Detling

I assume the belt is adjusted correctly and not slipping, maybe at low revs the torque from the alternator could cause a slip and jerk movement thus causing the output to be intermittent.

I doubt that you will get the MPPT controller to trump the Victron charger. My Tracer adsorption voltage is 14.1 my Victron is 14.4 and always wins, neither voltages are readily changeable only the battery type which does change the volts but not for the best. It is not a big problem though as if you put a large12 volt load on, both chargers shove in current, it is only the last 10-15% of charge that comes mainly from the Victron.

If the paint in the sanded areas is clean (good scrub required) I scrub lightly with white spirit and then use well thinned paint over the sanded area. I have never had any problem with lifting/peeling paint in 20 odd years of this treatment, the only problem is after 20 years of this system there is not a lot on non-slip left. If you want to remove the sand the ideas above will help. Non-slip finish may not look lovely but there are times and places it can save a very serious injury from a bad fall.

It is not just a simple matter of changing the pump and putting in a 240 wire. You will probably need to change the complete control system as well, the control buttons will need to activate a 240 volt pump, not a 12 volt pump and the current relay/solid state switch which turns the pump on/off will be rated for 12 volt DC and not 204 volt AC.

my slow cooker takes 15 amps off the batteries and once hot is on for about 25% of the time so say 4 amp hours per hour. If on all day say 9 hours you are looking at 36 amp hours not massive but probably more than your fridge. In summer with your 500 watts of solar you should be OK with a fridge and the slow cooker, but a wet cloudy day or in winter (when the type of food cooked in a slow cooker is more appreciated) you will need more charging time every day maybe as much as an hour extra generator or engine, making the cost benefit more questionable.

The Click is not airborne noise but a vibration which passes through the mounting (rubber hoses both sides holding it up in my case) and fuel into the fabric of the boat a bit like water hammer in a central heating system. I can hear the solenoid pump click on the Webasto, in the engine hole in the stern, when I am sitting at the front of the boat 40 feet away.

Yes it will work just not very well, The heat transfer depends on the surface area of the coil in the calorifier, a true heat store / exchange will have a coil of 2-3 times the surface area than your calorifer which is designed to take heat from the coil into the water. I tried this on my boat and the rads did get warm but that was all maybe 30 degrees I now have a plate heat exchanger the engine cooling circuit so that it can heat either the radiators, the calorifier or both. In summer obviously only the calofier valve is open and in winter both valves are open. The engine does not run any colder as I have a thermostat on the system so only when the engine is warm does the heating go to the calorifier and the rads. The hot water does take 45 mins to get hot instead of the 30 mins it took before I did the change, the rads run at 70-80 degrees so very hot ( part close valve to adjust temperature down). The webasto also uses the water same circuit.

I have used rubber door stops from Ebay placed at the sides they hold the box level and just above the curve of the roof in the center. they come in several sizes, if too big look for computer case feet.

I suspect it contains boiled linseed oil which at certain temperatures (About 30 deg C) and the correct 'dampness' can heat up sufficiently to cause cloth/paper to smolder (about 250 deg C). A combination of circumstances unlikely to be found outside a 'health and safety' laboratory, so the warning is just a CMA (cover my A**) warning, in case anyone sue's as the manufacturer can say they have been warned. Coal dust and flour can be explosive in unusual circumstances, but you don't see that on packets.

You definitely only need to license it from the day you have the receipt and paperwork i.e. it is yours. When I bought mine there was 18 months of back license fees due but that was the sellers problem, CRT asked me for his address from the paperwork as he had left the address they had.

I would also get the vendor to pay for a BSS test and correct any failings, I understand over 30% of boats fail the first test as RCD and BSS look for different things.

Not only does the overgrown towpath make seeing the edge hard, trying to drop the lock wheeler approaching a lock is nigh on impossible except right at the lock. You cannot come in to the side so they can step off as most of the growth is stinging nettles and in this weather dress code tends to be shorts, not a good mix. To add insult to stinging legs the long vegetation hides the offerings of our canine friends until you step on/kneel on/put you hand into when trying to find the armco to hook to. If when cutting the towpath they cut a few areas 100 yards/metres long every half mile or so it would really help, and still leave most of the path edge for wildlife. Maybe the organisers of the grass cutters have not seen ducklings trying to get out of the canal into the impenetrable growth, they become trapped in the canal, paddling like mad and quite frightened as a boat approaches. We have noticed there is a big difference between canals so some organisers are boater/duckling friendly and others not. One are I think on the Staffs & Worcester was so overgrown it was not possible to walk the path (without a machete) as the brambles had crossed from the hedge to the canal in many places. I do not know what the expected standard is but would agree with the OP that there is a problem. This year so far we have cruised over 250 miles in the midlands and would say 60% of the towpath is bad and 5% impossible.

thanks

One of the worst hazards we have encountered was a do good er who had pruned a branch probably last year. They had cut a one inch diameter branch on a tree overhanging the cut and when i was forced into the overhanging greenery by an impatient boater setting off past the other moored boat I was passing I encountered said branch hidden in the fresh shoots. It went through the top coat and the undercoat and primer back to metal for the whole length of the starboard side. If it had not been pruned it may have bent and heavily brushed the side but not scratched back to bare metal. ( it may of course have broken and the stump would then have done the same)

Can anyone suggest a suitable place to moor for 48 hours in Mid August in the Thrupp Kidlington area of the South Oxford canal. We would prefer somewhere with access to bus routes to Oxford. Thanks in advance

We had no trouble or even sight of trouble other than a lump of rubbish on the prop requiring use of the weed hatch to clear it. Moorings at caslefield can be a bit full. However we were not in school holidays so less busy, we did follow someone on the Ashton he opened all the anti vandal locks we closed them, this did help.

Crick has a waiting list, I believe they are now booking August 2015 i.e. 13 months ahead so they must be getting something right.

I have a victron PSW which has a fairly high idle current about 1.5 amps, when the fridge is running the current goes up to 6 amps for a few minutes and then back to 1.5 amps etc. I thought I would be clever and got myself a small MSW which had an idle current of less than 1/2 an amp. so I wired it in and fridge ran fine, but the current to the inverter was 10 amps fridge on not 6 as the PSW used. As the big PSW uses about the same amp hour total in a day as the little MSW it is easier to leave the big one on and only have one thing to fail and not two. Also the small MSW had a cooling fan that was permanently running and seemed noisy at night, it may have been possible to fit a thermo switch but it would still need to run when on load whereas the big victron can run the fridge without using it's fan so it is silent. .

There were several boats there when I moored a few weeks ago, all only stayed the night and moved on next day. When I returned a few days later there were 4 boats moored as I passed to go up the locks.

If you have a PWM and a MPPT controller onto the same battery bank the PWM will kid the MPPT that the batteries are full. This is because the PWM will output narrow pulses of upto 18V onto the batteries as a way of regulation, the batteries will smooth out these pulses but the raised voltage will cause the MPPT to think the batteries are full. Below 90% charge there should be no problem. Two PWM ot two MPPT will work in harmony but one will still think the battery is full before the other and we all know which one 'S*D' will chose don't we.

I got some from http://www.wesleywindows.co.uk/ but I did buy it a Crick show. I think it was about £10 for 15 meters of the stuff, you will be surprised how long it need to be to go round your port hole.

I have only once slowed down to almost stopped. and that was when the b*** coming the other way had a searchlight, he could see the tunnel behind me when he was 100 foot away, I could see b*gg*r all only the silhouette of my cabin front and a sun like object coming towards me. I commented on his light and he replied that he could only just about see and had really wanted a bigger one.

Put a piece of kitchen towel roll under / alongside and check every 10 minutes or so until you see where the drip has landed.

A friend has MCS on his boat and has spent two years in conversation with MCS trying o get it working consistently. Basically it works very well if used regularly but if you go away and leave the boat for several weeks the reading seems to creep down and on return carries on from where it has crept down to, thus resulting in him thinking he is only half full, when his tank is actually full.

The fridge is simple to say but straight away puts you in a medium to high use category. Most fridges use over 35 Amp hours a day and many use 50+ so you will need at least 3 leisure batteries if you are not going to discharge them below 50% level.and you will need to give them a reasonable charge every day probably 2 hours engine running or more just to run the fridge. One advantage of the cheap batteries is when they die after a few years it doesn't hurt quite as much as when you kill expensive batteries.