BargeeSpud
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Posts posted by BargeeSpud
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3 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:
......more then 10' of chain.
10' will be all its getting. End of.
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Sorry, I've been sidetracked these last few days, but I'll respond in general to the usual brilliant & varied cross section of responses so typical of a CWDF topic!
First, there are some great instances for using an anchor that had never even crossed my mind, in particular a stalled engine due to an obstruction of the prop, be it bag, log etc.
Second, my apologies for not being clearer, I intend to cruise from early May for several weeks.
An observation regarding chain length - 100'!? Tryping errot shorely. I'm not chuffin built like Arnie, let alone the missus.
From all the posts, I'm now thinking that an anchor is more than a good idea & that a 20Kg Danforth with around 10' of chain will be a decent compromise in my case, oh and we will both be wearing life jackets whilst underway.
Cheers all & thanks for taking the time & effort to post. Good, bad, irrelevant or indifferent, they're all worth reading.
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Fair point I guess, but I'd have thought that struggling with a right type of anchor for the boat that is too heavy to lift properly only adds to the panic & danger.
I'm looking for a compromise that I'd be happy to buy for what could be a "one off" cruise.
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Hiya,
I'll be making my first ever visit to the non tidal Thames this year & on checking out the requirements for my boat's equipment, it seems that having an anchor is not one of them, although it is "advisory".
Now, I'm not one who will slavishly fit everything on my boat whether its needed or not, I tend to stick to what I must do or have. That doesn't mean I will absolutely rule anything out, I will make a choice based on how I feel about the particular "advisory" & if it seems a good idea & I'll get the use, then I'll follow it. Having an "advisory" anchor for a cruising situation that might not become a regular in my boating calendar would seem to fall outside my criteria, however, not enough for me to rule it out completely.
So, my question to all of you, no matter your non tidal Thames experience, is this:
Just how important do you think is it to have an anchor on the non tidal Thames?
Also, in case I do decide to get one for my 65' x 11' narrowboat style widebeam, what type of anchor should I be looking at and how much chain & warp would it need?
To help a bit further, I will not fit anything I or the missus can't easily lift to chuck over the side, so anything 20Kg or more is out. I only have shackle eyes welded on the front of the footwell coming, so it will be stored in the footwell under a cratch & cover and only human power is available to raise & lower the thing.
I'm very much looking forward to your views, tips & suggestions so thanks in anticipation.
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7 minutes ago, mross said:
email staff@canalworld.net
OK, thank you.
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My problem with this new site was in logging on, I kept getting a pop up asking me to complete setting up my account & if I pressed cancel it told me my account would be deleted so I naturally got out out of the site & tried entering again only to get exactly the same pop up! No matter what I tried, deleting browser history, Bing search etc., I could not get back to the sign in page.
In desperation, I tried accessing the site with IE instead of my preferred & usual Firefox browser (where I was having the issue) & managed to sign in. Whilst finally on the site, I used the new(?) contact link to relay the problem I was having, which so far has not been responded to after 2 days. Today, I bit the bullet & "created" my account from the, now extremely iritating, pop up to see what would happen & finally got logged in. I logged out & then back in using my original details & now all is well. I hope!
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, when I "completed" setting up my account, I had mispelled my regular username & I have now created an account called BergeeSpud which is obviously useless now.
Can someone in Technical please delete this account for me please.
Cheers.
Ade.
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That's some genset and you'll put very little load on it from charging those batteries. The other question would be how many ah's do you use per day and do you use the genny regularly for anything else and for how long for.
How do you get your hot water?
No way of knowing Ah consumption I'm afraid, solar is hooked up all the time so any readings from Victron BMV are arbitrary & working out daily consumption I find confusing to say the least.
The genny is run for the washing machine & ironing (about an hour for each) plus immersion heating for showers (about 1 1/2 hours), kettles on stove for anything else. Also run the genny for battery charging when down to 12.3V until Amps are down to below 10 on the BMV. taking between 3 - 4 hours depending on how much solar has already put in. in the summer I don't need to gennny charge at all.
The primary reason I want to use a battery charger is to do equalisation charges from time to time plus I'd feel happier charging "properly" on a regular basis.
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What size generator and what type of batteries? With a 675ah traction type battery bank we can quite happy use a 150-170amp (25% of total ah) charger if your generator can handle it. If you have Gel/AGM/cheapo leisure we could push that further to 270amp (40% of total ah).
I would size the charger to push the load on the generator as you want short charging times, gennys run more efficient at around 75% load.
Beta 9Kw Genset & 6 x Trojan T105.
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That is what I'm looking at also but will stick with the 60 amp as I can't push to get two. I also have a 675ah battery bank. Trojan recommends 10 to 13% of bank capacity.
That's interesting, I have the same batteries, how do you get on with routine charging, have you done an equalisation charge & if so, how long do they take?
What's the charger plugged into? If it's shore power and not a generator then it doesn't matter what amp output the charger has so forget about the 10% blurb..
More about sizing the charger here; http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/chargesize.html
It'll be into an onboard generator who's alternator also charges the battery bank. Great link, it just goes to show how complicated this issue really is & how much of a compromise charging time over battery life depends on what balance you want to achieve.
My Sterling 2500W Pro Combi S inverter charger charges at up to 80A. It has 8 battery settings, one of which is equalisation, but no custom setting.
Great, but unfortunately, I already have a Victron 2Kw inverter & the replacement Sterling product equivalent to yours, is knocking on the door of £1k.
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Hiya,
Adding to the nearly exhausted, I suspect, topic of battery charging, I'm really keen on getting some sort of 240V battery charging installed & to that end, I've been exploring the range of Sterling products.
According to their blurb, I would need a 70A charger for my 675Ah battery bank. Now their range of digital chargers only go up to 60A, but they suggest that it is possible to link a combination of 2 of their chargers to make up the extra amperage required. In my case, probably a 40A & a 30A could be the cheapest option, according to their online prices.
Now, I can't find anything in their downloads for a document that outlines how this is done, so my question is, is there anyone on here who has linked 2 chargers together in this mannner, Sterling or otherwise?
Cheers.
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Best not to watch this video then...
I couldn't even glance at the opening shot of that vid without my legs going all trembly! Thanks for that Mike, B******D!!
Well you could have walked back along the road instead, then you could have got one of those photos looking up at the aqueduct from below.
Ah, but I had no idea what I was letting myself in for because I wanted to experience it from a walker's point of view. Little did I realise the profound effect it would have on me. But I'm glad it wasn't the Pontcysyllte where I completely lost it & that it was the Zip World experience that totally changed my life.
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We did the aqueduct in 2014. I was fine boating over it as I stood just inside the doors of my trad stern, but after we'd gone back over it & moored up, it was a different story. We walked back to the aqueduct with our 2 dogs to walk across it & to my horror, I found myself physically shaking & had to hand my dog on to the missus in order to continue across! Then I had to do it all over again, hoping it wouldn't be as bad. Not a snowballs, I felt exactly the same.
I mean, there's nearly 5' of railing on one side & the canal on the other! How likely is it to have a serious accident!? I couldn't believe it, I'd always known I was aprehensive with heights, but this was ridiculous, I'm not actually scared of heights surely? Well, I was soon to find out.
A year later & I was getting my holiday rental in Blaenau Ffestiniog in a fit state to hire out, when my niece who works at Zip World thought it was a good idea to give me a "flight" for my birthday. Great I thought, I've abseiled before, same difference I guess. We got there, got suited up & I was asked how I felt., "fine" I said, are you excited I was asked, "not really" I said, all seemed good, I was calm. Onto the bus to the top of Titan, still feeling OK. At the top, all off the bus, niece in attendance & would be going down with us. To get onto the lines, you have to ascend onto a platform, we were the last group to go down, but as I watched the others go before us, the nerves kicked in - big style! I couldn't even get myself onto the platform. For the first time in my life, I truly understood what "petrified" means, I could not move a muscle. Then the humiliating trip back to base on the bus, despite the consolation of the staff, I was absolutely devastated, especially as the missus, also scared, went down.
So, I am scared of heights, so much so, my legs quiver if a verticle drop is shown on TV!
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So you are saying that your built in generator supplying your boat with 240 volts also has a 12 volt alternator mounted on it which charges your domestic batteries, how does this tie in with your boat engine and alternator and also your starter batteries. The raised voltage from the battery charger being fed from the generator would suppress your on engine alternator, but if you were running at equalisation voltage you would also be feeding that to any live circuits including the alternators and maybe the engine start batteries depending on how your system is put together.
Both engine & genny will charge all the batteries, they both have identical Leece Neville alternators. Obviously, there is never a situation where both engine & genny are operating at the same time. How they're wired up to the batteries, I'm unable to confirm ATM as I'm not exactly certain & can't check as I'm not at the boat.
It shouldn't be a problem. The device with the lower set voltage (the alternator) will just cease producing current, whilst the charger will produce whatever voltage it's set to.
Thanks Nick, as usual you've crystallised my query very succinctly. In other words, I need have no worries whatsoever running a 240V battery charger capable of equalising my batteries using my existing genset set up.
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A generator / alternator / battery charger can have varying voltage outputs, from (say) 13.5 volts, 14.4 volts, 14.7v, 15v, 16v.
Some systems allow you to 'toggle' the max output voltage from (say) the 'standard' 14.4v to (say) 15v so you can equalise.
If you run a battery charger from the generator, it is the battery charger (and the battery SoC) that dictates the charge voltage, and NOT the generator.
Does your battery charger allow 'manual intervention' of the charge voltage ?
Sorry, I'm not making myself clear.
Basically I guess what I'm asking is, because the fact my genny's alternator will be charging the batteries at the same time as a battery charger will be doing an equalisation charge, will this impact on that charger's ability to do a proper equalisation charge? Would I have to disconnect the alternator output for example or would a charger make allowance for the input from the alternator to compensate in order to do an equalisation charge?
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Does your generator have 'operator controlled' output voltage selection ?
Not sure what you mean by that. My genny is a Beta 9KVa Genset & all I know is that its alternator charges my batteries whilst its putting out 240V and, as far as I'm aware, that would continue if I hooked up a battery charger capable of equalising my battery bank to one of my genset's 240V outlets .
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OK, dumb question time:
Is it possible to do an equalisation charge with an onboard generator that also charges the batteries from its alternator?
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A telephone box would be ideal. Self closing door, plenty of bog paper in the form of directories and BT come round and clean them once a month.
Brilliant! I was feeling a little low until I read that, have a greenie mate.
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I can't offer anything on equalising charges, but I notice you haven't said what the voltage reading is at the time you start charging. Personally, I'd forget using the SOC as a basis for deciding when to charge (its only a guide, no matter how accurate your SOC reading is) & go by the voltage reading instead. I don't let my batteries drop below 12.25 before initiating a charging cycle. Even my 6 T105's with their total of 675Ah need charging every 3 days or so when my solar isn't putting in much during these shorter days. That's with average to heavy use BTW, in summer I rely totally on my solar charger.
I hope my observations & experience with my Trojans is useful to you, other electrickery wizards on here will be able to help you far better than I can.
Good luck.
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Yes pressure or head of water = height, not a volume mesurment
Oooh! Picky & pedantic. I like it!
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It could be it is slightly out of calibration in that when the tank is actually full the gauge reads 3/4 ish and the head of water in the filler pipe takes it to the full/ spot mark. The result of this is when you fill the tank to an indicated full the water is a couple of inches up the pipe, you turn a tap on and draw off a bucket full and the pipe is emptied so the gauge has dropped to 3/4 ish. Remember the gauge is measuring the height of the water surface above the bottom of the tank, not the capacity of the tank.
I think it works by the pressure (weight) of the water on the sensor. I'd be extremely surprised if it could determine height!
I like the idea of filling up so, in my case, water flows overboard from the vent pipe, then checking whether my filler pipe is also full & if it is draining off to empty the filler & then recalibrating to have that point as "full".
Thanks everyone, some very interesting points raised, cheers all.
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If you make the mistake I did once & leave a full, hot ash can on the hearth you CO alarm will go off because the hot ash will still be giving off CO.
Another place to check with the stove is inside the firebox immediately below the flue. This area can have a plate below it & the space will fill with ash reducing the effectiveness of the flue.
Hope you find the cause quickly & that it's something simple. Good luck,
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Thats a good idea, but I think I'm going to replace the vent pipe anyway, so I can do a fill after I've removed it, but before I replace, it to see if that makes a difference. This could also help to decide whether to increase the pipe diameter or not.
Cheers.
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I hadn't considered the tank being pressurized, that makes loads of sense & is possibly the route to solving this problem. I can see that despite my clearing the vent, that it is possible this was only partially achieved, so if the vent is still restricted it would explain why the tank could be put under pressure if the water enters the tank quicker than the air can escape. Plus it could also explain how the "level would drop quicker than in the past without really using more water".
Something else I didn't mention is that when the filling got close to completion, I'd get a gurgling & then blowback of water out of the filler. A clear indication of a tank under pressure. I should've thought of that! Doh!!
Unfortunately, the vent is welded pipe, but I could cut it out & replace with a clear flexible hose that I could both see & remove to clean any build up of crud. Our water supply isn't exactly the fastest, pressure wise, & I've always wondered whether the vent pipe could be too small in diameter, maybe I could also help matters by fitting a larger diameter vent pipe.
Cheers, most helpful.
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Hiya,
I have both these gauges fitted & they are brilliant, however, I've recently had level issues regarding my water tank/water gauge.
In the last few water fills, the gauge reading has climbed to the full position with the little dot showing at the top but when turning off the tap, the reading tends to quickly drop down to show 3/4, this has only just started happening. I did notice before this started that the level would drop quicker than in the past without really using more water. I've checked & cleared the tank vent, checked all the electrical connections & all seems fine. I've not experienced this issue with the fuel gauge, but then I've only filled that tank twice since installing its gauge & initial calibration.
Could this simply be a need for recalibrating the gauge or could there be issues related to filling the water tank, air locks for example?
Any ideas?
Reasons For not Closing Lock Gates On The Southern GU
in General Boating
Posted
I'm getting too long in the tooth to get wound up about all this sort of thing these days. Even my pet hate of people leaving bottom gate paddles slightly up because they have to drain the lock on leaving, doesn't seem worth the fuss anymore.
Maybe being retired has something to do with it, either that or with 35+ years on the cut I'm waking up to the fact that people have always done these things & always will!