barmyfluid

Looking to black my 58' at Kerridge, Red Bull or Furness Vale this year, if possible just get her power washed and then leave me to it. Any recent experiences or price comparisons to share? Also quite interested in giving SML ballastic epoxy a go this time round (over my bitumen). I know it's a new product, but any actual experiences using it? TIA

There seems to be a good selection on eBay, all sizes and styles - I tend to go there and to Amazon as first ports of call as they often do click and collect to Morrisons, Sainsburys, Argos etc, I don't have a land address. https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1311.R8.TR11.TRC2.A0.H0.Xrain+cap+.TRS0&_nkw=exhaust+rain+cap&_sacat=0 I have an old camping pan I hang underneath the stern hatch on my trad to catch the rain that gets in from the lift-up hoop, never had more than a few mils in there last 4 months and plenty of wet, emptied this morning after Hannah, was about 2 pints! I think if you get the 'wrong sort of rain' it can really build up, learned my lesson about the exhaust stack for sure.

I think there's a bit of a 'Crying game' dynamic going on, the first bloke said 'Oh, is that a Gardner?' and seemed genuinely offended to find a Septic-via-Frenchy lump in the engine room. Priceless look on his face.

I think it sounds nice and I get a lot of compliments as I'm passing, have had a couple get instantly sniffy when they find out it's a Beta though!

Yes, I'm hoping there's no damage - I've just ran it for an hour and gave it full revs in gear, stopped and started again, seems fine. I think the rods etc on the base engine are pretty tough by all accounts, though don't intend to test them on this too often. My silencer is a DIY gas bottle job to give it a more traditional pop (not my doing, I like the sound of tractors lol) and think it just goes straight down/through.

It's outside, but there's plenty of scope for other ingress. All canned up now and hopefully no damage done. Thanks all.

I'm not seeing any cross-contamination of oil/coolant, or noticeably losing any , barely uses oil, exhaust isn't smoking, it does seem to be running very well other than these 2 times, (and once started, fine after) and both have been after some serious downpours. I see loads of stacks with hoop tops, is this a common problem, or does everyone always cap the stack after running?

Thanks - no following issues so far (fingers crossed) but I did think if it was this it'd be really unfriendly to pretty much all of the engine. It's only happened once before, wasn't sure if it was starter problems, then it happened again after the biblical rain from Hannah . It's got a can on for now, will sort out a flap for it.

I've just had a second occurrence of a starting problem on my otherwise sweetly running JD3. Turn the key, engine turns over for half a second then stops dead with a loud clattering (starter cog jumping?) until I let go, sharpish, of the key. Leave it for a minute, turns over ok, though takes a good few goes to start now, normally it starts within a couple of seconds at any temperature, no spluttering or trying hard at all. Both times I've had a lot of rain and boat movement (bad weather) the preceding 24 hours....could this be rain going down the stack and collecting in an open cylinder, stopping the engine abruptly on a compression stroke? I've got a hoop cover on it, wonder if I need a flap. Or any other suggestions as to the problem? Have tested diesel for water and emptied filter trap, nothing in there. Cheers Andy

Thought these may be helpful. bx JD3 TUG QUICK REFERANCE ILLUSTRATED PARTS LIST.pdf JD3 TUG Rev May2016 221-10476.pdf

If the speaker cones or drivers are to be suspect at all then the symptoms are going to be distortion and crackling during audio being present, especially bass notes. If the buzzing is there at fairly constant levels and with no audio (quiet or the TV is on but muted) then you should cross speaker issues off your list. Just going back to the original post, you mention "12v speakers". Not sure what you mean by this.... bx

That sounds like a cable or hardware fault (tv or inverter). You've probably got a mobile phone, portable radio or other audio producing device with a headphone socket the same as your TV. Try plugging that in, that'll at least eliminate the TV as the source of the problem. If you've a battery device and one running off AC that's even better, if the battery is clean but the AC is buzzing it points to power issues from your inverter, maybe intermittent grounding? bx

First off I'd try popping some reasonable headphones in the TV and check that the hum isn't actually there in the signal to start with, maybe the small TV speaker doesn't go low enough in frequency to reproduce it but the big speakers do? For any hummy audio interference, belt and braces is decent cables (prior to amplification, speaker cables can sometimes act as an antenna and bring crap back to an amp, unlikely though) with plenty of copper in the shielding, electrical isolation with a 1:1 transformer and harmonic suppression with inductors, your mileage will vary with all these things though. This: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-3-5mm-Jack-Ground-Loop-Isolator-Audio-Noise-Filter-Unwanted-Hum-Inductor/232000190447 with these clipped everywhere: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-20Pcs-5mm-Ferrite-Bead-Clamp-Choke-Coil-EMI-RFI-Noise-Filter-Clip-Cable/372607193446 Stands a good chance of improving the problem, it's likely the TV that's the origin of the noise, though so much electronics these days makes use of solid state power conversion, often done poorly, hence the noise, square wave hell, the TV could be picking it up from something else, passing that to the amp... Now, is that drip I can hear inside or outside my boat....? bx

Not quite on the new topic, but seeing as it's been resurrected...I just used some Fuel Guard water test paste to check my fuel tank, not a spot of water in there, so that's a relief, as it had been stood half full for some time. As far as I can see, the only filter I have is the one on the side of the engine. The manual says you should check the water trap on it every so often, and I've identified the bleed screw on top and a drain screw on the bottom - however, I'm not sure about the correct procedure, do you just release the screw on the bottom, let a certain amount of fuel out, tighten then use the manual pump to bleed from the top screw until no bubbles? Or do you have to release both screws initially to get fuel out of the bottom? Do people usually do fine just bleeding at the filter or do they have to chase bubbles to the pump/injectors etc?

Yep, it's non virginal but I don't have a square socket, looking all over eBay for a 5/8" square socket or sump plug tool - any ideas what fits? You can't get a spanner to it.

As requested: The top of the header tank (outside) is about level with the bottom of the 'mushroom', and the calorifier in/outs are the 2 pipes above the metal band, if I filled the tank almost to the top then they'd still be 2-6" higher than the water level. Will try filling the header some more, can't try and bleed the cylinder head right now as don't have a square socket of the right size to fit the plug (15mm/5/8th?). It's crane in day tomorrow (touch wood, was supposed to go in last week) and I'll be able to give it a proper workout, see if I can get confirmation the keel tank is circulating.

I still have it, but I usually use it with my own homebrew antennas, and I've some big extendable ones I can tune to whatever band I'm obsessed with at the time. It's an amazing amount of radio for the money, only just started looking at the marine uses, though I'd not want to trust it out on the lumpy stuff as a primary unit - good backup though. Yep, it is Chirp, I found a config for marine use on YBW somewhere, saves a fair bit of programming.

I'm not on the boat till tomorrow for a photo and double check, but the calorifier inputs on the tank (vertical, dunno what the internals look like) are about level with the top of the engine, maybe a little higher. However, the coolant level in the header is about half full (btw, what level do you full you're to? Says nothing in the beta manual), so definitely a good few inches lower, and that's the confusion - surely they'd just drain out like you say! But they're the only bit that I can actually verify are working, both getting hot, domestic water warming ok.... Everything else is pretty much cold after the hours run i mentioned in the op, header tank, copper pipes off it., Oil cooler.. One of the keel tank inputs ever so slightly warm. Btw, have you still got the beta header tank mounted on the gearbox end?

Brilliant Dave, thanks a lot - yes, it's a Colecraft, built 2005, there is a calorifier feed coming straight out of the side of the block and back in over where I guessed the water pump is at the right hand side near the exhaust stack. Will check the bleed point tomorrow, there's a cover over all of it at the mo. The calorifier tank is bolted to the wall, and the in/outs are higher than the level in the header tank - I don't even know what the level is supposed to be in there, it's about 1/2 full right now, but if I filled it right up the connectors on the calorifier would still be higher by a good few inch. Could there ever be a situation in which there's fluid in the calorifier circuit, fluid in the header tank but an empty skin tank circuit? It was sat on brokerage for quite a bit and probably never reached thermostat opening temperature for a long time - there was also a fair bit of water in the engine room bilge with ingress as yet unknown....

Thanks for the replies, though I still don't understand the calorifier connections being higher than the header tank and not draining back down, unless the main cooling circuit locks this off via the thermostat and the water pump initially primes it once the thermostat opens - where does the air go though? There's nothing in the Beta manual about how it works (or draining/refilling/priming everything), and the John Deere 3029 manual I've found doesn't show calorifier connections - guessing this is a Beta modification. BTW, it's got a keel tank under the engine, can't see any bleed screws on it but imagining it wouldn't need them in the same way a vertical skin tank would.

Just getting to grips with a JD3 of my own, but my Beta manual says you should have a minimum of 30 psi oil pressure. Mine goes to 50 after a cold start, then drops down to 35-40 when hot and at tickover, using 15W/40 at the moment, used Comma CG-4 spec. Only just done the oil/filter change though and don't know much more than what I've observed from a few static runs. Mines at plus 7000 hours, starts really well and barely smokes at all, though as I said, not really tested it in anger yet.

This has been answered here already, but to bust the anachronistic acronyms: Anything ending in F or W refers to the frequency of a transmission VHF = Very High Frequency UHF = Ultra High Frequency LW = Long Wave MW = Medium Wave SW = Short Wave Anything ending in M or SB refers to the modulation used to impart useful information (voice, data) on that frequency AM = Amplitude Modulation FM = Frequency Modulation SSB = Single Side Band CW is an exception, it refers to morse code 'Continuous Wave', which is modulation by turning the transmitter on and off. If frequency is thought of as a coloured torch, with different colours being different frequencies (which they are), modulation is how you use it to send information, such as turning on and off slowly (morse), rapidly (overlaying audio frequencies on it), varying the frequency (FM) or doing weird stuff with phase or making shadow animals....it's up to you really. The confusion often comes because due to historical and practical reasons, certain frequencies were used predominantly with certain modulation methods, AM on MW and LW and FM on VHF for instance, but really you can use anything with anything - there are some amazing new datamodes that work on HF/SW using phase quadrature flux capacitance or summat and computing power, you can barely hear the signal in the noise but its there and works a treat.

I've got a baofeng uv-5r, which you can pick up new for about £25 and reprogram to the UK marine VHF channels (there is a config file floating around the net somewhere). While I'm licensed to use it for UK amateur bands (2m and 70cm) I'm not licensed for marine use, and I think the radio itself wouldn't be legal to use as it's not designed for specific marine VHF. It is however a very cheap way of monitoring, emergency backup, and if you're studying for your ticket, learning by listening to radio procedure. That's probably illegal too however. I've a Sailor R108 on the boat at the mo, so in addition to being able to find my position (my eyes can't always read bridge numbers) via handheld RDF of the Radio 4 LW transmitter, I have a very useful emergency anchor to throw overboard - once I've got my ticket I'm getting one of the old VHF sets with the telephone handset!

Just getting to grips with my new boat, has a Beta JD3, pretty high hours (7000+) but starts very well even from cold, smokes very little and seems in good condition. I'm on the hard at the moment and have been wary of running the engine for long, surveyor reckoned no longer than 15 mins, couple of the yard workers said 'until the keel tank gets hot', after an oil change today I gave it a run for an hour while keeping a close eye (well. hand, no temp gauge) on the temp, took it to 500rpm and had the travelpower switched in. It's connected to a calorifier, and pretty soon you can feel the hoses to and from getting warm, then hot, though never too hot to hold), and the domestic water is getting heated. However, even after an hour, the hose to the keel tank is only warm, the keel tank not at all. The coolant header tank on the engine never gets warm on either pipe. The calorifier input/output is a bit higher (12") than the coolant tank on the engine. The brass rocker cover was pretty hot but holdable, as was the oil filter. Questions are, does this sound normal for a short tickover run? I'm not sure how the calorifier/keel/thermostat setup works with this engine, especially as the tank in/outs are higher than the header, do they drain out when the engine is off, or is it another circuit? They go straight to the engine so can't see how. Does the keel cooling switch in via a thermostat like normal? Doesn't say anything in the Beta manual. Thanks in advance.

Having finally started my life on the cut, I very recently went through the hoops of legit car insurance with no fixed abode - I've a mail forwarding address but wanted to be clean about it not being my residential address, or to use a friends, and though I may be in the marina for a few months over winter, I did want to CC next year and wanted proper cover for this. I ended up with Hertz who do a 'walkabout' insurance for people on extended holidays in campers/motorhomes (though I've just got a Berlingo MPV). Was about £120ish more expensive than my old insurance, but I'm fine with that for this year, was just good to get it out of the way. Also covers me for European travel for 90 days. First night aboard the boat tomorrow, I got there in the end bx