Boomslang

I have a 70' boat with water pump & acc tank residing in the bows near the water tank. My shower is midships, and by the time I have pumped water down to the calorifier in the engine bay and back to the shower I get a problem: the water pump never quite reaches its cutoff pressure due to the length of the pipe run. As a result of this the pump trips, meaning whoever is in the middle of having her their extended luxury shower needs to get out of the shower and 'untrip' the pump. Any thoughts on whether putting a second pump near the calorifier on the hot water 'out' will address this problem? It will be on the same loop as the first pump, not a separate loop.

Hello Canalworlders, If I flush my toilet (12v) or run my water pump for more than 3-4 seconds my Victron multiplus (12/2500/120) changes from mains on/float to low battery. I lose my 240V and my 12V. I'm sure more info will be needed to diagnose but does anyone have any ideas? Cheers, Jared

One of the things I love about our canals is the variety of people and the different things they are doing. Most people are prepared to share the space and the two tings campaign has changed the way cyclists and pedestrains use the towpath - at least is has where I live. As has the way that most dog owners pick up after their pets. Recognising that the towpath is a shared space and therefore comes with a duty of respect is unfortunately something that a small minority of dog owners choose to ignore. Most dog owners are responsible, keep their dogs on leads, and recognise that you cant trust any dog 100%. However, the small minority let their dogs run freely on the tow path and have little control. Incidentally these people generally insist that 'he's really friendly and good with kids' or 'he won't go for you' or, my personal favourite, 'he's really well trained' (then why has he run off from you? and why wont he leave me alone when you call him?). These people also seem to take massive offence when I politely request they put their dog on the lead, even if its just while they come past the moorings, which is maybe 200 meters of bank!! I like dogs, and dogs off leads has never been a problem for me before, however since moving we have started a family and my little girl is just learning to walk. She is also very inquisitive. She also has a thing for all things four legged. Our mooring is on the towpath and because of the way some dog owners behave I have to take my little girl elsewhere to give her the chance to practice walking as there are too many twists and turns and it is really difficult to see if a dog is coming. This is a real shame as the towpath along the river where we are is beautiful and full of things to inspire her imagination. I think all dogs should be on leads on the towpath - regardless of how 'well trained' they are! Anyone agree/disagree? Any thoughts on how I might effectively approach this with 'the minority'?

Thanks for the response Neil. I upgraded my unit so didn't buy the full kit. Turns out the manual I received is only applicable for Truck installations. I've since received a marine manual and it turns out it's simple! Zero technical knowledge required. If anyone wants details just shout and I'm happy to post an idiots guide!

Morning all - can anyone recommend an installer in the Bath/Bristol area. Got everything connected except the wiring. Thanks, Jared

I know this is an old post but I just wanted to to second John V's point on the small bore pipe. My toilet has been suffering from the same symptoms as the OP. To fix it I turned the water pump off, and flushed the toilet a number of times until the water stopped flowing and bowl was clear. It was necessary to massage the pipe coming out of the u-bend to make sure all the water had cleared. This step is very necessary to avoid getting covered in the brown stuff. I unclipped the top end of the small bore pipe. Don't be tempted to unscrew what looks like plastic nuts, you wont get anywhere doing that, you need to pop the pipe off the plug. The plastic nuts are to secure the pipe to the black plastic u-bend. Having got the pipe off I then pushed a long wooden kebab skewer into the pipe which was blocked solid with a plug of scale. It took a bit of pushing to shift it but it went eventually. I gave the inside of the pipe a good scrape, put everything back together again and tightened it all up. I then whacked a good glug of concentrated phosphoric acid in the bowl and left it overnight, All sorted now. Now, as far I know, the concentrated phosphoric acid will do no damage to metal/rubber/plastic parts and if you use it when you have a half full pump out tank then when you flush the toilet afterwards any acid that hasn't reacted will get neutralised.

an update: when I initially installed these bulbs they were on a mixed circuit including a handful of halogens. Having split the circuit into two for separate switching off a 2 gang switch I have ended up with halogens in one circuit and LED in t'other - this has solved teh problem. light output from both circuits is now constant. So the moral of the story is that you must be careful where you put your bulbs. Next step: get the dimmers in

good spot - I hadn't read that far down. I'm going to experiment anyway and will let you know how it works out...

Cheers for all of that folks - looks like a test with the dimmers and then add a buck/oost into the circuit if that doesn't work. These are the bulbs if you are interested

Hello Canalworld, I am in the process of switching over to LED lighting. I have managed to source safe, filament style, 12v LED bulbs for all of my lights. These bulbs are also dimmable, which wasn't known at the time of purchase but became apparent when the brightness of the bulbs changed periodically and randomly after installing. The change (increase or decrease in brightness) can be as often as every couple of seconds or once every couple of minutes or so. When the inverter unit is busy whirring away and charging the batteries during a bulk or abosrption charge then the brightness of the lights is static. I suspect this is because during these phases the voltage in the batteries is fairly constant. Whilst in float charge the change the periodic and random changing happens which is when there are minor changes in the voltage of the batteries as current is being drawn by various items and then being topped up by the shore power. I expect it is probably more complex than this!! If I install these 12v dimmer switches will they stabilise the voltage? My gut feel is probably not but I I'm not certain. If I am correct is there a voltage regualtor/stabiliser that anyone can recommend that I could put in between my batteries and my lighting circuit? Would this even work? Cheers, Jared

My problem is now fixed: we took the engine to bits piece by piece and inspected/tested each of the components (stat, water pump, exhaust manifold, the head block) until we got to the headgasket where there were at least 4 blackened points of exhaust escape from each of the four cylinders. My mechanics professional opinion was that the amount of exhaust gas escaping into the coolant system through the head gasket was causing airpockets in the head leading to the increase in temperature. These would eventually displace as coolant was pumped and the temp would drop back down. £1500 later the temperature gauge sits steady even when pushing hard against the flow of the Avon. As an aside one of the firsts things the mechanic did was test for exhaust gases coming out of the coolant filling port using a leak test fluid that changes colour. We did this test twice with two different liquids but neither of them changed colour despite enough gases coming out of the port to nearly empty the testing vial. Any thoughts on why that might happen? I cant for the life of me work it out....

Tony - i was being imprecise, or too hasty perhaps. The reason I said my set up is good enough is that it has been running fine for over 5 years, on canals and rivers, including against the current. Something has changed/broken/got stuck etc in the system. It's not the thermostat or the pipes because I have changed them; they are all installed correctly and are genuine Isuzu parts. I will post again once I get it fixed... Thanks, Jared

All - many thanks for your replies, all food for thought. I believed I had given enough information to head off most of the points raised but, as is often the way, what I thought I had written, how I thought people would read it and how people actually read it have ended up being completely different things!! I have used the bleedpoint at the top end of my skin tank, near where the pipe comes out to return coolant to the engine, so as far as I can see it can be considered bled. Incidentally water almost instantaneously came out of the bleedpoint so very little air was present. I also isolated the calorifier, hooked it up to the hose and pushed water through it, there were no air bubbles in the water and I subsequently topped up with antifreeze. So I think I have eliminated airlocks. Anyone disagree? Anything else I should do? I understand boiling point elevation so am fairly confident it is not a dicky connection and that my temp readings are good. I wouldn't expect 110degrees to blow the pressure cap - if it did this would be a serious flaw in the way the system is engineered. The warning light comes on at 110degrees and you need a buffer between being warned and it going 'pop'. I think the most likely answer is gunking (coupled possibly with air that I cant get out of the system) and/or the impeller. I'm going to back flush the system first to try and eliminate the obvious but if this doesn't work does anyone know how bug a job checking/changing the impeller is? Jared

Hello Canalworld - I've been a liveaboard boater for the last 5 years and have been reading this forum for about the same amount of time. I've never needed to post before as most of the problems I've come up against have been experienced by someone else and answered already. This time however I'm stumped! I have an Isuzu 55. When we are running the engine the temperature comes up to 81 degrees and will sit there all day long. I've been on the Thames punching against the tide and after about an hour it steadily heats up and if left will trigger the overheat alarm. This is easily rectified by dumping the hot water from the calorifier. The point is I know that my cooling system set up is good enough. This summer we were out cruising and for the first ten days everything was as usual, engine temp constant at 81 deg. Next day the temp was steady at 81 but at some point the temperature quickly crept up to 95 degrees, stayed there for about a minute and then dropped back down to about 75 degrees before returning to 81 degrees. I thought nothing of it but the same happened the following day. I tried running the engine without the filler cap and this stopped the problem from occurring, however it also stopped the operating temperature being reached. THis is now a recurring problem but is now getting more and more extreme. The temperature often shoots up 110 degrees and then drops back down to 60 degrees. The way this happens looks to me like a blockage that clears, or a coolant pump getting stuck. If I run the engine at idle it doesnt overheat, it will sit at 81 degrees as if there is no issue, it could be that the calorifier is operating as a good enough heat sink to deal with idle. I have never run it for long enough to heat the calorifier up. I thought this might be a sticky thermostat so I changed it - the stat was gunked up but putting the new one in didnt solve the problem. I thought it might be the coolant pipes, so I have changed these, although not the pipes to/from the skin tank - which I guess might be my next thing to do. I think I probably need to check my coolant pump as well but from what I have read this is not something I want to attempt without ruling out everything else first. Is this the right approach? Anyone seen similar behaviour? Any pointers would be greatfully recieved. Jared