Good time to buy to buy a basic narrow boat - yes or no?

[Alan de Enfield]

17 minutes ago, Jacsprat said:

I've actually just had an offer accepted on a much better boat than the Springer I was looking at,

 

[Tacet]

12 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

Never heard of the standard deviation curve?

 

 

 

Nope - other than in error.

 

The graph above shows a normal distribution.  The relative spread on the x and y axes represents the standard deviation (i.e the typical difference from the mean) which is represented by a single number.  

 

 

[Jacsprat]

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Pretty funny Alan - and sorry to all of the completely happy Springer owners out there. It actually would've been a goer if they had actually let me buy the boat. As it stands, I've spent much more than is safe for me to spend under the present conditions. It will pan out in the longer-term, I hope.

 

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, The Welsh Cruiser said:

Was your offer accepted? What's your budget? My 35ft, well maintained but not a huge amount of money boat may be up for sale soon. It's dependent on a house sale though, this has been agreed but is subject to survey (impossible right now) and legals etc.

House surveys can go ahead if you want them to

[The Welsh Cruiser]

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

House surveys can go ahead if you want them to

It's a bit more complicated than that! I won't go into details.

[Iain_S]

On 21/04/2020 at 10:00, bizzard said:

They didn't have king pins as such.  Torsion bar suspension. It was the top swivel joint that pulled out of the stub axle arm. The top swivel joint socket screwed onto the thread on the top of the vertical stub axle bit. Poor seals in those days, unless kept well greased to chase rain water out, the threads rusted away quickly and hey presto, go over a bump and they'd pull apart.

I found it was usually the bottom swivel that failed, hence the wheel retracting as per picture. Part of the problem was that more than a few MoT testers didnt know how to check them. (lever on back of wheel, upwards against bottom of swivel, with car resting on its wheels) Usually just needed a new threaded bush, but it was possible to get bushes with a smaller hole, which required the stub axle to be machined to suit, after which, according to the manual, the whole assembly was painted red, including the combined kingpin/stub axle.

[bizzard]

1 hour ago, Iain_S said:

I found it was usually the bottom swivel that failed, hence the wheel retracting as per picture. Part of the problem was that more than a few MoT testers didnt know how to check them. (lever on back of wheel, upwards against bottom of swivel, with car resting on its wheels) Usually just needed a new threaded bush, but it was possible to get bushes with a smaller hole, which required the stub axle to be machined to suit, after which, according to the manual, the whole assembly was painted red, including the combined kingpin/stub axle.

 The bottom one did fail too, also screw on but much meatier. It's arm had the constant downward force of the torsion bar on it. The top one had the up and down yanking of the shock absorber on it. Like many cars of yesteryear they needed greasing every 1000 miles to chase rain water out because of the poor seals.

Edited April 22, 2020 by bizzard

[WotEver]

14 minutes ago, bizzard said:

Like many cars of yesteryear they needed greasing every 1000 miles to chase rain water out because of the poor seals.

I still have my old dad’s grease gun, plus a couple of much nicer ones. Sadly I can’t find anything to grease...

[bizzard]

8 minutes ago, WotEver said:

I still have my old dad’s grease gun, plus a couple of much nicer ones. Sadly I can’t find anything to grease...

Old Fords from about 1936 to 1959 had from about 15 to 18 grease nipples. When I was an apprentice we use the Castrol Castrolease air powered greasing machine in the lube bay.

Edited April 22, 2020 by bizzard

[Alan de Enfield]

19 minutes ago, WotEver said:

I still have my old dad’s grease gun, plus a couple of much nicer ones. Sadly I can’t find anything to grease...

I think I have about 25 on my digger (and use 2 or 3 tubes each 'grease day') I'm sure if you felt the urge I could find some for you to grease.

[WotEver]

2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

I think I have about 25 on my digger (and use 2 or 3 tubes each 'grease day') I'm sure if you felt the urge I could find some for you to grease.

When the lockdown is over I could pop over and have a Grease Day...

[Alan de Enfield]

1 minute ago, WotEver said:

When the lockdown is over I could pop over and have a Grease Day...

 

I wonder if Olivia Neutron Bomb would be available ?

[WotEver]

58 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

I wonder if Olivia Neutron Bomb would be available ?

If she is, perhaps John Travolta could fly us in with his 707. 

[Athy]

2 hours ago, WotEver said:

When the lockdown is over I could pop over and have a Grease Day...

Is she the one that you want?

[Movin' on]

1 hour ago, Athy said:

Is she the one that you want?

or perhaps she's "especially for you" ...now I'm guilty of being of topic but I couldn't resist!

 

SWMBO has just told me I've got the wrong Aussie! and the wrong sex - this 3.00pm starting drinking has to stop!

Edited April 22, 2020 by Halsey

[mark99]

10 hours ago, Jacsprat said:

I've actually just had an offer accepted on a much better boat than the Springer I was looking at, I'm afraid.  If it falls through, I'll be in touch! Good luck with everything!!

Thank you! Yes, I did try to go this route but both broker and seller were unable to move forward. I've now found a much better boat for considerably more money. Fresh full survey and rather bullet-proof provenance. Watch this space!! I'm soon to be a 'ditch crawler!'! 

Don't forget to tell the Springer seller and broker and congratulate them on being "right" but they lost the sale.

 

 

[Ex Brummie]

6 hours ago, WotEver said:

I still have my old dad’s grease gun, plus a couple of much nicer ones. Sadly I can’t find anything to grease...

If you want a bit of therapeutic greasing, buy a Bond Minicar. For such a simple machine, the weekly greasing ritual was quite arduous, even involving jacking up all three wheels in turn to ensure grease got to all the steering head and suspension arts in a relaxed state.