Ssscrudddy

Or when you turn the water pump off until you get it unstuck...

I recently changed mine from pumpout (dump through) to cassette. 1 of the problems I had was I was getting less & less use out of it each time, to the point where it would only last a week, & certainly didnt look like it had been emptied even though nothing more would come out. I assumed the pipe through which you pump out was probably rotting in the tank & didnt reach as far down as it used to. Anyway once the tank was removed it wasnt the pipe (which was plastic & hadnt rotted), it turns out the damn tank was over half way full with dried up loo roll. I did my research & opted for pumpout when I first bought my boat. Everything I read said NOT to put chemicals in there (think Elsan Blue), the idea being biological action action would break down the contents into slurry. For this stuff to broken down into slurry, it needs to be covered by liquid, hence the poo stick that people have mentioned, else you get a pile of poo & paper that isnt covered by liquid. Far better to shove it out of the way rather than fill it with loads of water. (I believe I broke mine by not peeing in it enough) The idea of Elsan blue containing Formaldehyde is that it kills all biological action dead. (& it's perfumed). It makes no claims to do anything else. So dont use it in your tank. Thetfords version of the stuff is called Aquakem blue, & they say they havent used formaldehyde since 2003 (although I'm sure I read somewhere it has 10% formaldehyde but I cant find it again). This Aquakem blue also claims to help liquify the waste. There are other products as well, & as other have said Baby Bio, Biological washing powder, etc. The point is you need to get that stuff liquified. That was the problem with my toilet, it wasnt liquifying, & over time the paper built up & stayed in the tank. As an aside, once I'd changed to a cassette toilet & went looking for the various 'blue' products, I came across loads of posts where people did use Elsan blue or other products containing formaldehyde in their black tanks.

For once a reasonable speed from 3 in Northampton

I wouldnt leave my desiccant dehumidifier on if I'm not there.

I once played a game called Travian. It was a commercial venture & had servers in many different countries, which included a forum for each of those servers. It was a war game, & sometimes the forum could get pretty heated. The UK server only had 1 paid member of staff. & it had an ongoing problem, in that that paid member of staff was corrupt & a cheat, this was ignored by head office. Eventually after several years it got so bad that the whole forum, which included outright enemies of each other, went into open rebellion, which included actively breaking the rules. Head office finally had to take notice & address the problem of their corrupt cheating game admin, instead of keep brushing it under the carpet. Of course they had a vested interest in addressing it because they was in it to make a profit, & by repeatedly ignoring the problem it had started to hit their profits. This place is starting to have the feel of what happened in Travian just before the dren hit the fan.

My missus doesn't want to steer simple as that. If I insist obj her steering then I'm a Tuesday person. When there's lots of locks I feel guilty about all the hard work she's doing, & would gladly do it myself, but she doesn't want to steer & won't, it's that simple.

I once had a crash & discovered my motorbike insurance had ran out. I hadn't noticed on my bank statement because a new different payment had started for the same amount on the same day of the month as my insurance used to be.

Yep, ain't gonna happen. Phew

Well I was gong to put a funny (snide) reply. But having read DHutchs comment I won't. Thanks for letting it go. I would like this to continue. Horace please share some of your good fortune with me ( & no that wasn't the snide remark I was going to make)

Lol ok, thank you

I thought the hat was supposed to be green

Thanks, I knew about the Thames thing, didn't know my licence covers the Stour. But can I cruise there on my NB via canals & rivers without going to sea?

What I found amusing about Anges post was the apology was at 11pm & then Ange calling out GG for having not replied by 1.30 (or 45) am! Seriously some people sleep, some people leave the computer on our windows open, so even if the name shows as online doesn't actually mean you're there

Lol, & there was me hoping for an easy answer to a 'simple' question, which is probably why I couldn't work it out for myself. For clarity I'm thinking near Manningtree, licence is irrelevant cuz I'd buy the separate licence if necessary, but Gazza has it correct, I'd want to go from Northampton on my narrowboat (which is 58'). Blame the missus, it's her question.

Damn it, once again I missed all the fun. Yes, not very helpful at all. But then some people would consider me a Tuesday person from the future

Quick question, is the River Stour connected to the rest of the system & navigable by narrowboat?

I looked into this, but look at the prices, 12V $500 vs £80 for an equivalent 240V unit, just to eliminate inverter use, & you'd also need 12V monitor (So think of the difference in price for a 12V TV vs 240V TV)

Also to quote Bimble again for the 30A TracerBN controller "For 12V Solar System: 390W solar panel (150V for max input voltage) For 24V Solar System: 780W solar panel (150V for max input voltage)"

I was recommended 60A (or 2x 30A ones) controller for my 660W of solar. I have 4 35V panels, 2 wired in series to each controller. Panel specs PMax: 165Wp Imax: 4.72A Vmax: 35V ISC: 5.18A VOC: 43.8V So I have 2x 30A Tracer3215BN MPPT controllers http://www.bimblesolar.com/Tracer3215BN Which to quote Bimble "The Tracer BN is identical to the OutBack FLEXmax Micro Series, they are made in the same factory, showing outback's faith in this MPPT manufacturer." (So now you know why the Out Back version is better) I would also say the 'optional' MT50 meter isn't really optional at all but a must have item, as it allows you to fully program the thing as well as see what's going on (& even has an audible alarm if things FoI really wrong). Been on 2 years now, a case of fit & forget.

Bring out the banhammer

It's still there at the top of the page in General Boating

Leons ok, I try not to use his services as I like it just me & the missus & I don't like paying for something I don't have to pay for, & of course I'm steering & she does the locks, & so has a different opinion to me! I just can't see him draining the pound though. Also I was very pleased he was there when the pounds were so low I wouldn't have even tried, but he seemed to know exactly how much water was just enough for us to get through, & he was right. Also the quickest I've done the arm in was 3 hours, & that was with his help. I know of a few boaters that regularly book him & probably wouldn't do the arm if it wasn't for his services. But I do wish he'd wear underwear more often than he does, I don't need to see that!

Yep, I take mine to the local scrappy where I have an account, I get £10 each for the 110Ah ones

There's a small boat yard just before Stanground lock that does diesel if it's open, very easy to miss.

Wierd. I'm still on 1511 (waiting until they sort all the problems). Deffo doesnt do it for me.