[Sterling charger]

i think its most likely that your batterys arert upto what they used to be, do you know how old they are?

 

- also, on the matter of the fridge, its unlikely to be using much more juice than it did, but if its beeing sitting under a cabinent for a few years ifs well worth geting it out and dusting of the rear grill, because the dust build up stops it lossing heat as well as it should, making the pump work hard, and use for juice, etc

 

 

daniel

[Mains power RCD units]

Is this for your 240v wiring, or for you lowvoltage wireing?

 

 

daniel

[building a fireplace]

how about a reflective machine finish aluminium or stainless steel sheet, mounted on an insulating asbestos type board?  Not very traditional I know, but a refreshing change.  I believe you can buy small sheets of that type of stuff at some big B&Q storeas or at a metal warehouse.

 

yeah, well that was we have on EA, except we used brass, which 12years later is now a nice dark colour!

 

- also, if your into the modern finish, B&Q have some quite nice sheets of aluminium chequer plate.

 

 

daniel

[BW and Anglers]

Im not a fisherman my self, but i dont have a problem with tehm fishing in the canal, and slow down if somone if there, and wish them well, and once i even free someones line that was snaged on a bush on the other side.

 

- but there is always one who has to give everyone else a bad name, one memrable occasion when somene missjudge the height of our funnel and hit there rod on it, despite my calling to to him, and then started giving it mouth about how us "pleasure boaters" didnt know what we where doing, so i just had to appolagise and ignore the abbuse - i mean, its not my fault we he didnt see our funnel, and i certainly coulnt have stoped in time.

 

 

daniel

[Roof Blinds]

A roller blind, it doesn't need a track,

 

Caravan and motorhome places always have a range of blinds of various kinds.

 

What I would do, a piece of 4mm ply, cut to the shape of the aperture 10mm smaller all round,  upholstered with your fabric, padded with foam both sides and edges, and a knob on one side.  Make it so it jambs neatly into the space, store it away when not needed.

 

yeah, i might checkout a caravan "place" - i never though of acctualy of that

 

- also, i think might end up with the peice of 4mm ply, crude buy effective (and easy)

 

We just have covers of 5mm ply which run in slides on each side of the opening.

This is by far the easiest method to use - if not to fit!

 

Martin, these cover, to they run above the cealing, in the roof space?

 

 

daniel

[Mooring fees]

Well, where saying at wixal marina this winder (till march), which is costing us £950 for about 18weeks, which is not too bad, although a lot more than tarleton, which was about £550 for about 24weeks, i think

 

daniel

[Bandwidth limit - photos?]

Hi, Jon

 

- when i tryed to have a look at a picture in the galley, and all i get is

 

"You have reached your bandwidth limit and can not view this image"

 

- Now, i know that bandwidth is expencive, and i know you must get though a fair bit with the galley, but i havent looked at more than 6-7photos, and anyway, the whole gallery is only 3.3MB!

 

- i was just wondering, when im going to be able to use the gallery again?

 

 

daniel

[Using Cold Start]

yeah, no driver is going to sit there for an hour sparying a whole canfull of easystart into and engine - for a start it would freaze there fingers off - and second, if there anyhtink like my uncals drivers they just complain and get it started for them my a mechanic!!

[Boats for tall people?]

Daniel.

Just a word about your prop.  The '32' is most unlikely to be degrees of pitch.  It will almost certainly be 32 inches, that is if it where cutting through a lump of cheese it would travel 32 inches in one revolution.

John Squeers.

 

yeah, sorry, my bad.

[Cats!]

I dont know about cats, but our (large) dog is fine on the boat, she'll sit down fine, and often during the day we let her jump off at a bridge, and jump back on at the next one

 

 

daniel

[Splitable belt]

also, im just in the middle of the major over-haul of my website, but there are a few photos of EA at tarleton last year - www.spurstow.com/emilyanne

 

- and if your interested in more detals, dont be afrad to ask anythink you want to know! - in fact, half the fun in the boat is talking about her with everyone!!

 

daniel

[Splitable belt]

No Jhon, the prop shft defonatly cant be moved, the thing you can see in the picture is the S.T.Gland, the shaft is solid, right from the coupling with the cranshaft, though 3bearings (one of which is heated onto the prop shaft) then though the pully, though the STG, and out to the prop. - so there defonatly no possablitly of ever removing it, ever!

 

- as for the chain, im sure i could get a large enough sproket to get the same gearing, beccause with the cain yo could have a much smaller gear on the alternator, beacuse its only about 1:8 (im into karting, and they can get about 1:8 with a 20mm rear sproket) - but like john sayed, it would be noiser

 

- also, i email the guys at lathes.co.uk and they say that these belt dont last very long, and also they sayed "The orange T link is better than the original black being made of an entirely different much more modern material."

 

 

so i think i'll try just fitting a new orange, and see if that works, and if not i think my grandad might have order another 18" pulley (becuase hes very keep to get some more power next year) - one problem i have is its hard to see if the belt it slipping at a quick glance, becuase it will alaway sping the alternatior a bit, and i dont have a way of checking the speed of the alternator - but you can tell it is slipping after a while, becuase the pulley on the aternator get warm after a while, and all the anodised finish came o in a few hours running

 

daniel

[Roof Blinds]

Every night I sleep on EmilyAnne I have to climb up onto the roof and trap a rag or piece of newspaper in the roof light, or wake up at sunrise, for a while I?ve been trying to come up with a better solution!

 

The roof light is about 45cm Square, with a frame around it hiding the roof insulation,

 

- What do you do to keep this light out?

 

- I have thought of getting a roller blind and putting it the space where the insulation is, like on caravan skylights

 

- Or do a similar thing with a sheet of 3mm ply

 

- But both of these would require quite substantial remaking of the room lining (ash panelled) - and i don?t really want the start taking the roof down!!!

 

 

Any ideas/thoughts welcome, thanks, Daniel

 

[edited for spelling]

[LED lighting]

ok, so LEDs are yet good enought to light a room

 

- and the rope lights out, becuase we dont have 240v avalable, hardly at all

 

- i might order a couple of the bulbs from superbrightleds.com, or try and see if could get somthink like that in the UK, for the spot lights

 

- for the engine room it looks like i should just get some more flurescents

 

daniel

[Boats for tall people?]

I gather your boat Emily Ann is fairly new, why on earth did your buy a new boat with a 3 ft draft.  I hope I don't find myself travelling behind it.

 

John Squeers

 

She was built to my grandads specifation in 1991 (by canalcraft, worcestor i think)

 

- she only draws 2"6' ish (no need to exaggerate!) - becuase she is a steamer.

 

- so as he didnt want to use a gearbox to get the engine revs up for the prop, she needs a large prop

 

- so we have a 26 inch dia, 32degree pitch prop!!

 

 

daniel

[Splitable belt]

Hi Dan

You said in a previous post that you dont have conventional IC engine.

What have you got then? 

- ah, i though someone would bit that up soon, actually, we have a steam engine, hence the low reving propshaft, and this whole alternator problem!!

 

I am a bit surprised that you can't get the belt tight-our lathes at work use these and are ok provided they are clean and dry-presumably your belt/pulleys are clean,dry, free from oil, not worn, free from grease etc.?  Stating the obvious I know, but I can't think why you would have trouble with slippage especially given the size of pulleys you have.  There used to be stuff called belt dressing in aerosol that cleaned belt and pulleys, but I haven't seen it for years-maybe an engineering supplies may have some.  Another thought-is the tensioner working to full extent?

- yeah, well maybe the belt is bit worn, its certainl pritty clean, as for the tention, its about as tight as the belt will go, if i tighen it more it feels like im streaching it!!

- also, it is quite a hightorqe alternation, ive see it pu out 30amps at 750rpm

 

Dan

Adjust the belt, this link belt as you describe it is Brammer belting widely used in industry in applications where normal V belts cannot be used. the belt is adjustable by removing or adding links. If the belt is too loose slip it off the pulleys, split the belt as it's designed to be split, remove one link, rejoin the belt and then stretch it back over the pulleys. These belts wear over the cross section just the same as normal V belts, it would be advisable if your belt has been slipping to replace it with a length of new belting. The modern Brammer belting is easier to split than the old style.

 

as i sayed above, the belt is about a tight as it will go (although that not vey tight)

 

- i googled "Bramer" and came up with this lathe shop who stock the belts, i think (somwhere) we might have an unused orange belt, and i noticed that they do a "Super T" belt, im not sure if this would be better - but i'll mail them about the bule belts, and maybe order a pair of them

 

- and i might get another 18" pulley as well, becuase we really need to be able to generate some power!!

 

thanks all, daniel

[Splitable belt]

Hi, recently we replaced emily annes alternator with a low speed alternator, because the one origanly fitted very rairly acttually cut in!!

 

- the problem we have now is that the belt the used to drive the other alternator is not upto the job of turning this alternator

 

- the problem is that the belt we have currently is a sectioanl fibre belt, and it just slips on the alternators pulley, because you cant get the belt very tight, because of the way it make from the separate peices "buttoned" together

 

- what should i do? - i could get another 18" pulley, with a second belt, in the hope that that that would be enought, but i fear it wouldnt! - are there any other types of splitable belt that offter more grip?

 

- or should i scrap the belt and try to find a gear, sproket and chain of simular ratio?

 

 

 

 

Thanks, Daniel

[Boats for tall people?]

Headroom is certainly not an issue with canal boats.  I have just skimmed though the Nicholsons books and the lowest headroom I could find on the system is 6 feet and the lowest depth 3 feet.

 

John Squeers

 

Yes there are some tunnels that are less than 6feet, certainly a lot the are less than 6feet at the edges - i dont know the details, but when my grandad was desigin his boat to got anywhere, he did a lot of mesuring of tunnels, ie the Harecastle

 

- and as for a depth of 3feet, at 2foot6 emily ann touchs the bottom enought times for me, and has somtims got really very stuck, and we certainly cant get up to the top of the langollen in summer!

 

 

daniel

[Torgen Vs Squirrel]

Yeah, it should be fine, but you will need to screw the rads valves down a little, but it should work fine.

 

- our works fine, as long as we get all the bubbles out the coils!! (becuase otherwise, with the pumpless sytem you get air locks

 

 

daniel

[Bubble diesel stoves]

i dont know much about diesel bubble stoves

 

- but i dont see why it wouldnt "gravity" feed a few radiators

 

- you just have to think a little more carefully about where you lay the pipes, but ten minutes thinking is better than a noisy pump draining you batterys

 

daniel