tommytelford

If I was intending to stay for 4 hours I would not object, I just wanted to stop for 15 / 20 minutes to have a quick wander and stretch our legs

Yes Mike and if you are in a van add on the congestion charge at £12.50 plus maybe the T charge at £10.00

We were on our way home from Edgbaston today and as Towcester High Street was closed we did a detour via Blisworth and Stoke Bruene. Hating to miss the chance of having a little stroll around the locks we went into the Museum car park intending to stop for 20 minutes or so and went to the Pay and Display machine to buy a ticket and could not believe that the minimum charge is now £2.50 for up to 4 hours. I decided to give it a miss and left. No wonder about 2/3 of the vehicles were not displaying a ticket, what a way to encourage people to visit our waterways

I have had fantastic results with rustoleum. My roof especially was in a terrible state. After 6 years it looks almost as good as the day it was done without a single spot of rust coming through. Don't be tempted to thin if you want it to stay shiny for a long period.

I drive every day in London about 100 miles a day. I am also a cyclist but SOME cyclist frighten the life out of me. They are obviously timing their rides and most have headphones on. They have absolutely no regard for anyone else on the road including other cyclists. The worst one are those that come along the nearside of my van as I am turning left. I am very aware of bikes and always check my mirrors before turning but they just keeping coming and assume that I am going to stop to let them overtake on the nearside. I also always give cyclist the required minimum clearance when overtaking but they often will come between me and another vehicle with just inches to spare. The 20mph speed limit in lots of London boroughs is completely ignored by these maverick riders, I am frequently overtaken by cyclists in or near the cycle track when I am keeping to the limit

The instruction book that came with it Have just checked and realise that it is 50amp because it was originally Quasi sine wave and I had it modified by Sterling to Pure Sine Wave

interesting that it is not listed in the Canalplan boat register. I know that is not totally up to date

I can link via my changeover switch. I was thinking more of a catastrophic power failure. Unlikely I know but I have been boating too long to think that it can't happen ?

Thanks it is only for and emergency complete loss of power while we are cruising. I have a basic 850w generator with 1000w maximum. Thinking about it it would probably be just as easy to use my 10amp charger connected to the starter battery to get enough power to start the engine and then charge the other batteries the alternator

Has anyone used a generator in conjunction with a Sterling 2.5 ProCombi s and if so what size genny do you use. The battery charge rate is 50 amp

Thanks Cuthound I think you have sorted my query. I managed to find an article which explains the the coup de fouet effect and it describes exactly what happened. Well don you ,have a pat on the back

It is a combi sorry I should have said. It is very difficult to monitor voltage at the actual time it cuts out as once the load is removed the voltage goes up. When I had problems originally, a couple of years back I actually tried running a video camera to monitor it but the battery ran out on the recorder first. I also tried putting the wife in charge of monitoring but the gin got to her and she went to sleep. I think the most likely cause is a loose connection somewhere which as the previous poster said , has welded itself together I will have a thorough check when I go to the boat. Thanks for the suggestions

The domestic batteries go through a switch of course but he inverter is fully fused as per BSS

No it doesn't go through a switch as I was advised to wire it direct through a suitable fuse. Maybe when I go to the boat next it may be worth checking the fuse connection. It just seemed that switching on the microwave woke it up so maybe a bad connection somewhere

I assume the voltage must have been ok as it continued working. You are probably right but just wondered ..........................

At the weekend I had to do a few jobs in preparation for a holiday cruise in a couple of weeks, including some small electrical jobs. When I had finished I decided to check the operation of the inverter so I unplugged the shoreline and let the it do it's job. After about 20 minutes I was surprised when the low voltage alarm started going off as the batteries were all fully charged. I let it continue until it cut out and then switched the inverter off and back on. It started working for about 2 minutes and the alarm started again, on a whim I turned on the microwave, thinking that it would switch the inverter off and I could then check the voltage. Much to my surprise the alarm stopped, the green light came on and the inverter continued working for the next 4 hours without a problem until I was ready to leave and re-connect the shoreline. In the past I have had problems with the invereter cutting out too early and I returned it to have it upgraded to Full Sinewave operation and checked out by Sterling because I wanted to use my laptop onboard. Any ideas why it should have started again in this way?

I would have thought that was about right if the battery is fully charged, or thereabouts

True why spoil it with facts that can be substantiated

The article makes reference to Council Tax, this quite misleading as if you are living in a rented flat in Central London you would be paying not only Council Tax but a huge rental on top and even if you owned the property there would probably be a mortgage plus of course service fees which could easily be in the region of 7k to 8k pa.

I was advised by a local fireman not to leave my boat at the mooring near Tesco as the car park has a bit of an unsavoury crowd during te evening. we have moored near Grove Lock on several occasions without any problem

The Mill House at Stretton or The Navigation at Horninglow

The guys at Bulbourne are fantastic, I was there several years ago and they blacked my boat and discovered that the stern gear was completely shot. Because the boat is not a standard design they had to have one fabricated and because of access it had to be a split unit to get in in without removing the gearbox and bellhousing. They did a very professional job and I wonder what would have happened had I taken it to an "ordinary" blacking centre

I have an old fashion rotary swith (1,2,off or both). I just turn it both when on landline and hey presto charged starter batter

I have had one on my boat for several years. I have recently had problems but it transpired that it was my fault as I had faulty batteries. I originally bought the qusai sine wave version but had mine upgraded recetly to pure sine wave I agree that in power saver mode it is reluctant to come on as most loads are inductive and this does not work, it has to be a straightforward load to trigger it. Overall good value for money

Thanks again for all the help. I went to the boat this weeken and managed to monitor the voltage as suggested. I switched the inverter back on afer it had cut out and the voltage showed 12.5 volts which dropped gradually over about a minute to 10.4 volts and the inverter cut out, within about 5 seconds the voltage reverted 12.5 volts I replaced the batteries and am pleased to report that the inverter ran all night and right up to 2pm when I left the boat with 4 hours of TV, 240 volt fridge on highest setting and 240 volt drinks fridge plus all of the lights on for about 6 hours and the voltage was still readin 12.45 volts before I plugged in the landline. My apologies to Mr. Sterling for threatening to chuck the inverter overboard !!!!!