Theo

Thanks all. Ordered what I need. N

That looks very suitable, Tony. Do you have a brand name or a link for something like that? I imagine that I can get the correct unions for that. It will mean that I can avoid the compromise with flexible hoses and fit it into the copper pipe. I had a message from Inline Filters who, after my enquiry said that a suitable one would be £141!! Not that one. I thought. Nick

Got that. Thanks. N

Thanks, Tony. And thanks for all the help that you have given me over the past fifteen years! They didn't supply a filter this time. The pic that I sent is the inlet to the Mikun's fuel pump. The filter was supplied with the old Mikuni when it was returned in 2006 so now I need to get a new one. I will have a Google about and see what there is on the market. I'll be back with a possible or two for opinions from helpful CWF people. Thanks to David Mack too. It seems to me that the easiest way will be to get two short lengths of suitable hose to couple to each side of the filter. I don't know how old the original copper pipe is and if has been bent back and forth a few times. I am wanting to avoid any further work hardening so flexible tubing could well be the answer. Next question: I am left with a plaind pipe end on the original copper. What's the best way to couple the rubber hose to it? Will a tight jubilee clip do the job? N

Thanks for all that. Sorry that I haven't been back before this. Life got very busy! I am installling a replacement for my old Mikuni MX40. Space is tight and for that reason I have decided on the new MX50. Years and years ago (in 2006) I sent the old MX40 down to Eastliegh, where Mikuni live in the UK, and they returned it with a little disposable paper filter in a plastic housing with rubber tube connections and little jubilee clips. Will that sort of arrangement still be OK? Will it pass the BSS? I have the new boiler at home with me. IN the image of the inlet pipe you can see that the tube has been shaped to take an olive which, I suppose will fit over the widest bit and then compress down to mae the seal. It seems odd that it should have been shaped like this. Having measured it really carefully I find that the greatest diameter is 6.00mm but the OD of the rest of the tube is 5.10mm. At the moment I can tell you the exact diameter of the pipe from the tank. Thanks in advance. Nick

I need to fit a filter in line. The pipe OD measures 5.30mm with my vernier gauge. Will 1/4" compression fittings work? If not what will? TIA Nick

Yes. I remember the discussion but not the details. I was the happy recipient of date expired backup batteries but that source has dried up due to retirement. 😒

Thanks, Nick. What about 2nd hand lead acid? Does anyone have any recommendations as to suppliers? N

I am sure that this subject has been discussed before but I can't track it down using the search function. Can anyone give me a lnk to a supplier? LA is sensitive to misuse and degrade in proper use anyway. If I get second hand, are they going to be any better value than new since they are bound to have lost some capacity. What about 2nd hand lithium? I know that there are lots of issues to be addressed if I go for lithium but is it likely at this state that 2nd had will be better than new. I look forward to reading more... TIA Nick

But if you go the PortaPotti route then you might not be able to buy a spare tank. We have a PP 365. We had to replace the supeerstructure bacause the flush pump wwent wrong. Faced with the awful dilemma of having to buy two complete PPs to get a secont tank we dedided to get a replacement 365 from EBay and get a tank from the old one so now we have three tanks. The bigger tanks last us about 3 bottom-days so we have plenty of flexibility regarding elsan emptying. Please try to avoid using blue chemicals to kill the bacteria and reduce smells. We use nothing most of the time and get no smell. When we decide that we need to use something we use Odourlos which is biodegradable. Nick

And they are free to empty... Usually. # N

Just add a little pedantry to the discussion is not every lift bidge mechanical. Some have mechanisms which derive their energy from the operator's body, some have mechanisms that are energised by electricity. Perhaps I will get beck into my box now...

Just come to the thread. IMHO a very boring boat the fitout of which reminds me of a cheap hotel room. Not at all the sort of thing that floats my boat. N

Just rereading the thread, I noticed that I had not replied to this post from nicknorman. The 14.4V is read off the SmartGuage which is connected directly to the battery terminals. I believe the batteries to be pretty well knackered. I have had them living aboard for 3 years and 4 years not living aboard being looked after by the solar panels but for a period they were abused at the boatyard by being left without the solar panels connected. So they don't owe me much and I should really be thinking of replacing them.

It's not working at the moment so I have unshipped it, taken it home and am investigating. I think that it's the flame sensor plus some stiffness of the air blower from lack of use over a lengthy period. I can't buy any more gaskets. Mikuni have stopped making spares and MV Heating in Eastliegh have none left. Not necessarily a problem I can create my own from some 2mm gasket paper. I got this news from the nice man at MV Heating who told me that the replacement for the MX40 is an MV MX50 which they will mount on the same plate that the MX40 was mounted on if I send it off to them, cost £595 + VAT plus carriage. Question: is the MV MX50 a good buy? My inclination is to have a go with the old one and see if I can get it going for a few more years (months? weeks? not at all?) Opinions/advice will be gratefully read. N

Please be aware that one of the lasting benefits of this forum is the fact that there are many and various tangents that have been explored. The advice offered is usually good, often brilliant and always free. If you understand and can work with this you will have a very rewarding experience. Nick

Coming late to the discussion: Blue hydrogen is made from natural gas and is effectively a fossil fuel. Hydrogen made using elecricity from renewable energy of whatever variety is Green.

Absolutely not. As soon as you get lift from the cill on the bottom of the boat the stability is all shot to hell and the boat tips over to one side or the other. This could be mitigated if you managed to get to the forward end of the cill and then the boat would be like sitting in a drydock. The problem then, if you have not already submerged the bow, is that the boat could easily slip off. Please don't try this. You could always try a staircase where you could sit the boat down on the invert. Nice and level. But then you have the possibility of damaging the bottom of the boat by putting lots of wieight on a small pointy object. N

I suppose that makes a happy conclusion to the didscussion. I have, I hope, a non-slipping alternator belt, a bit more knowledge about the way that alternators work and the continued knowledge that there is seemingly endless help to be got from CWF. Thanks for all the contributions. Nick

"It’s to do with the regulation curve of an alternator’s rather basic regulator. The current supplied by an alternator is related (inversely) to the terminal voltage. So if we presume for example that the regulated voltage is 14.4v, at 14.4v it is producing no current. At 14.39v it is producing maybe 1% of its output. At 14.3 maybe 10%. At 14.2v maybe 25% You have to get right down to perhaps 13.7v before it is producing 100% of its output. (Figures made up, but the principle is right)." I have quoted the bit from nicknorman's post that I can't get me head around. Lets forget that we are using an alternator for a moment. If we were to use a true constant voltage source where the voltage is entirely independent of the current drawn, then the current delivered at, say 14.4V, would be entirely dependent upon what the battery bank would accept. Now take the case of nicknorman's alternator. The battery bank is at 14.4V so the current delivered is zero as controlled by the alternator electronics. Now let's say that some charge is drawn from the bank so that its voltage drops to 14.39. In the case stated by nn the alternator immediately delivers its 1% which, with a 70A alternator is 0.7A or a 140A alternator is 1.4A. If we take the load drawn out of the equation by assuming that it is switched off the moment that the voltage drops to 14.39V then the alternator will continue to charge the battery until the voltage reaches 14.40V and then stops. Ah! It is becoming clear what nn is saying even as I am typing the reply. What he means (and says clearly) is that, assuming the same alternator controller characteristics, a 140A alternator will charge the battery more quickly even at the low tail currents. My old alternator is a Bosch to which I fitted an adjustable controller. I originally found that it would charge reasonably rapidly at the beginning of the day's cruising but the current would drop off far to early. I got around this with an Adverc which made a huge difference... Thanks, nicknorman. I believe that I now understand but will not be fitting a bigger alternator because of the issues of fitting new pulleys etc. I will live with what I have. (And keep the belt tensioned properly.)

But at safe voltages you can only put so much current into the battery bank. At 80% charge and 14.4V my nominal 810AH (very old) battery bank is only accepting in the region of 18A. This will, of course be due to surface charge, but can such chemistry be overcome by lots of electronics? I am using an Adverc, and very excellent it is too, but I can't see how I would manage to keep my alternator working flat out any more than it is now.

I would be really interested in your reasoning. N

Ah, yes, but as I said it almost never produces anything like 90A. Thought! 🗯️ Perhaps it is a 90A alternator. After all it did only produce 85A when the soc was 25%.

I would guess that it's about that size. There is the added pully on the crankshaft. It's a small one and is used for the pelt drive to the raw water pump. Edited to add: An extension to the maths will show that the force on the drive belt to the alternator does not change as the pulley size on the alternator changes. I find that quite interesting. N

I should add that there is good and simple mathematics behind the advice to run the alternator fast: Power output of the alternator at any instant = VI. Power input ( just a bit more than power input) = Torque (in N-m) x angular velocity (radians/second) So for a given power input increasing the angular velocity (think RPM) the torque will reduce. So running the engine faster will reduce the force on the alternator belt. However running the engine faster means that it is wasting more power in overcoming friction so you will use more fuel. That's why I run the engine as slowly as possible consistent with maximum current. N