tosher

I've said it before and I'll say it again -- We all pay for sewage disposal in our liecence fees so why sould cassette owners empty thier sewage without an additional charge when pump out owners have to pay extra in marina's. It's just the same stuff both are emptying and each human being produces roughly the same amount. It seems unfair to me that all boaters are paying for a facility that only some of them can use. If BW cannot provide sufficient self pump out stations then they should reduce the liecence fee for boats with pump out tanks. (or charge for cassette emptying to level the playing field?) tosher

My boat has a PRM 150 which works very well and is smooth to operate and I am very happy with it but here is a tale about the robustness of Hurth gearboxes that might help you decide. - For many years I drove a rich mans yacht around the Med for a living. It was a sail boat and had a Perkins auxilliary engine coupled to a Hurth gearbox that after 15 years service reverse gear became very difficult to engage, which made stopping a bit of a hit & miss affair. It was decided to have a complete new engine/gearbox installed and so an engineer from Perkins visited the boat to measure up etc. During his inspection of the old installation he found that the Hurth gearbox linkage was in fact connected up with forward and reverse the wrong way round and that the folding prop had been reversed to to compensate and make the boats direction of travel agree with the direction of the gear lever. So for the previous 15 years when we had been travelling forward the gearbox was actually in reverse, I commented to the engineer that I understood there was a time restriction on using manual gearboxes in reverse because of thrust bearing loadings, yes there is he said there is---15 to 30 MINUTES! Neadles to say we stuck with Hurth for the gearbox. tosher.

I fitted a "Smartgauge" a couple of weeks ago and all seems to be working well with sensible readings being displayed. I bought it direct from Gibbo who was very helpful with the questions I had regarding it's suitability for my system and advice on fitting. I feel much happier now I have an accurate measurement of the status of my services batteries and can modify my charging regime to suit. tosher

Had the same problem, cured axactly as described above. I now make it a yearly routine job. tosher

Sorry to be slightly off topic so hope this is allowed -- Does any one now where red diesel can be bought in this neck of the woods??? Iwant to fill up all my containers while it is cheap. Purely for heating and battery charging of course. Cheers. tosher

Perhaps I've picked a bad user name as I am not active in any of the dastardly deeds mentioned above. It's a name I was called as a boy by all my family but my mother did have lots of copper ornaments around the house come to think off it !!!! tosher.

Yes that's the one. It's getting on for 2 years old now and to be honest it's never given a minutes bother. The strainer prevents hair etc getting to the pump and If it fills completely it does not leak at all but because the pump removes water faster than it drains in from the bath/shower this seldom happens.

Hi Paul, I will watch with interest the replies to your post as I too would like to tile the bathroom floor and my bath drain sump box is situated underneath it. With regard to the sump box it works very well with no leaks at all, there is a vent hole in the side of the box that I piped up the inside of the airing cupboard to a level above the top of the bath. I did this because I once emptied the bath & forgot to swith on the drain pump which resulted in the bath contents going into the bilge through the vent. I also have to clean the suction strainer in the sump box quite regularly (every couple of weeks) which tends to block with hair etc so access under the floor is vital. Hope that helps.

On my engine installation (Isuzu) I have a vertical calorifier and the header tank is mounted higher up in a cockpit locker. I noticed that the pressure cap on the header tank is the same calibration as the pressure cap on top of the engine heat exchanger, ie. both settings are 95kpa. When the engine is working hard, expansion takes place ok into the header tank and the level rises but I also loose a bit of fluid out of the relief valve on the engine pressure cap. Are these calibrations corrrect ??? or should the lower cap be a higher setting or even a blank to ensure expanding water goes up into the header tank? tosher.

I have had a Sterling 3KW Pure sinewave Combi Inverter/Charger, a Sterling 210amp Alternator to Battery Charger and a Sterling 50amp Battery to Battery Charger for 18 months now. After about 14 months the Charger part of the Combi Unit would occassionally trip out and required a manual restart to to start charging again. Sterling replaced the complete unit with a brand new one with no problems or fuss at all and the new one works fine and appears to do everything it says on the tin. That is the only problem I have had and everything else has worked faultlessly. It gets well used as we spend about 6 months a year on the boat and the batteries seem to be very healthy. Hope that helps - tosher (as Yorkie as they cum!!!)

75 pence per litre at Nantwich Marine today.

The above states "supply red diesel to private pleasure craft" How will this work if you buy red diesel in containers from a garage forecourt that is many miles away from any canal ?? will agricultural users and construction firms who buy red diesel in this way have to make the same declarations.??? interesting.

Same with me and my 3 often drops off line all together but I usually get a signal in most places. Also the speed is quite slow even though a pop up box appears when the connection is made saying "connected at 3.6mbs" the actual speed is normally around 150Kbs. The max I have ever seen using the speed checker 1.5mbs (last night) but that speed is unusual. Having said that even the slower speed is fine for e-mails etc, it's the dropping off line that annoys me most. tosher

Many thanks for this info "Greybeard". I'm sure it will be very helpful when I service mine. tosher

Any one know of a similar video (or workshop manual) for a Webasto Thermo Top C ???

If you buy a boat from this broker, watch out for re-launch charges. The cost last year for a one way lift, just lifting in, for a 57 footer was £280!!!! And that was after buying the boat from him.

I have a friend who is a fully trained and licienced chain saw operator and he will not cut anything or even start his machine without he is fully kitted up in proper protective clothing. He has witnessed many nasty injuries in his time with these machines. To any novice user he always says --- Remember that the best lubricant for a chain saw is BLOOD! tosher.

Sounds about like mine, I also smear the joint with a thin film of grease when replacing it and it has never leaked a drop. Strange though that on the occasions I have removed the hatch cover I have had a bit of a struggle to break the seal, neading a couple of screw driver blades to lever it open? tosher

Is it any more disgusting than carrying a cassette full of s--t to the emptyiny point, removing the large cap and emptying the contents down an open drain with the resultant splashing of the contents in all directions. Not to mention the cleaning out of the cassette with a brush and copious ammounts of water splashing around all over the place. Bin there, done that, got the tee shirt !!!!

What is the longest USB extension lead that is available and suitable for use with a dongle ??? I'm thinking of sticking mine on a pole to improve reception. Thanks -- tosher

When I bought my boat it had 250 hrs on the Izusu 42 & PRM150. 250 hrs is the manufactures recommended service interval and this service was carried out before purchase. After 500 hrs I serviced it myself and the old engine oil looked quite clean but the old gearbox oil was very dirty indeed, much worse than I have experienced before, I suspect the oil was not changed at the 250hr service. I flushed it through and refilled with new and have subsequently changed the oil every 200 hrs and each time the old oil looks as good as the new. So my advice would be to change all oils before the manufacturers recommended intervals not to exceed them.