Mike55
-
Posts
160 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Gallery
Blogs
Store
Posts posted by Mike55
-
-
I'd recommend you download the manual for your specific model of Mastervolt. Many are available on the Mastervolt website but if yours Isn't (mine wasn't), you can email them & they'll send you a pdf of it. In there you'll find a list of all the dip switches and what they do explained. I'm reluctant to quote what it says in mine as the wording is slightly different and hence what it does may be different too. Mine has a "Power Support Function" rather than "AC input support mode" for example.
-
What causes a boat to sink, assuming it's a steel hull? Is it the water the fire brigade use to put the fire out? I wouldn't expect the fire to get hot enough to affect the welding.
-
7 hours ago, Slim said:
I've got one as well (mine came from Maplins). Must track down where to get some tape.
12mm Black on white or yellow is available from loads of places including Toolstation & Screwfix (I think). I wanted white on black recently - to make replacement distribution board labels - that was harder to find, but Google is your friend.
-
1
-
-
OK, thanks for the tips. Mine has a fair bit of space around it and the charger has a 12V isolator (as well as an enormous bolted 250A fuse) so any flash would be within the isolator so perhaps not quite as scary as replacing the fuse.
I want to get the replacement switch before I start the job.
-
Did you have to remove the unit or could you replace the switch with it still on the wall?
-
On 04/11/2023 at 22:04, nicknorman said:
Our Mastervolt Combi 12v/2500w/100A is 12 years old now, and the on/off/charger rocker switch has started playing up. I have taken it home to fix the switch but I also plan to replace the electrolytic capacitors since they seem to have a limited life and dry out/lose their value which can cause other bits to fail catastrophically. A stitch in time...
Just wondering if anyone else has done this, and any tips...
I too have the same unit and have had problems with the on/off/charger rocker switch especially in the charger position. I sprayed around the switch with contact cleaner (after a suggestion on this forum) and that got the switch working again. I've also found that rocking the switch back towards off slightly seems to help. I try and avoid operating the switch once I've got it working. I decided this was lower risk (& less work) than taking the thing to pieces to replace the switch.
I'd be interested to know how you get on particularly with the switch.
-
19 hours ago, Alway Swilby said:
The pub at the Rawcliffe mooring has closed but there are still 14 day visitor moorings there.
The Waterways Museum has closed and is now an auction centre. I think they have paid for moorings which include electric hook up.
There are bankside moorings opposite these moorings on the north side of the navigation. People do leave boats there but we know of people who had their boat broken into there.
Goole Boathouse Marina has changed hands and likes to call itself Goole Marina. They probably have short stay moorings available. Has a nice cafe and bar by all accounts. There are CRT 72 hour visitor moorings nearby.
Viking Marina is probably still full but it's a nice friendly place.
It's still good fun watching the ships come and go through Ocean Lock.
We left our boat (57' narrowboat) at Goole Marina for 10 days in June. They charged us £10/night plus £1/night for electric hook-up. They were very helpful, the bar was quite good & they sold cheap diesel, although not in the bar.
-
Avon Valley Railway. There is a pontoon mooring on the Avon (between Bath & Bristol) although space can be a problem due to (unsurprising) CMs.
-
Last time we were on the Monty (2 years ago) we referred to it as 'Jungle Boating' due to the rampant vegetation brushing both sides of the boat at the same time. Obviously this was not on the newly opened section to Crickheath. We walked there instead. As it's now open we'll have to go back!
-
I know, I took the post as referring to mooring on the offside but outside the basin -- which seems pointless, since you're behind the gate anyway you might as well go inside the basin where there are rings and more space and no passing boats.
There's also a lot more weed in the basin, or at least there was when I was last there. There are also rings outside on the offside - can't remember about the towpath side.
-
Are you sure it's not something around the prop shaft? I once had a tick-tick noise in forwards that turned out to be the remains of a pair of in-ear phones. It was the 3.5mm plug hitting the underside of the boat that caused the noise. Being very small they took ages to find.
-
We moored up at the tunnel entrance about 3 weeks ago, & it was very quiet. But then I've moored at Etruria, Festival Park (outside the carvery) & Westport Lake and they've always been fine apart from the goose poo at Westport Lake.
-
2
-
-
You also need to periodically grease the O-rings that create the seal between the cassette & the docking station. Use silicon grease. Not a pleasant job, but necessary. Wear plastic gloves. Also check the cap on the cassette is screwed on tight and the seal is clean.
-
1
-
-
Well, it looks as if Calor are having a partial rethink about discontinuing 3.9kg propane and 4.5kg butane cylinders:
What is clear is that these sizes will become increasingly difficult to obtain as the float of serviceable cylinders reduces, not that they are particularly easy to get hold off now. I don't regret getting my gas locker modified to take 6kg propane cylinders though.
-
13 hours ago, Mac of Cygnet said:
My solution when singlehanding the L&L was to get towpath walkers to operate the electric bridges. Everyone was delighted to get to play with them, except for one Asian lad who took one terrified look and ran away!
Was he looking at you or the bridge?
Just asking.
-
A male POL to male POL hose is used in this: https://bullfinch-gas.co.uk/hose-and-fittings/hose-assemblies-and-pigtails/y-manifold-detail when connecting two bottles to one regulator via a POL manifold - see the diagram.
-
1
-
-
Just now, Alan de Enfield said:
And of course to make them differntiated for ejuts -
Propane POL is a left hand thread, whislt the Butane is a right hand thread.
The thread on a 4.5kg butane is a left hand thread.
-
1
-
-
8 hours ago, NewCanalBoy said:
Well having just walked past a few boats there seems to be a few that don't trust them !
People have made up their own signs/post it notes/scrap paper saying that they have paid.
It is a bit weird that you go online to pay and they don't issue you with a receipt (or I didn't see the option to do so). You would of course need a printer to hand as well to print anything off.
Best you can do is take a screenshot as proof in case any ody wants to question it.
I took a screenshot every time I paid anything to DE when I was in the area earlier this year. On their website, even if you request a receipt you don't get one, hence the screenshot.
A boat that moored in front of us at Henley over the summer and hadn't got round to logging on to pay got visited by DE and fined - can't remember how much. These are council moorings, and lots of councils use DE (e.g. Reading). So they do enforce them, but only if you haven't paid - we had but the people in front hadn't, and it cost them.
-
I've had similar problems which turned out to be the switch on my Masscombi, although in my case it was in the charge position. Try rocking the switch very slightly. I found contact cleaner helpful too.
-
1 hour ago, nicknorman said:
How is you check the sg? If using a floaty thingy did you remember to correct for temperature? sg will be higher or lower depending on the volume of electrolyte in the cell so if the level is low the sg will be high. But I don’t really like the sound of the brownish colouration, something not right.But anyway, the advice from Trojan is only to equalise if any cells are below 1.250 or there is more than 0.030 difference. So if your lowest cell is 1.250 then no need for further equalisation (discounting the 1.30 which is abnormal).
Yes, I did use a floaty thingy, although you're right, I didn't make a temperature correction. At the time I was more concerned about differences between cells, and as all the readings were taken at the same time, temperature was unlikely to affect that.
I've now left the batteries disconnected and will monitor how quickly they self discharge. If the 1.3 cell has a short then hopefully that will show up.
-
1
-
-
7 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:
Because it is indicative of the plates shedding their material and that will build up in the sediment traps at the bottom of the cell and cause a short circuit.
Thanks for that. But why would the cell have such a high SG reading (1.3)?
-
19 hours ago, nicknorman said:
Well that should reasonably ok to fully charge. For reference we had 450Ah of Trojans and when we came back to the boat after a while on float, the charge current was less than 1A. So a drain of 5A makes me wonder if you are looking at the Combi output current and have stuff switched on like a fridge etc. Or is this the current only into the batteries? The current drain from boat systems/appliances may upset the equalise process by drawing too much current. Best to switch everything off during the equalise. Alternatively as I mentioned before, it could batteries on their last legs.
Everything other than the charger was disconnected/isolated. The 13.5V at float was with a current of 0.3A. The nominal bank capacity is 520Ah, so well below the 1% target.
Before attempting another equalisation charge I checked the specific gravities - all were within the range 1.25-1.27, except for one cell which had an SG of 1.3 but with the electrolyte discoloured slightly brown. I do remember reading in another thread that brown discolouration was not a good thing, although I can't remember exactly why.
Fortunately the battery involved is the end one of the bank, so easy to disconnect. On attempting another equalisation charge the voltage was up slightly to 15.0V (previously 14.8V) but the current was much the same at 5.4A.
-
Float voltage is 13.5V.
-
The charger had been in float for over 24 hours, so I'd have thought it would have been fully charged by then. The current stayed consistently at 5.6-5.7A.
I'll have another go later today.
Calor Gas currently not supplying new fills
in General Boating
Posted · Edited by Mike55
Nearly a year after announcing that they were discontinuing 3.9kg propane & 4.5kg butane cylinders, Calor decided to reverse their decision, and now we have something in writing confirming this. Bit late for me as I had my boat modified to take 6kg propane cylinders nearly a year ago. Still not been able to find anything about it on the Calor website though.
Calor Confirmation of Continued Supply of Small Cylinders 25Jan24.pdf