jonathanA

so if its a relatively new sterling (less than 18 months according to the OP's post) then it does have a standby option via a switch on the unit allowing control via the remote control. i.e off (properly off) on or remote (switched on/off by remote control so taking some very small standby current). I can't see how any of the symptoms described by the OP could be a result of low battery voltage/insufficent charging as the inverter would bleep if the battery voltage was too low and stop working until power cycled (at least thats what all the inverters I've seen do). this sounds more like the overheating issue mentioned earlier or a fault with the internal doings. Edited for clarity

and make sure you have removed the transit strap inside the machine otherwise it will probably leap overboard....

IIRC when we passed a few weeks ago it looked like there were a couple of boats being fitted out at botany bay. I'd be surprised if they had the facilities to make thier own shells there but I don't know what you need other than a welder and gas axe. botany bay boatyard is run by Karl Heywood and he seems a decent chap so might be worth giving him a ring before you go any further.

good grief - so L&L open for what nearly 72 hours between stoppages.... That will please anyone heading that way for the burnley festival this weekend..

I've had more problems in the last few months than in all the years I've been using it. I detest Ebay and Paypal and try to use gumtree and preloved instead whenever possible. They are awful when there is a problem and the much paraded 'protection' they claim is very limited. That said its success makes it hard to ignore and like anything I think you have to be careful and have your eyes wide open at all times.

I did speak to CRT this morning who said that blackburn locks had re-opened - tried to post it separately but it got tagged on to an earlier post... great confirmation from Nigel on the ground (I hope not literally given the low water)

I don't want to turn the thread into having a go at silsden - its not just about locks though is it ? I don't think its reasonable to do nothing either - do you ? - the director my wife was speaking to was completely unaware of the poor reputation the company have on the L&L and in fairness it was something they said they would want to address, which is fair enough if they do try to improve things. I rang CRT a few minutes ago and according to lady I spoke to the canal is now open at blackburn, (although she didn't sound entirely sure.... )

Speaking to another boater this evening he said blackburn locks were now open and he'd spoken to someone who had come through today. I'd left it too late to ring CRT for confirmation and there has been no update on waterscape.

Haven't Niffany Farm just expanded ? (just outside skipton) - no idea whether they have any spaces nor who 'runs' the moorings but assumed they were private ? ETA - what about the marina at applerly bridge ? I think the same company also has some offside moorings at shipley (a bit run down if memory serves!)

I think that was partly what I was suggesting in my OP.. from experience of having a belt go in the middle of no where and not having a spare I know that an automotive 4pk900 or 4pk920 will fit my engine (LPSW4). where 4pk - refers to the belt having 4 ribs and 900 means it is (about) 900mm long. In fact it turns out the OEM part is labelled 4pk913. The original belt as fitted to the engine when we bought the boat was a 'gates' and as others have stated they have a good reputation. The automotive one I used was from 'dayco' who also seem well thought off. It seems to me I can pay over the odds for an 'genuine' part, (£25) buy exactly the same thing from reputable suppliers/manufactuers for about £10 (gates/dayco off fleabay) or buy a seemlingly similiar product direct from the far east (probably the same factory) for less than £4.... Perversely I always buy genuine oil/air/fuel filters accepting that I pay slightly over the odds but safe in the knowledge they are exactly right and the 'premium' is not enough to warrant the effort of finding the eqivalents from the likes of crossland/coopers/fram etc... might have to reconsider that now...

Dean I very much doubt that was the 'Skipton' based company - but might have been one based a bit further east. I can speak from personal experience that pennine cruisers at skipton meet their hirers at the first set of locks and give them practical tuition. As opposed to another company based at silsden who merely provide a 'DVD'.... A fact with which one of their directors was unaware until SWMBO made it him very aware of it earlier in the year whilst sharing a lock... I'm talking about 'proper' hire boats not day boats of course... back to the topic - any news did the locks re-open today ?

so my alternator drive belt shredded recently - it had been showing signs of wear and I had a spare ready, it just parted company slighlty earlier than I expected. no drama fitted my spare. I then went to order a replacement the 'genuine' spare was some £18+VAT+P&P =£25 quid this is for a 4 peak ribbed belt of 900mm length its only driving a 70A alt so not massively loaded. a quick search on ebay and a 4Pk900 belt £3.82 delivered form Hong kong. - so gave that a punt. got both here and I can't really see any difference, i'd like to think that the OEM part is maybe made of better materials but they both look and feel the same ? at that rate I could replace it every year for 6 years and still be better off or am I missing something ? is this just another example of the 'marine premium' - just add a nought for the word 'marine' ?

I bet you can't get them new now due to the environmental risk - I'm not sure what the electrolyte is but I bet it wouldn't be good if it got into a canal. (not that that should stop them being used - just saying)

I see it's possible to buy LEDs to replace 500 watt halogen yard lights now.... yep - got a 10w LED for about £15 which i use as a dusk/dawn secuirty light replacing various CFL units so far its brilliant and at 10w uses even less than the 2 x 25w CFL's it replaced. its at least as good as a 150W halogen. at the rate the price are dropping the larger (I've seen up to 70WLED) will soon be realistic replacements for halogen floods. (sadly I remember what a step forward they were too...)

might be worth playing with canalplan website - set your start and finishing points as Anderton and see how far you could get in the time you have and with 5/6 hours cruising a day. are hire boats allowed to use the anderton lift/go on the weaver ?

i don't think the stoppage/restriction is going to affect you then is it as i don't think it affect locks after the leigh branch ? (towards liverpool)

FWIW we did the wigan locks up down and back in the last 2-3 weeks. There was a lot of taffic down as it coincided with barrowford re-opening (I think I saw innisfree pass us near blackburn). so there was a lot of traffic going down - CRT's response the only lockeeper I saw was busy picking up litter.... by the time we got to the long pound that you can moor up in (77-78) it was virtually dry and I had to go back 3 locks to run enough water through to get into 78. (no wonder the tailgates were like niagara falls) coming up we were able to share and there was reasonable traffic bothways... no CRT presence whatsoever only a security guard who couldn't tell us what he was securing and admitted he was so bored he'd taken to helping boats up the flight (he very kindly assisted a single hander who was ahead of us in the flight)....... at the top of the flight we had intended mooring (well 21 locks is enough in a day) but the water level was so low we couldn't get into the bank and cruised on. - this was obviously cuased by the blackburn issue as we discovered when we met our first and only lockkeeper at johnsonS hillock and he was surverying the locks for problems (surely they know about the broken gear it been like that for long enough) the problem for users of the L&L is we've had johnsons closed for two weeks, Barrowford and now blackburn its more or less making the L&L unusable for summer cruising, whilst I commend CRT for the speed of the repairs and particularly the updates they put on waterscrape there is a bigger issue here and people will decide its not worth the risk and move to other parts of the system (certainly I'm thinking long and hard about that) sorry this isn't meant to be a rant or a pop at CRT as the guys on the ground are always first class.

The cheshire ring or llangollen would both be doable with a good crew - assuming you can motivate the mutants and they don't want to just 'facebook' their mates for the week !

most of the water points I've used are 3/4" - i.e you don't need the insert but its always worth keeping it just in case you get a 1/2" tap.

latest - not too good i'm afraid... UPDATE (05 September 2013): Further to our update of 2 September 2013, the concrete works were completed yesterday and this will now need approx. 3 days to set. The teams are completing other tasks around the site during this time and have endeavoured to minimise issues with low water levels. Due to this stoppage, water levels in the general area have been affected and we are working to replenish this without detriment to the stoppage site. We anticipate that the area will be open to navigation by Sunday afternoon. An update will be issued tomorrow -6 September 2013.

battery shop - refurb.... if by refurb you mean take to battery shop negotiate discount on new ones against scrap value of old ones I think your in with a chance... you might be able to coax some life out of them by charging / discharging them repeatedly, but you will only ever get a fraction of their capacity back and that might be fine depending on what you want to do with them. your best option is to weigh both in for scrap and buy a new one, two scrap 1110Ah ones will nearly pay for a new cheap 85AH leisure battery. ETA for really bad spelling...

that doesn't stack up to me i'm afraid... Its VERY common practice to do the same at most major hotel chains to cover 'incidentals' like bar/food bills. - I can't beleive that all those hotel chains are breaking the rules/law any more than the big chains of pubs/restaurants. What the Card issuers small print says is you must not disclose your PIN to anyone else - fairly reasonable I'd say ! As for not using places that ask to swipe your card before setting up a tab I'd be more worried about using places that don't offer that facility....

I think you may have missed the point of the intelligent chargers, they are designed to work more effectively than a simple alternator or 'car battery' charger. The voltage/current supplied is designed to maximise the charge into the battery, and on a simple basis the bigger the charger the quicker it will be to recover the batteries to full charge (and the less you will have to run your gennerator), but as always other factors come into play. I would say with a 440ah bank you could go for a bigger charger (within reason !) but nothing wrong with your choice of 30A, Thats what I was told i needed for my 330Ah bank, but I went for 20A as I am marina based and there is plenty of time for the charger to charge the batteries. (and money was another factor !) Always worth a check of the smartgauge pages on these matters.

30A at 15v (worst case) is 450watts even allowing for a the charger not being 100% efficent your 900W genny should be more than adequate to run it. Just check the '900w' Genny rating as that might be 'peak' load not continuous or include any 12v Dc output. The 'stated' output of a genny as in "acme900" doesn't always mean it will run a 900W load continuously - its usually nearer 650 or 700W in truth. I've a sterling pro 20A and it does what it says on the tin ! Others have used cheaper multistage chargers from ebay and still others will swear that sterling are crap and you should spend even more on 'better makes' however you decide what constitutes a better make (price as far as I can tell) you might want to consider a larger charger as in theory you won't have to run your genny for as long but it will depend on how much you take out of your batteries before deciding to charge them again.

one suspects the op has been bedazzled by the bedazzled website...