arthor

People on here are such a help and as always, I very much appreciate it. We have 3 sets of skts. Round pin are 12v. Square pin are off the inverter. Square pin marked MAINS ONLY are the shorepower ones and also the Travelpower as I've today from the replies. Now I'm happy about the relationship between shore and travel, I have a start. I'm not getting anything from the washer so I'm thinking it's a hands and knees job looking in the cupboards to see where it is plugged in, rather than assume it is.

Good evening. After owning our boat for a year, I've finally sussed the inverter. What I haven't got my head round is the shore power and travel power. There is a rotary switch with shore/off/gen. Am I correct in thinking that when underway, Travelpower does the job that shorepower does when hooked up? Assuming I select gen on the rotary switch. We have two sets of skts with some marked mains only. Until I suss this, the washing machine is pretty much a white elephant.

I'll check what Mastervolt it is. The boat is over 20 yrs old, so I suspect the electrics may have been put in over time. When cruising, I'm happy everything gets charged, so I'm not sure I want to mess too much. As it only seems to be an issue when she's parked up over the winter on shore power,, as long as I can get them all charging via a jump lead, I can live with that. If the starter doesn't charge, I'll take it on the chin and swap it out and hopefully be forewarned for next winter. The 5 house batts are brand new, so the point made about looking after them due to expense is very valid indeed.

Many thanks again. Think I will give it a few days and go down to try the jump lead thing if I know for sure the house batts are getting a charge. I'm assuming that would only be for when the boat is "stood" and on shore power. There are a couple of stickers next the Mastervolt that say house is 1 and starter is 2. The voltage suggests that is correct. Now that I know I have shorepower and mains outlets, I have had an idea. When I park my bike up in the garage for any length of time, I plug in a Tecmate battery optimiser. Just wondered if one of those plugged in would keep the starter batt topped up. Just a thought.

Been down to the boat and taken a pic of my Mastervolt thing. Starter batt still reading zilch. One thing I did notice was that my house batts were reading 11.9v. I switched my inverter from 'off' to 'charger only' and they immediately went up to 13 plus. Can I take it that indicated there was now charge going to the house batts? This didn't happen with the starter batt. I'm thinking that I may have figured out how to charge both banks, albeit seperately but the starter batt is now beyond help.

we had the eberspacher changed out to a Webasto in October. Might get them out to test the batt, replace if necessary and give me a quick run down of what I need to set all the switches to for various scenarios. It would be worth a few hours labour charge to get it right. I may have a pic of our Mastervolt thing.

Interesting. Surprised there isn't some sort of facility for this to be enabled in the system. thank you all for your help. I will see what it looks like in a few days. The jumper idea. Is that just one lead? pos to pos?

Greetings all. I have just been down to the boat full of enthusiasm with Spring approaching to find my starter battery dead. House bank is fine. I'd finally got my shorepower sorted before chistmas and set the rotary switch to shore. Thought that would all my batts in order over the winter. I have a Mastervolt combi thing which seems to allow one bank only to be selected at a time. It had domestic selected. Not sure if this matters for this problem but I have now selected starter. Is there any chance that there may now be charge going to my starter battery? I can go back down and take pictures of the set up, if that is useful. Anyone know of a suitable electrian near Leeds? Any help, much appreciated

Tied up at Pollington back in August All a bit much for our baby girl

On the A and C heading to Woodlesford last Sunday Woodlesford Lock

Again, many thanks for all your replies. What a great bunch of people on here. Good luck with all your boating.

thank you for your replies. It just seems odd for CRT to quote Summer times but not Winter. It leaves on pondering if there are no restrictions in the Winter at all or if the L and L is effectively two long cul de sacs between Oct and March. If anyone has been through in November recently, that would give an answer. My brother is coming up 1st week in Nov to hire from WR Boats in Leeds with the intention of us convoying with them out towards Skipton. Furthermore, that blue sign in the reply from Peter suggests that it is possible to remove the anti vandal padlocks. Watermate key or handcuff key, do you think?

A query about the restrictions on these locks. Sort of clarified it with CRT but the inclusion of the odd "should be" in the conversation made me feel checking was worthwhile. I get that you can only get through between 8am and 3/4/5pm depending on the guide you read from March until October. CRT say that continues through the winter. If so, one wonders why March-October is mention at all. I wondered if anyone knew what the definitive version of this was. We aim to go through and back during the first week in November. Thanks in anticipation

Thank you very much for all your replies. We were going to go up from our end, overnight at Rodley then come back down. We'll probably wait until we have a bit more time so we can go up and keep on going. My good lady is still getting the hang of steering so until then, she would have to do all of the donkey work. Once she's happy steering it into locks, we can swap over or I'll do most of them. Always fancied the L&L as a trip

thanks for the info. We're pushing up that way soon and until the dog gets used to the whole idea of someone getting off to work the locks, she'll make a racket. Electric would have been quicker. Not to worry. She'll settle

This may sound a daft question but are the locks on the Leeds and Liverpool electric? At least up to Rodley. We're on the A&C and are obviously spoiled.

I've got to get my new (to me anyway) boat home to Leeds from Cheshire as soon as lockdown eases. After dallying over the route home for a while, I finally plumped for a route and it goes right through there. Typical. The "third party" bit does indeed suggest a long process. If anymore goes down, a couple of houses could end up in the cut so maybe things will have some sense of urgency.

Points noted about the Aire in flood and in particular the bit about the pointy end. We were down at Lemonroyd the other day and the canal was fine but the Aire was certainly licking along at a fair rate.

What a fantastic source of knowledge other, more experienced, boaters are. Thanks to all of you. I think it will be the L&L, S.Pennine ring later in the year and keep the Trent in mind for when we fancy heading off down south. I'll get t'internet sorted so I can work "from home" and we can take as long as we want. Hopefully get a report on the trip posted at some point

many thanks. The appropriate Nicholsons and Pearsons will get some serious page thumbing later

thanks for that about the lower Trent. I did wonder if rain might be an issue in March. Quite fancy doing the Trent at some point but I might talk to other boaters at the marina about it. Sounds like the two middle routes may be an issue for the reasons you mention so my preference order seems to be inverted now. 1. L&L 2. Trent the other two equal bottom?

Many thanks for that advice. We were thinking of the L&L as our first cruise but I guess there's no reason why it can't be our route back with the boat. There's no avoiding heavy locking somewhere as the Pennines is a hefty lump. My thoughts on the T&M and the Trent was that more miles but less locks would be a bit more mellow. The boat is in Aqueduct Marina on the Midd branch of the SU. I have been on Canalplan and I have to say it's excellent, particularly the pdf facility. Thanks for those figures. We were going to allow two weeks but would hope to be a bit quicker than that. We were also thinking of perhaps two legs but that would mean finding a temporary mooring halfway with the risk that Covid restrictions may change while it's there. I will rethink the L&L. Thanks again

Good afternoon all This is my first post. We have recently taken the plunge and bought a 54' narrowboat. Don't want to tempt fate by posting the name on my profile as it is subject to survey but I'm optimistic enough to have been planning how to get in from Cheshire to what will be her new home mooring at Lemonroyd on the A&C. All dependent upon any further Covid restrictions of course. It will be March/April before I move it due to the mooring not being available till then. Setting aside the L&L, I see three options open to us. Rochdale, Hudds Narrow or down the T&M and the Trent to Keadby. The first two look fairly similar in terms of locking up and then down but the Hudds Narrow looks a bit nicer and seems to avoid more of the urban sprawl of Greater Manchester. We have hired a few boats and done some of the Llangollen as well as the Black Country Ring. Enough locks on that one to make us feel we are ok with how things work and I'm pretty confident. What I haven't been on is a river so I'm wondering if going via Nottingham will leave me on tricky stretches of the lower Trent. I understand that turning left into Keadby can be a bit of a challenge. Not sure if what I have read has over egged it or not. We are in our early 60s and it will just us and the dog. There is a possibility that we may be able to get an extra hand for part of the trip provided public transport is ok. ie no probs getting a train from Leeds to Manchester Piccadilly. Any thoughts on my options would be most welcome, whether they be grim warnings or bags of encouragement. regards