dmr

The JD3 has been out of production by Beta for a while now and the man who had all the parts Knowledge has long since retired. I reckon that tapered hose was a handmade/small production run part wound from a tape of some sort of amalgamating rubber, I have seen similar things elsewhere. That hose on my engine is also looking not too new and sorting this out is on the todo list. A big rework of the copper pipe might be the way to go to get the diameter change done in copper rather than rubber. There is a very small chance that one of the oil cooler end caps might just fit but that would still likely need modes to the copper pipe. A specialist rubber company could likely make a similar hose but it might be costly.

There are lots of pictures of the JD3 and BD3 on the www and they are very different engines so it should be easy to identify which one you have. Assuming its a JD3.. The little hoses connecting water pump to oil filter cooler will be John Deere parts. The big tapered hose from water pump to copper pipe to oil cooler will be a Beta special. The short connectors either end of the oil cooler will be supplied by Beta but are standard off the shelf parts for the oil cooler. Try ASAP. Longer hoses from water pump and header tank to the cooling panel will be supplied by the boat builder but should be available cut to length from a hose specialist. Hoses to calorifier will also likely be semi-standard parts obtained by the boat builder. John Deere have a goodish online parts catalog.

Just to put a spanner in the works..... Fossil fuels are also carbon neutral, its just that the timescale is rather long 😀. and talking of spanners.... Get a big battery and put it on trickle charge for weeks and weeks till it is absolutely fully charged.....then drop a spanner across the terminals....that is what we are doing to our planet 😀

The Tunnel leading up to Tuel Lane Deep Lock (Sowerby Bridge, Rochdale Canal) had some sort of comms system so the Lock keepers could signal to waiting boats (as boats should not enter the tunnel while the lock is emptying). It broke. Now the lock keepers have a whistle, they bend down towards the tunnel and blow the whistle and the sound travels through the tunnel quite well.

I think this might be a good year for the Rochdale, we have been seeing a boat most days recently. The rumours that the Rochdale is about to close (from this forum?). have possibly inspired a few boats to do it while they can 😀. We are down in Tod for a week or two (cheap beer Tuesday at the Lion) and I suspect there are a few more boat movements here than the summit suggesting that some boats turn rather than risking Manchester. Of the boats that I have spoken to at the summit most said that the Manchester 18 was hard work and unpleasant, but few have said it was a nightmare, so maybe things are improving.

I suspect boating is changing and there are more boats not moving much and less boats moving a lot. I also suspect that hire boating has seen a sharp decline in the last couple of years, bad weather and too many "boating season" stoppages have likely put people off, plus its an expensive holiday compared with cheap overseas stuff. However I suspect that out of season hire boating has probably increased. Except for the main runs into central Birmingham I think the BCN is not popular. If you want busy then the North Oxford and Braunston area, plus much of the South Oxford, Trent and Mersey through Stone, Llangollen etc. will please you 😀

But thats the problem and thats why our government is copping out on their carbon neutral plans, claiming that the UK makes only a tiny contribution to the worlds CO2 total. The world is in big boi trouble and we all need to do our bit to help. Just maybe if Europe makes a big effort then China and the USA just might feel pressured to fall in line, though China is actually doing pretty well in some ways. Like us, you already lead a fairly low impact lifestyle, but if you make just a little improvement and tell somebody else about you might just nudge them into action.....go on, buy that extra solar panel 😀

I suspect that there are two main sources of opposition to HVO 1, many boaters are tight fisted and resent paying an extra 20p/litre to save the planet (though rather more if forced to use 100% white HVO), and rather than admit to this like to find some other excuse. 2 The eco warrior purists/electric advocates who will accept nothing less than 100% electrification and 100% abolition of all liquid fuels. Its a liitle bit Like CAMRA who maintain 100% opposition to any keg/pressure dispensed beer and so have totally missed out on the revolution in excellent quality "craft" keg beers that is happening all around us.

Has anybody actually said HVO is carbon neutral? Most www sites that I have looked say it reduces CO2 by up to 90% (I think). I suspect 90% is still optimistic as I believe the production process is quite energy intensive, and I really don't know if all the transport "costs" are also factored in. To me there seams little point in producing HVO by cutting down the rainforest as this must give an actual increase in CO2, but then everyday I watch a diesel hauled train go past full of wood pulp that I believe has come from Canada and this counts as green energy. 😀

and I read somewhere that every wind turbine has a little diesel generator inside it, plus they get maintained by people driving diesel LandRovers and even Helicopters, lets get rid of them and go back to good old Britixh Coal 😀. There appears to be an argument "HVO is not perfect so I will just stick with dinodiesel". As a boater I am pretty much stuck with hydrocarbon fuels, but I reckon I have more than halved our boating carbon footprint over the last couple of years.

The main/only source of HVO in the UK is Crown who state their stuff is from 100% renewable/sustainable sources. Most of our food could be produced by slave labour in rain forest clearings but that doesn't mean that it actually is. HVO is only ever going to be available in small quantities for Niche markets, I just hope that boating is one of those markets. As long as it is from a good source then its much better the dinodiesel even though its still far from perfect. Electric cars are also not carbon neutral because they run on electricty made from gas. Yes, the .gov site does say that private electricity generation can use red diesel, its a bit confused/ambiguous about boating but essentially says its ok for boats as long as we don't go to Northern Ireland.

I will do a bit more Googling. I was trying to get HVO and at the time red HVO in drums was more than white at the petrol station, but I suspect the cost differential between HVO and diesel does vary a bit.

I thought this was the case too, but I spent a quick few mins on the www and could find no mention of it. Do you have a link? A 1000litre IBC is an alternative to 205l drums but both work out MUCH more expensive than bulk delivery, and unless you have a forklift on site there are significant unloading and handling challenges, though you can maybe invent a way to handle the drums. Some companies might be able to deliver with a tail lift truck....but might charge extra for this.

Its all interesting, in a frustrating sort of way. If I am correct that red can't be used for generation then boats must be an exception because we can use red for everything as long as we pay the extra duty for propulsion. I wonder what the situation would be if we put red in a separate generator out on the towpath rather than using the main engine? It is because we often only have one tank that this whoe 60:40 propulsion thing was invented. The ideal outcome would be to let boats use red HVO for everything, including propulsion, without any extra duty. I will keep my fingers crossed.

That would be a very interesting court case, but as you say, I think you would loose.