Jump to content

dmr

Member
  • Posts

    10,342
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    4

Everything posted by dmr

  1. Integral water tanks are now seriously out of fashion, all new boaters want plastic or stainless steel. However I suspect it is just fashion and nothing else. I have heard of several stainless tanks splitting but have never heard of a serious failure of an integral tank. I confess we neglected ours: we owned the boat for 7 years before we looked inside, and I confess I paid somebody else to do this. (I thought it was young mans work but the man involved turned out to be only a few years younger than me!). The blacking was in good condition but was penetrated in a couple of places leading to significant pitting of the steel, but still only about 1.5mm in a 10mm base plate. The answer (I hope) is modern epoxies, forget about blacking the tank every year, .... take it back to bare metal (bad job), do it in a modern epoxy (reactive resins?) then next time round its probably somebody else's problem!!!!! I really don't like the idea of flexible liners. ..............Dave
  2. I've used DesignSpark for mine. Its a free download and I believe its related to RS components (must Never say RadioSpares!) Its really a pcb layout thing but is also quite good for simple wiring diagrams and not too difficult to learn, an evening should be enough to get going. .............Dave
  3. Slow is indeed good, but at Osney the water itself is moving so quick there is not much option. At Abingdon I am always unpleasantly surprised at just how much the flow takes the back over towards the weir! I think either Goring or Whitchurch (or both) have the locklanding on piles so in heavy flow there can be a crossflow under the landing itself. ........Davel
  4. Heading downstream from Dukes cut to Reading, Osney, Abingdon (if service berth and mooring are in use) Goring and Whichurch all involve stopping on the flow, or at least keeping some power on for steerage until the very last moment if there is significant flow. Benson has a lock cut but can need a fair bit of power to get into it (its on a bend and the flow takes the back) and so reverse is needed to slow down before the lock. There are probably a couple more but these are the ones I would worry about if going downstream on yellows. ..............Dave
  5. Have you seen this............. http://www.apolloduck.co.uk/feature.phtml?id=386285 ..............Dave
  6. I was thinking more about stopping on the Thames lock landings where obviously turning and heading upstream is just not an option, and as far as I know a significant amount of reverse is the only way to do it. .............Dave.
  7. I keep reading this downstream idea on this forum. If a river is flowing hard it is MUCH safer to be going upstream. If you do not have enough power to make some headway going upstream then you will certainly not have enough power to stop (in reverse) when going downstream, and anything that goes wrong will go wrong much more quickly! .............Dave
  8. I think the two jobs are different and many volunteer lock keepers might not want to be salesmen. Remember how pissed off the AA patrols got when they were told to be "financial product" salesmen a few years ago???? However I do think that any lock keepers who are willing should be given the training and paperwork needed to sign up donators. ...........Dave
  9. Not sure who or what "Inspired people" is. A chugging company or a recruitment agency? My understanding is the initially CaRT used a chugging company and were not happy with the cost or results, and so now employ their own chuggers directly. I have watched these chuggers at work at a few locations (including the top or Farmers) and they do look ok. I personally do not approve of chugging but the CaRT ones appear a lot less forceful or "in yer face" as the city centre types. As Matty observed, they appear to leave boaters alone (maybe told we are not worth it?) though are always happy to chat to us if approached. I chatted to a couple of the Chuggers in Bham last year and they did have an impressive success rate, so maybe the more relaxed approach is working. ...............Dave
  10. I guess you could have a brothel boat on the Thames offering quickies whilst waiting in the queue on the lock landing. .............Dave
  11. Thats not a bad idea, there are lots of ex hire boats available with lots of bedrooms. I think the problem is that CaRT will classify you as a "High Risk" trader and so require you to have some sort of formal qualification. ..............Dave
  12. There might be something for hire/hotel boats (if they need it) but I really am not aware of anything for roving traders. The thing is there is no towpath as such on the Thames (or the Nene etc) and so almost all potential trading sites are owned by a council or a private landowner, and so EA could not really give permission for bankside trading. There are a couple of Roving Traders on the Thames who I believe do not get any "trouble" from EA. To the OP there is already a very successful doggie trading boat (Golden Boyz) though this should not stop you, there are already multiple sweety boats, craft boats, fender boats and cheese boats. ..............Dave
  13. Please tell me more because I have never heard of this. It IS possible for a trader to have a Gold Licence (we did it a couple of years ago). This covers Trading on CaRT waters and Cruising on the Thames, but does NOT cover trading on the Thames or other EA waters. To answer the OP, there are not separate CC and Trading Licences, you have just one Licence, tell CaRT what you want to do and get the correct single licence. ..........Dave To explain a bit better, a boat has either a standard leisure licence or a trading licence, and in either case you may also declare that you do not have a home mooring. .............Dave
  14. If you like the Apple, and are not familiar with windows then you may find the switch to windows traumatic. First choice would be to fix the Apple If you go the windows route I would try to get a shop to supply a PC with 7 rather than 8. The Android Tablet is not such a bad idea, or what about the larger iPad? If you get the iPad it will most likely already know all your personal settings from the macbook. Unless your computer use is keyboard intensive (writing/programming/spreadsheets) then a tablet should work well. .............Dave
  15. With bigger batteries there will be less cells to check/fill and physically bigger cells do generally make a better battery. But big batteries are heavier to lift which can be a problem, but all in all I reckon Petes economic advice is the biggest factor.. .............Dave
  16. I am maybe having an electronic geek moment here but I suspect the 500mW is the maximum dissipation allowed before it blows up, not what it uses in normal service. I think its quiescent current is a couple of milliamps. The sensor and other components may use a bit too. If the op really wants to save power then cleaning the tops of the batteries very day may be a better bet than switching off the water meter!!!! ..............Dave
  17. dmr

    Nb Firefly

    I watched Firefly go down Kintbury Lock a couple of days ago and so can independently conirm that said engine is still in the boat, looking and sounding wonderful. ...........Dave
  18. There is.... it stunningly combines the major limitations of a narrowboat with the major limitation of a widebeam. ............Dave
  19. I reckon somebody was daydreaming or not paying attention to the required journey and took the West channel rather than the East.They realised their mistake and made a quick turn but it was much too late, its very easy to do, we did something very similar going down Dukes cut a few years ago but it was less embarrassing because nobody saw it happen and all we did was to get a bit tangled in an overhanging tree. ..........Dave
  20. That sounds like hard work, have you just tried driving into a lock a bit too fast? If this shaking really is needed then it sounds like stratification (I have not yet decided if this is a real issue or not). It is said that a good equalisation charge will resolve this by making lots bubbling. When my Elecsols failed (after only a few months) the nice gentleman at Elecsol said they just needed shaking! ..............Dave
  21. 1 Keeping the water level correct. 2 Avoiding over discharge. 3 Achieving 100% charge on a regular basis (can be very challenging especially for off-grid liveaboards). 4 Equalisation when required (including knowing when it is required!). 5 Keeping terminals clean and tight. Sounds easy, almost trivial, but many posts on this forum suggest that it is beyond many boaters! I'm an engineer and it took me a couple of years to get competent at it! ..........Dave
  22. Exactly what is a refurbished battery please???? Is this a bit like the "rebuilt" engines that dodgy London dealers used to sell? I assume it is cleaned on the outside and hopefully flushed and refilled to clear any crud of the bottom. The active material on the plates will still be partly lost! Magnetman raises a very good point. Some level of redundancy is essential for liveaboards and replacement traction cells are not always available next.day delivery! I have seriously considered getting a set of two volt tractions, only having to maintain 6 cells is a bonus. I decided that the weight, height, and lack of redundancy were all negatives and that Trojans where the best compromise. Looking at various specs the cycle life of Tractions is better than Trojans but not by a huge amount! .............Dave
  23. I am getting out of my depth here as I have general knowledge but no Barrus specific knowledge. We need input from Tony as he has hands-on experience of a wide range of engines. A 110mm engine pulley driving a 68mm alternator gives a ratio of 110/68 or about 1.6. This is a bit low. If your engine tickover is (say) 800rpm then the alternator spped is 1280rpm. Most alternators need about 2000 rpm to work. I am not aware of any alternators that actually shut down on a fully charged battery (but could be wrong) but if they did then I would expect them to go into "float" rather than shutting right down so would not activate the light/buzzer. I would be very surprised if Barrus would fit an alternator that did a full shut down. The buzzer should really only sound when something is seriously wrong. My best guess is that your alternator is turning too slowly but I do not know why this problem has just started. Your voltage readings would support this. If you are right "on the edge" then the problem may well appear to come and go ...........Dave
  24. and forgot to say....., in Towpath Talk Fenny Compton marina are using a photo of Our boat taken by Gillie! They took it from the internet (Flickr). Gillie put it there with no copy-write so they are breaking no laws, but an acknowledgement would have been polite! ............Dave
  25. We choose to live on the canal which is a public place, and in some parts a tourist attraction, so can hardly complain if we get our picture taken. Had exited phone call from kids a year or so back to say we were on TV. It was some sort of "location location" thing and we were filmed on the Bridgewater. I never saw a film crew so maybe they did it with quite a long lens? .Only complaint was that we looked like typical boater with me driving and Gillie sat at the front with her feet up.....those who know us will know that this is not how we usually do it! .............Dave
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.