit card and ATM access then you will be leaving.

 

 

Yeah but have somewhere to go to, before you threaten to leave!!!!

Very little choice these days in "free" current accounts. I looked at moving but decided that my own bank was, in fact, a pretty good deal and stuck with them. Best of luck searching around and finding one though.

When someone tells you sagely that Stoveglow is an entirely consistent product that always burns the same, creates the same heat, and the same ash, and stays in just as well each time, you can now nod sagely, but know that ain't necessarily so!

 

 

Thats probably down to buying only a handful of bags of the stuff; or getting it from the same supplier which has a big stock of it, and thus getting several bags from the same "batch" or production/bagging run; or of course, random chance; or simply not being able to spot the differences eg due to inexperience or the characteristics of their particular stove.

25mm thick calcium silicate board? Does anyone actually do this?

 

It sounds a bit OTT to me. Next they'll be telling us to use space shuttle tiles!

 

On that note.....

 

 

How many people, can honestly say their stove conforms 100% with the requirements in that document?

 

(Personally I do have 25mm thick board behind the tiles; there's an air gap in the main part of the fireplace but no airgap between the heat board and the side of the step (I wonder how many boats have vulnerable steps?) The flue is single skinned and as its in the corner, the top of the flue is less than 3x the diameter of it away from the walls, which are covered in T&G. There's a stainless steel plate on the roof, so its still kept around 1x distance away from the flue at the closest point. A touch test confirms these areas get warm but not hot. It conforms everywhere else with the dimensions and requirements of the BS8511).

No, you're not missing out. The person who the blog is mose useful for, is the blogger him/herself. You could just as easily keep a cruise diary/photo album/scrapbook on plain old paper, or electronically, and it would be just as useful to look back to etc.

I'd swap around 3 and 4, to prevent yourself welding the cable to the boat.....

 

Does your alternator also have a W connector? (Maybe its already connected?)

Picture 3 seems to explain it well.

Unfortunately he needs more information not interpretations.He as been looking at the posts about this and is becoming evermore paranoid,not helped by the fact that another boater friend has received several threatening letters from CRT. He as paid out a considerable sum this year on a new boat and mooring fees and needs to keep working for the foreseeable future.Edited to say I was slow in responding.

 

Unfortunately in this case though, the interpretations are spot on and what should happen according to the letter of the law; and what might realistically happen, are 2 different things.

 

"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is".

What about walking along the high street and looking at other shops, rather than simply looking for one which sells CDs? Browsing may reveal a present you'd not thought of previously, which would be novel and appreciated.

ASDA, Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsburys....probably open 24h too.....

4g has been on trial in one of yorkshires largest cities for a while now and I haven't noticed any adverse effects on FV

 

See post #15.

Wire brush on a power drill might get to places the wire brush on an angle grinder can't. But I sense, unless you can get stuff out of the way, its going to be compromised a little, and be one of those PITA jobs.

I didn't suggest it was a DNS issue but I did do the first thing to check it (PING). Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the actual result of the PING, just an interpretation ("was ok") so I am none the wiser and not yet at stage 2 (which would be to do IPCONFIG /ALL to see what name server is used, then possibly NSLOOKUP to focus in on what kind of DNS issue it looks like, if it is one of them).

Yeah I've heard the vans are rubbish, not the quality you'd expect and if you're after a smallish van, go for the VW Transporter; if a larger one, Transit or Iveco Daily.

 

I know what you mean regarding the build quality of later Mercedes'. The 'youngest' one I had was a series 2 W124 estate (1991 or so). It did everything asked of it, effortlessly, including towing some quite heavy loads; few/no mechanical issues despite a huge mileage (I'd bought secondhand) and was very comfortable. The others were W114 coupé and saloon. These were more basic (less equipment) but the quality shone through and again, were very quiet and comfortable to drive and use. Its generally accepted that the W124 replacement (W210) was a bit of a disaster, and they had to make a lot of effort with warranty issues on this car, and work to try rebuild the reputation, on later cars. Once computers and electronics came into motors, they were kind of at the forefront for new gizmos but this affected reliability a bit, so its little things which tend to go wrong on them, and get noticed.

Having travelled Europe as much on my back under as in a Mercedes 507 I'll have to disagree with you there.

 

I Googled it but couldn't find which model you meant when you say Mercedes 507 - can you post a pic of one?

Maybe you would also have discouraged Herr Benz from developing his vehicles because they weren't perfect?

 

Eh? What am I discouraging? Plenty of people want/need a device such as smartgauge, which is simple to connect (compared to fitting a shunt) and which gives the one thing they're after - the state of charge. As I see it, on this forum there is much support for Smartgauge so you'd need to conclude that its pretty successful.

 

I'm prepared to (well, already have) fitted a shunt so I can replace it with another if needs be; and I'm technically minded so I'm keen to know how stuff works behind the scenes. The fact that smartgauge's marketing masks this, is somewhat frustrating!

 

I think you picked a bad example too, because I have indeed owned 5 Mercedes Benz's over the years, and whilst they're not perfect (no car is....) they're pretty close to it. In fact I'd say its probably the best car I've ever owned.

If you knew how it worked you would understand.

I do have a fair idea but you will have to work it out for yourself.

Its all down to battery behavior

 

I don't have to work it out for myself, I can go to a shop and buy a Victron battery monitor instead. If Smartgauge uses some novel technology above & beyond being a voltmeter + some 'clever' algorithms (eg high frequency AC injection) then it ought to tell its prospective customers of this technology as good marketing. Making customers work out for themselves if/how something works, is not the right way to win them over!

 

As yet, my money is still in my hands rather than having bought a smartgauge. I'll stick with the basic voltmeter + ammeter combination until the Mk2 Smartgauge comes along (if Smartgauge is so great without a shunt, how come the Mk2 has a shunt?) and at that point I'll take a detailed look at its claims, see if they're plausible, and compare its specification and price with competitors.

Well I feel my monitor is working ok, because I can read this, and I feel my key board is working ok, because I'm typing. I can not be sure the mouse will work until I click Add Reply not having anything calibrated to test it against

 

So you're happy with the basic perception that the charge seems to be what you think it should be? In the same way, that your monitor is okay because its showing the stuff on the screen as you'd expect it; and the keyboard works because when you hit the keys, the letters/numbers etc appear on the screen? And the mouse works because when you move it, the pointer moves around the screen and stuff can be clicked?

 

Not challenging you - just saying that perception is everything!

What I'd like to know, is how Smartgauge works so well given that it measures one variable (voltage), where other meters measure 2 variables (voltage and current) to calculate their estimation of state of charge.

Probably worth looking at the voltage and amps on an (old) alanogue multimeter, if you can still find one. Then you can see if there's a 'flutter' of the needle.

Since its on a large flat area custom made to support the 2 x 200 ton cranes used earlier and only a little higher than the canal bed, I think that's unlikely.

 

 

 

 

 

Me too, it was just a light-hearted response to Alan's previous post.