Bee

Be careful, if he came from a farm and he`s black and white he might grow up to be a collie.

I used delrin for top and bottom bearings on a well travelled widebeam tug, no vibration,no problems, still perfect after many miles.

Have spent many years ignoring rules and regs and using what I think is common sense but, CO is bad stuff, recent case in Shropshire, family camping in biggish tent with, I think one of those kind of porches attached, chilly night, brought the still warm barbecue in to the outside awning bit, tragic result , one 15 year old dead, rest of family v. unwell, there is no way a tent is gas tight compared to a boat and the inquest heard the BBQ was `out` but it was still a killer, Another example, I had a well installed stove on a boat a few years ago and on the roof was some salvaged timber with a tarp over it, puff of wind blew a corner of the wet tarp over the admittedly short chimney, very fumey in the boat but at least there were ,in this case, fumes to alert me, otherwise .....

The man who thinks he owns me seemed to find it hilarious but I find it patronising and offensive as I am quite capable of understanding simple signs so woof sodding woof to that. Bella the collie

Those Wartsilla Sulzers are ok but if you`re battery is flat they are sods to start by hand.

I`m guessing that you mean to cut off the back and add 8` to include a counter, either narrowboat type or even better a tug pattern, if that makes 40` x 7` pretty much anything you find in a narrowboat will do the job, if you want something that sounds good and has bits of brass and copper to polish then it`ll take a while to find, however if you want to empty the canal on tickover then it`s got to be the V8 Detroit diesel 2 stroke.....

The type of fuel used in these things is a bit of a red (or white) herring, I have had 20 years of using them in mobile libraries with fresh white diesel and the installation done by experts and they still give trouble eventualy. But as mentioned by others it is important to run them turned up high, with proper wiring to avoid any chance of voltage drop and with clean fuel to avoid the major problem of them coking up. In the end we resorted to specifying two in each van on the basis of one working and one being fixed, after a year or two it was seldom that they both worked at the same time. In your position of having to use them in a fleet I would strongly advise having a spare to use as an instant fix, they are easy to swap if you can get to them and you can fix the broken one in daylight and in the workshop.They are ok for a winter or two but durable they are not.

Agree, cost and difficulty, look, it`s steel, it`s in water, it will rust, why else do boats need new bottoms? they don`t wear thin, paint it, epoxy if poss. 3-4 years is good if you can manage.

Don`t dismiss the idea of changing the prop through the weed hatch, I`ve done it a couple of times - it should come off ok as its only just gone on, be v. careful the key doesn`t drop out, turn the rudder sideways and the prop will probably come away, beware of frostbite or find a fellow boater who looks poor and hungry and give him a bit of cash to do it. Where are you?

It`s generally accepted that to run an engine with little or no load for long periods is bad for it, glazed bores, oil sludging etc. but with a modern engine with an effective thermostat that allows it to reach a proper temperature and modern oils it might not be so bad. Personally I would still try to avoid doing it but if you have to it`s best to run it at a good fast tickover, it will help circulate hot oil and water properly and keep oil pressure up.

I would just add that if you are doing a big refit and the boat is insulated with fibreglass wool that has gone soggy it would be a good idea to sprayfoam it.

Hi If I read it right the stove is towards the stern and the rad at the fore end, this should be fine, the principal is that hot water rises therefore the top pipe must rise to the end of the run and then fall to the bottom pipe on the boiler, so long as that is followed it should work,the heat will drive the whole lot round. Be careful if you are on dry dock as the boat will sit flat. Take the expansion pipe and tank from the highest point in the circuit, I am suddenly nervous of my facts here so if anyone has any doubts I am happy to be put right!

As nicknorman says, a system with a bit of natural convection is desirable, if you can get a full convection system then so much the better, the advantages are simplicity and cheapness - no pumps or electrics. The tricky part is getting a nice uphill and downhill slope on the pipes, the natural trim of the boat, bows higher than the stern, is exactly opposite to what you need and pipe runs can look a bit odd, however I had a 62 foot boat with a convection system and it worked fine but I was struggling for every 1/2 inch of slope, if I had to put heating in a narrowboat again though I would make a huge effort to do the same again, a boat without heating is pretty mich uninhabitable and to sit and shiver because of a battery or pump problem is no fun.

Nice fire, not sure about `butterflied etc. ` pig thing on top of it, looks a lot like the badger I drove past last night.

I had a BMC 1.5 years ago that had the wrong dipstick in it, took a while to work out why such a little engine needed such a helluva lot of oil, no harm befell it but thats just the luck of the draw I suppose.

I would be apprehensive about deep uphill locks because of the difficulty of getting a rope around bollards, the bollards of varying types are set in the walls and seldom where you would like to see them, it often needs the crew to scurry along the deck to grab hold of something and you will usually be last in the lock, no time for faffing about, however, the more commercial canals are likely to be used only to get somewhere more suitable so as long as you dont want to do extensive exploring involving lots of commercial routes then yes, you should be fine but narrow and wide beam engish canal boats really are not ideal for the bigger waterways, don`t be discouraged but you need to concentrate and as with lots of things boaty have a plan B ready for use when you find yourself in a `situation`

It`s part of the British personality that we would rather turn our wrath on each other for `getting away with it` than by sticking together to resist ever higher boating expenses, boating costs are outrageous and if anybody thinks they would come down if we all meekly paid up and followed the letter of the law they are frankly naive, its partly this attitude that made me buy a house and move off the canals 20 years ago, no one cares if I live in it, I don`t have to have it inspected every 3 years or whatever it is, but most importantly I don`t have to suffer the `Do as you`re told` attitude from the authorities backed up by neighbours who can afford to pay ever higher demands. I now do my boating in Europe. (digging a hole to hide in) Happy new year.

My choice would be something that would fit on a trailer to avoid the hassle / expense of a mooring and something a bit like the Thames steam launch lookalikes but with an outboard - practical and with real class, also with more potential cruising grounds.

I worked on mobile libraries for many years, blasted heater failed every winter, nearly froze my bits off until we fitted 2 of the things into the vans as policy, thats with good fresh white diesel and a huge bank of charged traction batteries, it`s a rare thing for them both to work at any one time, one in the van, one out being fixed, they are the work of the devil.

I don`t know these engines but I would try advancing the injection timing, I think white smoke is too retarded, others may correct me, a retarded engine will be hard to start and very `flat`, in fact so flat that it won`t pick up and run. Good luck

`London Taxi Exports` list them at £170 on therebouts, I should think with a bit of a search a taxi breakers would be a good bet for a second hand one

I`ve got a Kubota, what does `refuse to start` mean?

19 x 14 propeller should be fine, its a heavy boat so will take a while to react, as for steering response it really is just a case of getting used to it, its a skill, like welding, books can`t teach you, you just get better the more you do it,you are steering the equivalent of a small barge with a good load on so it will handle like a loaded boat.

That looks a lot like me trying to get into a lock on a windy day.

If I were you I think I would remove the stats and the pressure cap and refill the system squeezing the hoses to hopefully work some air out, run the engine for a good length of time topping up as necessary and see what happens, is your water pump ok? impeller still got vanes?, bits of vanes blocking pipes? this saves stripping the thing down and will tell you something, it is sometimes not obvious from an old gasket if it was leaking, if no problems start putting a stat back then another then if still ok the pressure cap then if ok go to the pub, if it`s not start looking for cracks etc. good luck.