PeterF

The picture towards the start of the thread shows the earth bonding cable from the 240V (low current system hence thin cables) and the 12V negative earthing (high current system hence thick cables) hence this is correctly wired up. The 240V earth cable will be the same size or most probably larger than the 240V distribuution cables, it certainly is on my boat.

The write up that came with my boat states that no more than 1/3rd of the occupants should be on the roof of the boat at any one time, 55ft narrowboat and CE plate and the write up say 8 people. That means 200kg max on the roof based on 75kg per person. PeterF

You could always try the one Gary has on his site although I would not really call it a brochure, more of a flyer, but nothing else can be found readily. Shanks Flyer

My father in law had a springer in the late 80s through to the early 90s. Mother and father in law went all over the country in it, he was a self employed builder and all his kids had left home so he use to work 9 months of the year and went boating for the summer. We borrowed it many times and it really introduced us to boating and we also had some great times on it. My brother and sister in law never really took to boating though. This all came to an end after about 8 years in the mid 90s shen a group of scrotes caved in the doors and windows and trashed the boat. The boat was moored in a secure on line mooring, they ahd to get over an 8ft fence. Also damaged other boats moored there. It broke my father in laws heart and he just gave up there and then, sold it on and never had the heart to get back into boating. Since then we hired many times and have bought a boat ourselves, and it is great to get the in laws up to join us on our boat because they never lost their interest in boating. The problem with the vandalism / petty theft was not the physical damage but the emotional side, the worry that to buy a new boat or refit would just be wasted by further wanton damage. It is not just a phenomenon of the current time but has been around for ages. I fully sympathise with you and I really hope you can get back on the water and if getting your springer back into shape is the way that best helps you do this then do so. Please do not get driven off the water by this, I have seen that happen and in later years you may end up regretting giving up.

B&Q sell some fire cement in a tube that you put in one of the silicon guns. I have just dug out and redone my fire with this. it has made a sound seal but time will tell how good it is in the long run. This saves having to go to a chandlers to get this. There are also fireplace shops in many larger towns that stock this, it is not a boating specialty.

Nick, Thanks for that, but the OP did specifically request an "adjustable adaptor so that lower than 12volt equipment can be run straight off the 12 volt supply" e.g a 9V (lower than 12V) piece of equipment can run off a 12V supply. and the thank you note confirms this. Peter.

The diagram supplied will work with an analogue meter as long as the analog meter is rated for whatever the shunt voltage drop is. If you have a normal in line ammeter as la old car style then you can not use this with a shunt it needs the full current through it. If you have an analogue meter that works with a shunt then you can put that in the positive charge lead, it does not matter. It is shown in the -ve lead becasue the digital ones on ebay have to have a common -ve for the power feed to the meter and for the shunt, if you put them in the +ve lead they will not work. I also suggest that if you are not too sure what you are doing then do not do anything if it is working OK.

Confirm that Maplins do such devices and I have 2 in use on the boat, one set at 12V for soemthing that did not like the 14.8V when engine was running and the other set at 9V for an alarm clock that was off a PP3 battery. See attached link for the unit I have. Only downside is these are only 1.5A output. Aso, you may have to cut the cigarette type plug off and change to whatever you have. But they are good for small DC appliances. PeterF. Maplin DC to DC regulator

David, Attached is a simple diagram of a shunt installation. This is based on the ones that are linked from the guy on ebay. These can only go into the -ve lead because of how the electronics is wired up. Other more expensive systems can go in the +ve lead. Or you can put a shunt in the +ve lead and then use a good old fashioned analog dial gauge as that has no problems. The current that flows through the meter is very small and small cables can be used between the shunt and the meter. This should make it as clear as mud. PeterF.

I was speaking to Brian at Shepley Bridge today and it seems like this will be a lengthy repair, he was talking 3-4 weeks based on his discussions with BW. The collapse is on the opposite side of the river to the access and getting equipment / materials over to repair it will apparently be difficult. Talk of needing to get a temporary bridge built first. I drove over to see it and there has been no start on the repair as of Saturday morning. Wait and see what BW say on Monday. PeterF

On more modern boats the output of the alternator is often 110Amps or more and that is a lot of pwoer to feed through a simple dial ammeter and if things go wrong the resultant short circuit can be quite entertaining!!. A shunt is a (hopefully well callibrated) resistor with a very low resistance which creates a small voltage drop as the current flows through it. A Voltmeter is used to measure the resistance dropped over the shunt, but the clever bit is as long as you buy the meter and shunt as a mathced pair then the votmeter dial reads in amps not volts. Depending how basic you want the explanation, the voltage dropped over a resistor is properotinal to the current flowing through it. For example in my set up I have a 140Amp alternator and there is no way I want that power flowing through simple dial ammeter so I have one of the 200Amp shunt / ammeters from ebay. I think the max voltage drop is comething like 0.075V so not very much, and to make sure it is not a problem I have the voltage sensor for controlling the ammeter on the battery side of the shunt. The thread for installtion can be found below Installing a shunt ammeter PeterF

Tony, Do not know why but the cheap generators give very poor wave forms. Waterways world did an article in June 2007 where they looked at the waveform forms from small portable generators of the size boaters would use. It was hardly a substantive survey but it tested a standard frame mounted unit (cheap), an expensive inverter generator and a cheaper inverter generator. The cheap frame mounted unit had a truncated sawtooth waveform with no load and a square waveform when under load. The inverter generators had good waveforms although not pefect at the peaks / troughs. PeterF

One of the advantages of the fuel cell is that it is more efficient than the internal combustion engine, thus the amount of storage required is less for the same range. The Honda hydrogen fuel cell vehicle on Top Gear was filled up from very high pressure hydrogen - I think the gauge read something like 150bar - going on memory here and got a creditable range. There were a lot of people thinking about gasoline powered fuel cells a number of years ago but nothing seems to have come of this unless you have a fuel processor as well, which may be OK for stationary fuel cells where weight is less of an issue, and also where power demand is less variable than in a car. The hydrogen fuel cell is very responsive as it is directly fuel in to power out. One with a fuel processor upstream has to reform the fuel to hydrogen, CO2 and CO using steam and possibly air, react the CO to CO2, condense out the excess steam, remove any traces of CO as this poisons the fuel cell, then inject the hydrogen containing fuel into the fuel cell. Thus, there are several steps between injecting more fuel into the fuel processor and getting more power out of the cell which would mean throttle lag as wel as a complex control issue, almost (precisely) like having a small petrochemical plant under your bonnet.

Martin, I was going to be passing though next weekend so many thanks for posting. The level at Cooper bridge has been down all summer by about 1ft, was that some initial problems with the wier. PeterF

Dear Mr MP, You are quite right, my 4 stroke aircraft engines need two stroke oil in the methanol because they do not have oil filled sumps, they use the oil in the fuel for once through lubrication same as a two stroke. Quite amazing engineering in something like a 5cc 4 stroke, the valves are like large pins. Now I have caught myself a gurl I can go back to playing with boys toys . PeterF

The trouble is that although crude is rock bottom prices, this is bought in US$ and you dont get many of them to a pound anymore, so in £/barrel, crude has actually been getting more expensive. I said to me wife a couple of weeks ago that diesel will start going up again and this trend has started. PeterF.

No thats menthol. It is also used as fuel on glow plug model engines for radio control planes & cars. Some model shops sell neat methanol but most has two stroke oil in it ready mixed.

See BW waterway dimensions on Waterscape using the following link. Waterway dimensions Someone will probably have some specific knowledge that may help furtehr, but the linked document is always a good place to start.

Thanks for the warning - I was at the boat this weekend and noted evrything getting moist, did not start the inverter though, and will think again in the future before doing so. If you buy a new appliance, especially electronic the packaging it arrives in often has the warning "wait for 24 hours after brining this into a warm room before unwrapping / turning on".

Alex, The engine is a Barrus shire 40hp engine but the alternator is not the original, that was a cr*p 80A one that never worked well despite 2 auto electricians looking at it. So I swapped it out for a larger one and decided to go for 140A one one Sterling, which is really just a big AC Delco alternator from UA, need to be careful because it is positive field control if you put an adavnced regualtor on it but I have not bothered. It gives good amps at low revs and as part of the upgrade I increased the size of the drive pulley so it is geared 3:1 ratehr than less than 2:1 as per my older one. I believe Barrus have now replaced the 80A with a 110A one with proper gearing ratio. I had a topic which I put a lot of info on as someone was asking about this very subject some time ago. One of my old posts Another post I also put another bunch of info togetehr for another boater who has the same engine and lack of output from the Barrus 80A, if you want more detail pm me. Cheers, PeterF

Have one of those shunt ammeters that are on ebay that have been posted about on the forum. Someone posted a topic on how to fit one. Suggest you search for shunt or see the topic link below - I used a 200A shunt. How to install a shunt ammeter I did it because I do not have electricity where I moor and do not want to bother with a generator and the old alternator was really poor. I must say that when I went for the 140A over the 110A option I was not expecting to get the full output but it has turned out very well. The 80A alternator I had on previously would not deliver over 45A when the engine was at 2000rpm, and only 30A at low revs. The cable is very large, same as the cable to the starter motor. Peter.

Have the correct pulley ratios (3:1) and an alternator that will deliver close to rated charge at 4,000rpm and you are laughing, I can run a 1.5kW load on my inverter with engine at 1300rpm and measured current out of the alternator reaches 140A, the quoted rating of the alternator, with some of this going into the batteries for charging and the voltage remains at around 14V. At start up after maybe 24 hours without engine running the batteries will take 140A for a short period (minutes) before the voltage reaches 14.5V and the current reduces - this is the only thing that worries me with the set up but after 1 year I have not had to top up the electrolyte. PeterF.

That is quite interesting as a lot of engines now have things like 140A alternators, at charging voltage of 14.8V that makes 2.07kW. However of course the amps normally quickly falls from that peak. To strictly comply vetilation should be provided - does the engine sucking through several m³/hr of fresh air through the engine compartment and ingesting it count, and this is fail safe, if the aletrnator is charging, the engine is sucking air in.

Bought ours from Puffer Parts. PeterF.