[Name of boat]

 

Hi, we are new to this and have just completed three months liveaboard.

 

A learning curve!!!!

 

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to re-name a narrowboat? I have had dire warnings of bad luck, etc. Others suggested paper boat, set fire to, others said when out of the water for blacking etc. Others said who cares???

 

Just want to do it right!!

 

Purdey

 

How about suggestions for a new name

 

I propose 'STEED' (Purdy - Getttittt?)

 

Or my very favourite 'PSORISIS OF THE RIVER'

[Sailaway fit out]

Thanks.

 

The hull is already sat in the water fully lined and has 12v and 240v tails, new engine gearbox etc etc. I was thinking of buying it and fitting it out as a cheaper option than ordering a new fully built boat.

 

I just wanted a rough idea of the costs involved.

 

It will certainly be a cheaper option if you feel you have the skills, but has the others say it will cost what ever you want it to. Be careful in employing a domestic tradesmen they will not have the specialist knowledge of boat regulations.

You must attain this knowledge yourself.

It is all available to you (on sites like this) and will cost you nothing, but you will have to do it.

Getting it to a state where you can live on will cost you less than 10k, but then it can be a bottomless pit.

There is so much available for boats now.

Buy a kitchen, cassett toilet, shower, central heating and bed first - then you have all the time in the world to finish it.

One consideration - Does it have a 240V generator on the engine - if not - you cannot have a washing machine connected unless you are on shore power.

I would imagine that a boat fitter would only consider doing the work if it was at his premises and exspect it to take at least 9 months. At a cost of maybe £30k - but the finished boat will be worth £60-70k

[Information & Help Please]

Well I found this site yesterday and I really am pleased I did what a wonderful group of people trying to help and offering advice it really restores my faith in people that are willing to help others without reward. I'm really having a great time reading other peopls threads too. A really big big thank you to all of you

 

 

Hi There

 

Welcome to the 'Club'!!! - It is good - isn't it

 

I don't think you will get much change out of a £1000 to move it by road. Just the cranes at either end have become devilish expensive with the new requirment for a H&S assesment ect. The stoppages are easily found on the BW sites and most are over by the end of Feb. You have two ways up and over the Pennines and three possible routes - all fantastic but non are easy. Or down the Trent and Mersey to Nottingham and the River Trent, great experience but maybe not for the faint hearted or in-experienced. Into the canals at Keadby and around Thorne to the Calder. They both would take 2 weeks at least - Good Luck

[Earthing a Steel Boat]

To make an RCD testing plug, wire a 6.8K (6800) ohm 2 watt resistor between the live and earth pins in the plug and replace the plug's cover. On plugging this into a live socket, the RCD should trip instantly PROVIDING:

 

1. There is an earth path back to shore via the inlet mains cable or...

 

2. In the case of the inverter, the inverter is earthed and the earth and neutral are connected together at the inverter mains output.

 

Be aware though that if the RCD does not trip instantly, because of an RCD fault, the resistor will burn out very quickly. One really needs a 10W resistor to preclude this happening but it won't fit in the plug!

 

This resistor method is exactly in effect what the test button does on the RCD itself.

 

Chris

 

Hi Chris

How big does the earthing wires need to be?

Iam guessing but - the same as the live feed ie 2.5mm for the 240V and 25mm for the 12V.

[Eberspacher]

try this

 

http://www.espar.com/html/service/download/technical.html

 

 

Thanks for the link Lol

Unfortunetly they only cover the installation details and only for

the modern models mine is the older D5W.

[Earthing a Steel Boat]

You MUST use a 2-wire system on the boat for your 12v stuff. ie: you must NOT use the hull as a return wire, in contrast to the sytem used on cars. The reason is that this will cause severe corrosion of the hull.

 

Your 240vac shore mains stuff will be 3 wire. Live, neutral and earth as per normal.

 

In ONE place, usually in the engine room, the mains earth AND the 12v negative need to be connected together. If you do not connect mains earth to your hull, the mains RCD on your boat will not function correctly leaving you liable to a fatal shock.

 

If you use an inverter, you must also earth its case to the common earth point; there is usually a bolt for this purpose. You must also connect inverter mains earth and inverter mains neutral together too at the inverter. Failure to do the latter will mean that you will not have a live and neutral but 2 lives and again your boat RCD will not function correctly. Many inverters already have the earth and neutral bonded in manufacture for this purpose (eg: my 1800W Sterling inverter).

 

If you use a generator, you MUST earth the case to the hull (for the same RCD reason) and bond mains earth to mains neutral at the generator output (for the same RCD reason). Some gennies do not allow the latter because of the way their output transformers are connected. See the manufacturers' instructions on how to get round this.

 

You should also insert a "galvanic isolator" into the shore mains earth wire immediately after the shore input socket on the boat. This will prevent your hull dissolving away when connected to shore mains.

 

Further, I have mentioned RCDs a lot - you MUST have one to be safe. Also ensure you have a "Mains ON" indicator lamp and a "Correct Mains Polarity" indicator lamp. I can give you details of how to wire in a couple of neons which will do this indication very cheaply and simply if you need the info.

 

Chris

 

 

Thanks Chris - I thought you would have a simple answer

You can see where the confusion starts. By stating not to use the hull as a 12v negative and then stating you must connect the negatives to earth including the 240V! ---- (well it does with me).

How big do the earth connection wires have to be? 4mm-6mm-25mm?

I also have a 1800W Sterling inverter so can assume it is connected Neutral-Earth. Mains to my 240V panel is fed simply by plugging in a 13amp plug into the inverter and a switchable 16A land line socket

I have the rest of the equipment - indicator lamps ect. Now I can go through all the earths and check earth connections.

Is there a simple (safe) method of testing the RCD without sticking ones fingers into the socket?

There is test button but I assume it by-passes the wired socket circuit.

[Earthing a Steel Boat]

Although I have a reasonable knowledge of electrics I cannot get my head arround this one.

I have taken great care not to have anything electrical connected to the hull, for fear of charging the steelwork.

Now it seems this is not correct.

I need a simple chapter and verse desciption of what should be connected to the hull and what shouldn't.

The problem stems from variuse different manufactures equipment diagrams not being standarised to all our mix & match systems.

Including, recently, the connections for a newly aquired anode saver.

Come on Chris please try and explain.

OR - Is there any chance of someone producing a wiring diagram - only for all the hull earth connections

[What size Alternator]

I agree with Steelaway's synopsis.

 

Just to be pedantic (apologies) on the technical side, you said that, "[the sterling controller] lies to the alternater and convinces it that the batteries are not fully charged and it continues to charge them way beyond what an alternater only will."

 

What actually happens is much simpler. The Sterling alternator controller merely lifts the regulator voltage from the typical 14.2v (for the alternator's own internal regulator) to 14.8v for wet lead acid batteries.

 

If you consider that the internal resistance of the batteries will be of the order of less than 20 milliohms, when partially discharged, then an increase in voltage of just 0.6v will drive an additional 30A into the batteries.

 

Chris

 

Thanks for being pedantic Chris. 'I' now know how it lies to the alternator. What ever porky's it tells - it bloody well works

[Instalation Diagrams.]

Hello Everybody Happy New Year.

 

I am about to fit out my first boat and to help the challenge that awaits me I ask for help from anybody who has diagrams for the Hot and cold water, gas etc. I plan to have a clarifier near to the engine (the boat will be a reverse layout 53ft trad) then have the water pump near to the cold water tank. This means the pump is along way away? is this good? Would I lag the plastic pipes? How good are the plastic pipes and connectors. I guess having the pump at the front which will be the highest point will help the pump and mean less water to drain off if you have to change the pump?

 

Any Help appreciated.

 

Regards

Si

I have tried to think how to attach my plumbing diagram. I think it would be easier if you email me at a1mac@talktalk.net

I have other circiut diagrams you might be interested in

Alex

[What size Alternator]

I use alot of power, so I was thinking for christmas getting rid of my 3 cheap batteries and replacing them with 4 120ah Elecol ones and getting a higher output alternator ie 120ah. at the mo' i'm running engine alot of hours every day (at least 6!!) costing the earth.

Any thoughts

 

Before spending your money on new batterys, buy a Sterling alternater charger. You will then get the maximum the 120 amp the alternater is capable of (the load on the alternater is such that it will bring down the engine revs! ) and super quick charging. It also lies to the alternater and convinces it that the batterys are not fully charged and it continues to charge them way beyond what an alternater only will.

It also de-sulphates the plates of the batterys.

Also consider the 6v T105 (187 ah) semi traction type batterys - Very long life - Very deep discharge.

But they will need topping up with water when you work them this hard.

Not that expensive but you need two to achieve 187 ah at 12V (four for 374 ah)

And four weigh 17 stone so you may need to adjust your ballast.

[Eberspacher]

Can any one tell me how to dismantle the combustion chamber below the the glow plug?

What will burn out in the combustion chamber?

I am told that the Webasto has a aluminium chamber that eventualy burns through the water jacket, will this happen in my Eberspacher?

[Summer cruise]

I'm in the same boat (no pun intended...) I want to spend either April or May cruising - but where??!! How far can I realistically go with time to return - I don't want to do too many hours a day and not get to actually do anything but steering and locks. Starting from Gayton.

Stickleback.

Try Braunston - Warwick - Stratford - (River Avon £40?) Tewkesbury - Gloucester - Worcester - Stourport - Birmingham (around Gas Street Basin) - Braunston. Easy and great one month cruise - maybe more

[River Nene]

Well our three girls have expressed a wish to go boating with us this summer which is nice because we'll be able to split the costs. Having been on the LL twice and recently on the T&M we were looking at the River Nene the other day as an alternative to the canals. One of the girls wants to do boating further south and since shes a teacher thats restricts us to the most expensive month of August to hire.

 

Any suggestions other than the Nene?

 

Hi Tiller

Please remember that this is a river and is subject to flooding which might affect your holiday plans. There are 17 locks at Northampton up to the GU canal (about 3 hours). The locks on the Nene are the guilitine type (mostly electric) and have a different proceedure, not much mooring and can be remote for shops/pubs. It all seems like bad news but the river is nice. The Ouse is much nicer, but again don't expect the facilitys to be like the canals. Try the Oxford/Coventry if you want to go south.

[New batteries]

For what it is worth I fitted two 6volt 230 amp ultra deep cycle batteries two ansd a half years ago. So far I have not had to top up the electrolyte and they hold their charge extreemly well. the last pair lasted eleven years.

 

http://www.batterymegastore.co.uk/cgi-bin/...ltra_Deep_Cycle

 

I also echo Chris W's advice about fitting an external alternater controller, I have a Sterling version and it does exactly what it says on the box.

 

I totaly agree with David.

 

I bought 4 x 6V T105 (187amps each @ 6V - 374amps total @12V)semi traction battery's and wired them for 12V.

Installed a Sterling alternater charge controller and have had no problem with electrical power for over 3 years.

Even after breaking a fan belt and had no charging for 3 days.

The fridge is a standard domestic (small freezer box) 240v and runs through an inverter 24/7. The digi-box and toaster and hob igniter are all 240v. The TV is a flat screen and connected without the transformer at 12v.

All this and still no problem, although my sons Soni Play Station does take A LOT of power, so I do restrict its use

[do gel and lead acid batterys mix?]

I am always amazed at the cunfusion there is regarding different types of battery's.

I am utterly convinced that if you are going to charge battery's everday and keep them in a hot engine bay they will use water!

Therefor you must be able to replace the liquid that will be evaperated. I can use 4 ltr's of water during cruising through the summer in my 4 x 6V traction battery's. (and a little more in the start battery)

Unless the battery's are not checkable or if you are going to invert the boat I cannot under stand why you would use any thing else.