sassan

Some time between 18:30 and 19:00 tonight. I shall update the thread Thank you all for your support

It is something we have to consider. I know a great deal of planning goes into these things. Not having been involved in the planning of this project I don't know details, but the trust is at this point very aware of ecological issues (including how they can affect planning permission and working). This is by no means the first section we have restored, so we have had to make these choices before. As you say, this will be creating habitat for our great crested friends (which is good) and it will need to be carefully considered how this affects future work. The heavy focus on walking and habitat creation is a fact of life regarding funding. Noone is willing to give you money to restore a canal just because "we like canals", you have to really push the ecological, recreational, health, "green commuting" and "urban regeneration" angles. However, it does bring us closer to getting the canal fully restored!

Fantastic, welcome to the trust!

It's a community choir. It's a nice charity, but I think we can bring benefits to more people. After all, people may have their lives enriched by performing in a community choir, but noone has ever had their life enriched by being in the audience! On a serious note though, they do seem like a worthy cause.

I've gathered some photos from the facebook page for you. Can't find any of the lock cottage (although only foundations remain at the moment). http://imgur.com/a/8vnMq There's some much older photographs here, including the dry dock: http://wbct.org.uk/branches/melksham-calne-and-chippenham/structures/311-pewsham-lock much clearance work has been done since then! Thanks to everyone voting! If anyone would like to join the trust and hear more about progress in our quarterly magazine, membership forms can be found here: http://wbct.org.uk/get-involved/join

We're very keen to get this particular bit done soon, as if we time things right the material dredged from the canal can be used in landscaping the rest of the old landfill site (saving us a lot of money on disposal). I'm not personally involved in this particular project, the trust is split into local branches and I am involved with the branch working on the canal in Melksham Chippenham and Calne (section furthest south/west). Wootton Bassett is a bit far from me at the moment! We do also have exciting things happening on our section. We recently received planning permission to restore one of three locks at Pewsham near Chippenham and the associated lock cottage, dry dock and sawpit; we have now started work. We are waiting for the results of a similar vote to hear whether we have received a grant from the Yorkshire Building Society for the restoration of a collapsed culvert on the Pewsham site (which has begun, but needs more funds for bricks to complete and materials/plant to reinstate the canal bank and towpath over the newly rebuilt culvert). Then there is the Melksham Link project which I briefly mentioned before. We are hopefully receiving planning permission soon for a project to create a new link with the Kennet and Avon at Semmington!

It really depends on how optimistic the person you ask is. I've not heard 2020, I've heard 2025. Total completion may well take quite some time, but there's a good chance we'll have the connection to the K&A within the next few years (planning permission expected in the next couple of months).

This section of canal will be restored to navigable standard as part of the project. It will be isolated from the main network for many years (being somewhat in the middle of the canal line), but it does join an existing section of the restored canal in Wootton Bassett. There is the hope of running trip boats on this section in the future (as we do on another restored section). It may be 20 years before you can get to it, but every mile (or kilometre in this case) is a mile closer to completion!

Voting has now closed Hi folks, The Wilts and Berks Canal Trust (a charity restoring the Wilts and Berks Canal, which joined/will join the K&A at Semmington) are finalists in the "People's millions" from the Big Lottery Fund. You can help us get £50,000 to restore a kilometre of canal at Wootton Bassett and bring us a step closer to linking the K&A at Semmington to the Thames at Abingdon. The phone number for mobiles is 6228216; from landlines: 09015 228216. Please call and vote for "Studley Wildlife Trail". Voting is open today only, until midnight and costs only 15p from mobiles or BT landlines. You can vote for us up to 10 times. You can help us get a very large amount of very useful free money to turn a disused landfill site back into a section of navigable canal. We are competing against only 1 other charity, so we have a very good chance! Voting takes about 10 seconds! You can vote up to 10 times! Many thanks in advance, Sassan PS, I had a good dig around for the forum rules and found nothing forbidding this type of post, please do remove it if you feel it inappropriate.

It's the 3-output model I have. The paper manual I have covers the 3-output version but does not mention connecting outputs together. I will try that at the weekend (not usually home early enough during the week to run generator). I also didn't see any control for limiting charge current, only voltage. My charger is not quite the same one as the pdf manual is for.

By the way, for a lot of chargers it seems you're supposed to connect the several positive battery outputs together if using only one. Manual for this one doesn't mention a need to do so. Any thoughts on that? Edit: note, I have not, so-far, tried this.

Hi Arthur, That is the manual I have. It does not have any info on the BTS except mentioning it in passing as an optional extra.

Sounds good. To be honest I don't know why I asked about noise level, since it's being powered by a generator sat on my roof... Any reliability problems? Any problems running from generator? I called up Electroquest and the voltage/frequency tolerance sounds good to me (even supports 60+Hz, and apparently my generator can output more power at 60Hz). If I upgraded my batteries to the 6V Trojan batteries, would this charger still be suitable? I don't see much about being able to configure the boost/float voltages mentioned.

After examining it more closely and testing with a multimeter, it does look like a thermocouple. Either it or the unit isn't working properly though, since it appeared to be triggering the high-temp cut-out despite the battery box being completely cold. Are the electroquest chargers reliable? Quiet? They look a very good price.

This looks like two wires connected to one of those rings you stick onto battery terminals (name temporarily escapes me). Can't say for certain it isn't a thermocouple in there as there is some plastic sheathing around it.

Hi Folks, This is my first winter without shore power, therefore electricity has become a trickier thing. I have an Invertek 60A battery charger installed by the previous owner. As far as I know it's only ever been used on permanent shore-power during winter and never for any other sort of charging. So, I connected up a generator, (1kw, 700kw constant) to the charger and found that the charger briefly flashed its "absorbtion" LED before settling at floating. The voltage was about 12.6. I checked the settings of the charger and it is set up for 14.4V boost and 13.5V float. The first thing I checked (after fuses) was the wires to the battery, these seem to be a suitably large diameter and not excessively long. I tested the voltage at the terminals of the charger and found no significant difference in voltage compared to the battery terminals. Next I noticed that there were wires connected to the BTS (temparature sensor) terminals of the charger which appeared to be connected together! I think these had previously been connected to the positive terminal of the batteries but I had removed them. It is also possible that it actually was a temperature sensor cunningly disguised as a battery connector, but I am more inclined to believe that it was just connected very very wrongly. After removing these connections, the charger now charges at 13.6V and the display indicates "floating". According to the manual, the device should be in boost mode until the maximum boost voltage (14.4V is reached). In reality it starts up with "absorbtion" lit and the jumps to "floating". Several possibilities: I believe the charger is a bit too large for my generator, this could be causing the problem. However, I would expect to hear the generator struggle and the fuse/trip switch on it go instead of the charger simply skipping boost mode. The charger manual indicates +10%/-15% voltage tolerance and doesn't specify frequency/waveform tolerance. Wiring isn't good enough, leading to the voltage spiking at the controller end to 14.4 on startup causing the switch to floating mode. Batteries are no good. They are certainly reaching the end of their life, but I would expect the charger to enter boost mode, the voltage to fairly quickly reach the max voltage (due to reduced capacity) and then float. Charger is duff either due to age or mistreatment (shorted BTS terminals for several years). So firstly, is there likely to be an easy way to rectify this problem and secondly, would I be better off just buying a 30A battery charger, which would also I gather be a better fit for my battery bank (3x110Ah leisure batteries). I will probably be upgrading the batteries soon, but even so, if the charger is oversized for the generator a smaller one may be needed. If I do need a new charger, what do people recommend. I am willing to spend good money to get something that will last and look after my batteries. A few questions: Are expensive brands like Sterling worth the extra money compared with cheaper units. Either in terms of reliability, efficiency or function. Is built-in desulphation function worth having, or am I better off A: having a seperate unit and a cheaper charger OR B: avoiding such snake oil entirely. I can't find much information on the charger (Invertek ADC-60U-123A), would it be worth testing it with full mains power to see if it's working so I can sell it on ebay? Or is it worth sod-all anyway? The previous owner said he spent a fair bit on it but was disappointed with it and that I may well want to replace it. Any particularly recommended brands/units? I must admit I'm slightly fond of fancy integrated displays and controls, but not at the expense of reliability. Thanks in advance, Sass

I didn't particularly. I liked that they were manned (except the two that made me turn off my engine (no stop cable, so some climbing over stuff to get to the engine is required). Nice folks though), but that was about it. When they aren't manned, they were a bloody nightmare. The machine is convinced it knows better than you. Scenario: Arrive at lock, going down. Late so no lockie. Lock is full, you think "excellent" Press "open gates" - Nothing happens Swear a little, read instructions Press "open sluices" - Sluices open a bit Press "open gates" - Nothing happens Try to operate gate manually with the wheel - Nothing happens Try to operate sluices manually with wheel - Nothing happens Read instructions again While reading the sluices decide to open a little more (they're determined to fill this already full lock without a boat in it as slowly as possible, just to be safe!!) Press "open gates" - Nothing happens Mash buttons at random Wait a further several minutes Sluices open fully Gates finally open when you press the button Enter lock Close gates Press "open sluices" at the other end - They open a slither, the water going down so slowly that you don't even need a rope, you could go inside and make a cup of tea Press "open gates" - nothing happens because you accidentally pressed "close sluices" first. Repeat 10 minute gradual opening of sluices to empty already empty lock Open gates The second time this happened I reached the point of considering opening up the manhole cover to see if there was a way to isolate the power and get the mechanical controls working. I'm generally more cautious than the average boater in locks, but I find the pace of emptying/filling the locks on the Thames infuriating (especially when there isn't even a boat in it to be careful with). Dump the computer and have controls that actually do what you tell them. Give me the stiffest, roughest mechanical lock instead of one of those computerised monstrosities any day.

Pushrods oiled, squeak banished. Thanks again!

Thanks, will do so before travelling on Tuesday. Will reply with the result afterwards. A definition of a "drop" would be helpful though Thanks Martyn and Geoff, who regularly save my bacon! And thanks to Frangar for your efforts too!

Done This is the first I've heard of this, I've never been told to manually lubricate anything. Do the lubrication systems vary between models and installations? I vaguely recall the previous owner mentioning the lack of manual greasers. Doesn't appear to have cured my squeak, so I'll give a little more information: * Fairly quiet squeak, only audible at fairly low RPM. * Seems to be coming very much from the front (bow) end of things. * Could be 12V alternator, had problems with that sticking before. Hands aren't quite flexible enough to get in there to move it to remove the belt, which would prove/disprove this. Might try harder later. * Rate at which the squeak occurs (about once every 2 cycles of flywheel) would be more consistent with fuel pump, cam shaft, etc than with alternator. * The sound feels (to my untrained ears) more like something rotating than something moving back and forth (eg: piston)

Great news, thanks. Off to buy some oil and a syringe. Thanks again.

Hi folks, Got a bit of a squeak (minor). Think it's coming from the alternator, but hard to tell without taking off the belt so I had a quick look at the injector pump oil level to be safe. Think it needs topping up, so I'll probably take the opportunity to change it. Probably should have changed it when servicing this winter, but it slipped my mind. Have been searching for what oil to use and the only advice I can find is to use the same oil as the engine, in my case Morris Golden Film SAE30. This presents the problem of how to get it, there are 3 options: Take some out of the main oil tank. - problem being it's not particularly pure in there (now far from golden), being mixed with some of whatever oil was used previously (I was advised to only pump out the tank). Order some. - The obvious solution, except that I'm off on my travels at the moment and would have a bugger of a job getting it delivered. Use some modern oil from a local garage/chandlery - which leads to my question: Is it as important to use the right oil in the pump as it is for the engine itself? If it's ok to use a modern oil, what should I use? Thanks in advance, Sass

FIXED!! Many thanks to Martyn! Turns out the pump timing had slipped. All back to normal now! The last couple of months have certainly been educational! Thanks to everyone who's offered help and advice!

It's a typo. It's supposed to be "Traditional, stern narrowboat". It won't put up with your hippy nonsense!

The 12/14 rule is new, I spotted it on a sign a couple of days ago. Wasn't in the original consultation, or in the plan released after the consultation (wording was much more vague). I think 12/14 is a bit excessive and makes it a bit laborious. I don't necessarily want to move slowly enough to stop in every little area along the route, nor be darting back and forth to fill in the gaps later. Naturally the previous wording ("spread mooring evenly over the areas") was too vague and something more clear was needed, but maybe 8-10 would have been less of a nuisance without impacting the effectiveness of the plan overall? I shall write them a letter and respond when they consult at the end. It is also unclear how winter moorings affect this. It is slightly implied (and would be consistent with the rules for boats who don't spend the whole year within the plan area) that this number is slightly reduced in that case (which would be fairer). I think the reduction in frequency of monitoring lately (as others have said) will reduce the effectiveness of this plan by increasing the length of time a boat has to stay in one place in order to be recorded there. It makes it harder to stay LESS than two weeks (which is daft) as well as more (which is sensible and presumably the point). I always keep my own records, I'd encourage others to do so too. Particularly during the trial period (I imagine that at the end of the 12 month trial, there won't be a great deal of extra enforcement (I read somewhere none) but there'll be a lot of CRT and boaters comparing their notes. It will be an informative exercise for all. If some of the kinks are ironed out (as I hope they will be), this has the potential to be a good thing. Clear guidelines make it easier to comply and easier to prove if you have been treated unfairly.