pedroinlondon

Brethren, This is going to be a long one. First of all thanks everybody for the input. Really good. I will get some voltmeters to save me the time of going around with a multi meter in rain and snow, but really, I’m glad I mentioned why I needed one, as otherwise I would not have got a probable solution to what is affecting my Smart Gauge. What BOTTLE said is (I think almost) correct. I seem to remember that when I fitted the SGauge nearly two years ago, the manual instructed me to charge the batteries to 100% and let the gadget know that at that point the batts were fully charged. The problem of the percentual calculation being wrong now is that the batts are 2 years older and obviously they are not charging to the same capacity as when I fitted the thing. I will look into re-installing it. Possibly all that is happening is that the gadget is indicating 100% when the batts are probably between 80 and 100%. I don’t think that the SGauge will only give wrong info if the batts are knackered, a small decrease in their capacity will give a small error in the reading/calculation. I have newish solar panels, which I thought had been useless in the last few weeks, but today I ready the voltage output from them and it was about 14V! Either the boaters that have been telling me that the panels are useless between October and March have terrible solar panels, or my cheapo ebay ones are extremely good. Or both? I did get a digital voltmeter as the dial on my analogue meter is not good enough for my eyesight, or vice-versa, and carried out some readings, after one hour cruising. They were: ---------------------------- With solar panels connected SGauge indicated: 14 V Multimeter on the batts: 14 V With solar panels disconnected SGauge: 13.6 V Multimeter: 13.8 V ---------------------------- So, not giving wrong readings, which again indicates that the problem must be what BOTTLE said, really. The batt changed and no one told the SGauge about it. Sounds about right doesn’t it? No excuse not to have a voltmeter fitted to the solar panels. If I had one I wouldn’t have been so surprised that the batts were charging “by themselves” and there was good reason for the SGauge percentual display info to be high (even though not possibly 100% at 6 a.m. after having the lights on the night before for hours lol). Thanks

Thanks for your comments, they all seem to be positive. I hate typing on this ipad so will comment (and ask more questions) once i get a proper keyboard. By positive i meant to the point lol. Getting a digital meter from argos now. The analogue i have not good for my decaying eye sight not lol.

My SmartGauge packed up! Or maybe it didn't, it could be that my amateur wiring came back to haunt me. It was fine for over a year but now it displays 100% charge ALL the time, which unfortunately is not true. I will try to reset it soon and perhaps bring it back to its senses, but this small crisis alerted me to the fact that I should have more independent ways of measuring the batt bank, the starter battery and the power in from the solar panels. Has anyone tried the cheap voltmeters for sale on ebay? You know, the little ones with only two wires and a digital display like this one: http://www.dx.com/p/0-3-lcd-two-line-3-digital-dc-voltmeter-multicolored-2-4-30v-289940#.VFzdf_m-2Fw It would be handy to have three or four of them giving some info of the several points all the time. Handy, if the info is fairly correct that is. Any good experiences? Thanks in advance.

I got it from Phil in the end, which of course was much easier than to co-ordinate a delivery from a land based supplier. Should anyone need anthracite is w London give Phil a call. Thanks Junior (Martin?)

I will ask Phil. I've seen his boat in the area but as i've never met a coal boat who sells the stuff didn't think of asking. Thanks for the suggestion.

Hi Bizzard! Left Roydon a year and a half ago sorry may have forgotten to update my profile here. In Northolt/Southall now.

I'm looking into buying a few bags of Anthracite coal, large beans. I've looked into the delivery options from faraway depots (fuels4u, nationalcoal, etc) but chickened out of that option. Either those demand a 1/2 ton min order or they have some very bad customer reviews. Does anyone know where to get Anthracite in or near London? The coal boats only sell the two or three most popular coal types. Thanks.

Hey! So much good stuff. On mobile now in transit so can read it all, but thanks a lot. Can't wait to get home. Thanks a lot!!

I am not looking to buy anything right now or anything ready made. I live in a 60x12 i bought as a sailaway and my "sea" boat project will be along similar lines. I do look at boat seller sites but of course you only see a couple of pics and not the full description of the craft, much less pics of the hull.

Does anyone you know of any books or websites helpful to id boats? The reason i'm asking is that i would like to sell mine and embark (see what i did there?) on a new boat project. I would like to get a "sea-going" shell so i can go across the channel to France, Holland, etc. Something small but habitable. Need to research from now to possibly be able to start doing it from next spring. Anyway, just would like to have a ref book to see what exists and to match the different terms to pictures. Thanks

I see. That's good for what i need to know. Thanks Dean.

I paid 5k got the boat on time. No hand over as in contract and no reply to my calls or emails from about 3 weeks prior to delivery. Not great when you handed a total of 40k. Moved to Roydon Marine where there were about 7 (fully fitted) Collingwood owners with all kinds of problems. I had no problems with the boat itself. That link on you comment DeanS is if Collinwood boats?

The voice of reason! Thanks G&F. Like when i was fitting my boat your comments were always helpful. So, they do exist but are redesigning their site. I could not find them with google.

Anyone?

Yes... Back to the other part of my op if i may. How come there is no sign of Collinwood on the net? Where are they selling their boats? And to the person with the KMarx icon: speak for yourself as far as The New and UBC is concerned. My experience in very different and so is many other people's.

Just checked Aintree Boat Company website Curzons. They look different from mine, but of course that can change. Also no 12 widebeams there.

I have a 12 by 65 boat bought a couple of years ago from slightly dodgy The New and Used Boat Co. Then the builders were called Collingwood. I searched for that name and they don't seem to exist! Is it true that they routinely change their name from Collingwood to Liverpool Boats and back again? If so why (i can guess why...). I just want to check how much a boat with the same specs of mine but the info could be relevant to new buyers. Thanks.

My boat is 12 ft wide so a low baffled tank (40 cm high) should not.affect stability much. Now for the.type of insulation. Any ideas?

Looking into the idea of fitting a water tank on top of my boat to avoid the twice monthly trips to the water points. I've made a little one with a £12/100 L asda storage box just to experiment with the ideal placing of outlets etc. I know the water will freeze and there may be other problems associated to an outside tank. Any experiences people would like to share?

Thanks guys. I just bought a radiator fluid bottle from Shell and de ionised water. I will throw in some (1defreeze to 3water?) just to get some fluid in the tank as it is empty atm. Hopefully a can52 owner will repl y in the next few days. The manual does not evenreccomend the ratio of defreeze to water. I don't know what keelcooling is but will investigate

My Can52 manual says "fill the engine with freshwater/anti-freeze..." and on the next like "fill the header tank to the top...". It seems from the language used that there are not one but two water compatments but I can only find one. Is there a second one and where? Also the manual advises that anti-freeze solutions should be drained off every two years but I cannot find the drain plug. Stupid manual! Can anyone describe how the drain plug looks like? Thanks

Update! I would like to completelly UNRECOMMEND Cole Sewell. Every gas knowledgeable person who sees my installation points out how badly designed and unsecure it is (or as as I have secured it better now). Do not use this guy! You have been warned.

In conclusion, what happened is that I used a high pressure instead of a low pressure regulator. That high pressure was reccomended by the hardware shop guy who claims to have a gas cert. In the end Will Tarzian who is a boater and a gas fitter (and also Manflu's drummer!) sorted my gas out.

So, if I connect the black to negative and the yellow+orange+orange/white to positive it should work ok?

Does not that second boat you mention include most of what is needed as far as eng maintenance is concerned? Does it have good explanatory graphics?