davidb

Yes, it does have one and it acts just like the ignition lamp, and it is the left hand lamp on the box I added with the bypass relay below, and the one thing that changed when I fitted it was that the alternator kicks in immediately the engine starts rather that as it was before when I had to rev it a bit to clear the ignition light:

Thanks, Tony for an easy -to - understand explanation, I'll go through it all later and ring the people who modified the alternator. No, I have been watching for the Adverc cycling it, but it doesn't. It must be a negative controlling Adverc according to its label:

Because the alternator voltage is being reduced by the diode and the Adverc is not compensating for it, even when the sense wire is connected on the battery side of the diode. "do you know about positive and negative rotor control?" Obviously not, maybe the new alternator I got last year was modified wrongly?

Searching the forum, I came across this old thread. We have been using our boat for about 3 months now with the 4 new Trojans and the tranformation in power availbility has been huge. But we never have access to shorepower and it is probably getting time to do an equalization charge. We have an Adverc connected, but Its not working properly and I have still not sussed out why not, but I do have the alternator temporarily wired direct on to the domestic bank and a relay I can switch on manualy to bypass the upper diode on the split charge when the engine is running to get the engine battery up to 14.2 The green wire to the Adverc is wired in to the alternator brushes, I am wondering if that can be interupted and a contrlled voltage fed to the brushes whilst watching the battery terminal voltage? There must be a way of doing this to get the batteries gassing now and then. Currently the voltage between the green wire and ground runs between 8.6 and 9.6

Yes lovely clear water you can see everything until you have driven through it. Even in the lock with still water you can see the paddle gear - never seen that before.

It is certainly the first time we have been through the BCN. Normally with careful use of Astern the prop clears itself very well, but I pulled over far too far to one side in one of the lock pounds and I think that's where the trouble started with a hoodie and a long length of thin wire. For the length of the wolverhampton level we didn't see one other boat moving until we met the the tunnel trip boat right on the blind Dudley canal junction.typical!

By our standards we had an epic day yesterday travelling from Brewood to the black Country museum. The Wolverhampton flight was a pleasure - everything worked and the locks were virtually all empty as we arrived. Between Wolverhampton and the museum was another matter altogether. The water level was down about 6 inches or more and the weed was really cloggy. Since owning this boat for the last 4 years I've only needed to go down the weed hatch twice, and both of them were yesterday afternoon.

We left Gnosall on Friday and were amazed at the dimesions of this tunnel, not only could two boats pass in there, but I bet horses used to be able to pass on the towpath. The whole scale of the project is amazing to say it is just a narrow canal. I suppose there was plenty of demand for the stone they cut out further down the line, and a road nearby is called Quarry Lane.

There is excellent mooring and access all along that stretch, thank you Mr Google:

Warehouse swing bridge is a beautiful place to wait for your furniture before or after you have winded: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5339650

Yes, I have had some very good advice on here, thanks a lot. I plan to get a shunt and an ammeter fitted soon, and will be looking into a couple of solar panels to top up the batteries properly when nearing the end of a charge. I'll also find out if the Victron can do an equalise cycle. Yesterday we had a long evening of TV viewing and more besides and very pleased we are with the way the voltage kept up. With the engine running we are soon charging at 14.5 volts and, on the clamp ammeter, the highest I see (for a short while) is about 60A.

" is reading 14.4-14.6 volts & with a current of under 2% (ideally 1%) of battery capacity" All the readings are with no charger just running the battery down to show how long it was lasting with the fridge thermostat working normally, and normal evening usage with no engine. Tomorrow I shall see what it gets up to with the engine running again. That will be when we leave Liverpool having had a week on shore power.

We have had a week on the boat with only the two old batteries and they have been fine for cruising every day. I did an overnight test with just the panel voltmeter (no measuring of amps, I'm afraid) and have attached my readings. Yesterday I removed them and fitted the 4 T-105s and will do another static test shortly. All connections are good and solid.

Do you mean the sideways slip from inside the shed in Mayor's ?.

Good news, well photographed and thanks for that.

Well they haven't gone to the scrapyard yet thanks for that info Mike,- I had never thought of that. I think they are 7 or 8 years old but will check with the previous owner .

Thanks again for all the input. I have resigned myself to getting 4, but before fitting them, I shall do a test run for a few days with the remaining two, then take them home for maintenance and possible sale or use for something else. Last back end they wouldn't keep the fridge going properly overnight if we had any TV use, so we could see what the difference with two new ones on their own is before taking them out. Each dud one was in a separate 12v pair ISTR

Thanks for your prompt replies, so 4 new ones it is then. Are we all happy with Tanya as a supplier?

In our boat we had 4 Trojan T-6220 batteries, and two have expired. It is running satisfactorily on the remaining two, so is it bad practice to fit just two new ones and see how they go? I think these are the replacements https://www.tayna.co.uk/leisure-batteries/trojan/t-105/ Also, in the specifcations, they list the followng AH ratings, so do I work on the c20 value? Capacity (C5) Capacity (C10) Capacity (C20) Capacity (C100)

Impressive, ! , well done those workers whilst we kept warm and well fed at home.

Sorry, no, you should have reminded us earlier, we would have kept an eye open for them

We thought we might have met ours yesterday morning when we ran into the PennyWort just below the A59 bridge on the Rufford Branch on the way to our winter mooring: Firstly we ran staight into it, but came to a complete standsill as it closed in behind us, blocking the prop and rudder. A lot of jiggling about with the gears got us out backwards and we managed to get tied to a tree and off the boat up the bank via the plank to find a phone signal and check on the length of the blockage (about 60m realy bad and 100m not good). We rang the family to re -arange our plans, got through to CaRT eventually and put the kettle on to consider our position. The solution seemed to be - take a little run at it, let the boat come to a stop, reverse half a boat length, repeat. Again and again. So we felt like we had cried wolf after we got through to Tarleton with half an hour performing like this. Never needed to open the weed hatch once, thankfully.

You are spot on! We could easily have been in the middle of Burnley or Church when the breach happened, so have got off lightly again.

We have been stuck at Top Lock, Wheelton, for nearly a fortnight so will be heading down the flight tomorrow morning and will be trying to get to Wigan top before 12 noon Sunday. We need to get down through Dean lock before 1st of Nov when the winter stoppages begin, or we won't get to our winter mooring.