Radio-Ga-Ga

A quick google found Narrowboat paint is indeed made by HMG who seem to think they are also a little involved with craftmaster.

I had some made to measure by a guy near Bromsgrove, Can't remember off hand the price, but doubt I would have paid 80 quid, if it's not too far for you I'll dig out the receipt for his name and the price.

I used to try to keep my dish as low on the pole as possible, thinking more movement meant more loss of signal, with practical use I found it made no difference at all, distance moved whether it's an inch or a yard makes no differencel, only direction and elevation are important, any change in the angle of the roof is the same at any point. I would love to have a smaller dish, my dish looks crap on the boat, If it was/is possible to have a smaller dish with the same result, it would/ will be there but yet to find it.

Yes I know obstuctions will prevent any signal, tho in winter trees without leaves are less of a problem, but anyway this morning I did some real life tests that you can compare to the same or other dishes. Where I'm moored the canal (not unusualy is shallow) and the boat is about 2ft from the bank, as a couple of boats passed I tightened the mooring ropes to hold the boat firmly on the bottom and prevent as much movement as possible. Starting from best signal strength I changed the elevation while watching the receiver signal meter on TV, the dish is marked for elevation, unfortunately on the wrong side where the dish is pointing to watch the meter and it, so measured the movement between pole and edge of the dish, the signal meter was at 90% and remained at that with 1/2" of movement up or down, watching TV and moving the dish up to lose the signal and measuring first when the picture returned and continuing down till it was lost again was 1 7/8". starting again with 90% signal and rotating the dish while measuring the edge against a baton taped to the boat next to it the dish could be rotated just under 1//4" in both directions before the signal fell, and again watching TV while rotating the dish from the picture appearing till it was lost was 1 1/4" The above confirmed something I knew from use, that the elevation of my particular dish is less critical than direction. The dish is a Triax DAP 610 fixed on a pole central to the dish and lnb TechnomateTM-2, the elevation adjustment is also central. My boat is a 57' narrowboat. I'm no mathematician, but if you (or any other member) wants to convert the measurements into amount of possible boat movement to compare with other dishes it would be interesting.

I fitted the MSC water level gauge during build, easy to install and accurate.

I've always had the same problem and simply never got arround to doing anything about it, running my oil fired hot water heater warms the engine, I intended fitting a solenoid valve in the engine circuit that opened with ignition on but it's still waiting to be done.

I completely agree with this, nobody tried to tell you what you said isn't true. we can only state what our own experience is. there are so many variables not just with the size but the type of dish and lnb but with the boat, a 20 ton boat rocks less than a canoe, its only irritating when you state something you know is correct with your own set up and somebody disputes it.

I don't know a great deal about dishes on houses, and my only knowledge of dishes is from practical experience on the boat, I did this rocking test some time ago when posting on another thread so that I knew the info I was posting was correct, If I recall correctly with a 90% signal shown on the reciever I could not reduce the signal to less than about 60% by rocking the boat. I could only guess at the change in angle of the dish, but it matters not it's a fact that I know to be true, but when posted on here attracts this type of sceptical comment. you asked for practical info in your post because you didn't know the answer, and possibly because the first few posts backed up your preconceptions, you prefer not to accept practical facts, so I'll carry on watching tv in HD, completely happy that aerial viewers are struggling to pick out the golf ball from the snow, and the guy on the next boat with his 35cm dish missed that vital moment in his film when a boat passed by.

This view is only in a minority because most boaters go for smaller dishes and have never tried anything bigger. Also in my experience using a 60cm dish, even with the dish facing directly over the side of the boat it is impossible to deliberately rock the boat enough to disturb the reception. I've put this practical experience forward before and end up getting shot down by somebody who read in a boating mag that 35cm is optimum.

Ah, I was recalling you mentioning limekiln Stourport, so thought you might be local to them, not to worry.

probably a good plan to get hold of a small quantity first and try it on something other than the boat, I seem to think you're based not far from kidderminster? I'm near wolverley, and will be here 'till saturday. I have about 3 litres of bottle green coach paint, even if you don't like the colour you would be welcome to it to play with.

You could spend thousands, I painted my own outside with coach paint 200 quid, which is better? Edited due to lost phone signal leaving unfinished post..

They are intended for motorhomes/caravans while traveling and supported by the alternator, and switched to mains or gas on site, as said it will run your batteries flat in no time. If cost is a priority a household mains fridge and inverter will use far less power. ooops cross posted with the above!

In my experience being able to put up the dish knowing the elevation is right is the key. Looking for a point in the sky with just a rough idea of direction is painstakingly slow, but with the elevation pre-set you're only looking on an arc and you will find it as fast or faster than a motorized system. Traveling with a sat nav (your car one will do) means you can moor knowing roughly the direction the dish will be facing and can pick a spot without obstructions.

Garden centres used to sell 12V soil heating elements for starting off seedlings, but will probaly make you buy the complete kit including transformer, worth checking out tho.

Never used it but I seem to recall this paint being introduced as a budget boat paint only available by mail order, and over the years taken on by some chandlers with a huge hike in price. No expert on synthetic paint but there are 3 ways I know of to kill the finish, too much thinner, direct sunlight before its dry, and T-cutting when new. If you didnt do any of these I'd suspect the paint itself. Never used specific boat paint because its so overpriced, I've always used good quality coach paint (PPG or HMG) Dark colours in PPG coach paint will go flat if not cared for, leaving HMG coach paint as the best IMO. Edited to clarify, by direct sunlight I mean the high metal temp produced by it rather than sunllight itself

A large screwdriver with the end pressed against the engine and the handle against your ear can often help, when it's placed close to the source more sound will transfer into the screwdriver, hold it by the handle, touching the metal will dull the sound.

I've done it using one of the cheap pumps that fit on an electric drill with 1/2" hose on the drain valve

For the second time!, I have not told you you would get black smoke, I said if you need to see smoke take it on a good run at full throttle. and I stand by that. It just depends how long you're prepared to torture it for. As it gets hotter it will start with dark blue as the rings scrape at the bores and it starts burning oil, moving to a nice shade of pigeon blue as the compression drops and partly burned fuel combines with partly burned oil, and finaly if your big end shells and con rods are very durable a few minutes of pale ivory just like morning mist will fill the river valley as the compression drops so low virtualy no fuel is burned, and you should have penty of time to cook lunch on it while you decide on re-con or new. But don't take my word for it try it for yourself, your "while" was just not long enough. don't take my advice, but don't twist my words because it doesn't suit you, you often ask for help on here and regularly reject good advice because you don't like it. Gibbo gives some of the best electrical advice you could want, but I've seen you rejecting what he's told you on electrical topics, and twisting what he's said until he makes a mistake so you can argue even more. Don't think for one minute I'm offended, rejecting good advice is what you do. Just one last thing, for Robin3, earlier in this topic I was unkind to you, no matter what I thought of your post I should not have been so tactless and I apologise.

I was basing it on what you have already said, that it overheats if run above a certain rpm therfore you can't run it for very long on full throtle. If thats not the case why are you messing about trying to cool it though a hose with a flow that is a fraction of the hose that is intended to cool it. you can't have both ways. I didn't specifify the smoke would be black. My responses in this topic are not based on theory, but on a lifetime of of experience working with engines, the knowledge gained from that is given to you freely. choose to accept or ignore it as you will.

It depends how many symptoms you need to have and what you call significant, I know your boat is a widebeam and I seem to think from a post in another thread its a 57'? if thats right you have an engine that is at best adequate, on top of that you have a skin tank that is less than adequate and to top it it off its overpropped enough to limit its rpm significantly. Its just overheating waiting to happen! if you need to see smoke as well just take it for a good run at full throttle. Regardless of what others have said, correctly propping the engine will have an impact on the overheating problem, and the proper way forward is to start with the prop, you will then get the right performance from the engine and can decide if the improvement is enough to live with amd if not what to do about increasing the skin tank area. If you just want to fix the overheating just add more skin tank and live with the performance limitation.

But you already know the engine is overloaded, it's overpropped. there seems to be some myth on here that overpropped is somehow right. overpropped means what it says and correctly propped means what it says. edited due to lost signal leaving a blank reply

the post as a whole is ridiculous, and your right about the smoke, but suggesting that an overloaded engine gains some sort of benefit from chucking expensive pollution out is something else, if its smoking due to overloading the load is too heavy so you shouldn't even be there, let alone be thinking ah well at least all those pound notes will keep it cool.

Is this intended as a joke? If this post is serious it's so ridiculous the only response it deserves is to say, if you post on any subject requiring mechanical aptitude I suggest you limit yourself to the fitting of door knobs. But no it can't be, so yes very funny, realy made me giggle,

I didn't read every post in this topic so might have missed somthing, but I think we all know if you make an engine labour hard it produces more heat. increasing the capacity of the cooling system enough will dissipate it and it won't overheat, but the engine is still labouring. what I know about props could be written in large print on the back of a stamp, but whatever the load, prop or fairground ride if an engine is held at low rpm by its load with a wide throttle the load is too heavy. that doesn't mean that by reducing the load we have to race down the motorway at breakneck speed or have the kids flying off the roundabout. what it does mean is that by giving the engine a load that it is capable of driving at near to its maximum rpm it's less likely to be labouring at the lower speed you do intend to run it at.