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Which dials are most useful/useless you swear by?


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12 minutes ago, magnetman said:

On really quiet installations it is useful to know if the engine is still running when knocked down to tickover and hasn't stalled.

Either a light or a rev counter are handy for this. The Beta marine standard panel just has rev counter and uses lights for other functions. Nice and tidy. 

I'd have thought rpm monitor would be good for electric drive as  way of judging if the prop is fouled. RPM v current drawn. 

Various things are useful for electric drive, for example motor power/torque/current/rpm/temperature, generator/battery/charging status -- and even a "prop fouled" warning by monitoring torque vs. rpm. Since these are usually shown on an LCD display like this one, you can have as few or as many things displayed as you want... 😉

 

https://www.danfoss.com/en/products/dps/electronic-controls/human-machine-interfaces-hmi/plus1-displays/dm430m-series/

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1 hour ago, magnetman said:

Eyes, ears and nose. 

 

Temperature gauge is useful but one can generally get an idea of overheating from the antifreeze smell. 

 

A warning lamp for low oil pressure and one for high coolant temperature are useful. 

 

Those round things with needles or digital readouts are just worry gauges. 

 

 

Yars ago they used to put a special paint on parts of the engine which would begin to melt if it started getting too hot. Thus alerting the engineer via his sense of smell before damage occured. 

 

 

 

You are clearly too young to remember when all quality cars had a dashboard full of meters, and most drivers knew how to use them and interpret the readings. I had several Riley RM's and they all had a walnut dash with gold faced Jaeger instruments.

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14 minutes ago, David Schweizer said:

 

You are clearly too young to remember when all quality cars had a dashboard full of meters, and most drivers knew how to use them and interpret the readings. I had several Riley RM's and they all had a walnut dash with gold faced Jaeger instruments.

And those old cars didn't have banks of relays to protect the lights, wipers, ect ect switches. They used proper solid contact switches that didn't need the complications of relays. More to go wrong.

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Analog voltmeter on the starter battery is useful so you can tell at a glance if it's charging or not. Doesn't need to be accurate, just need to tell if it's at 14.4v or not.

 

Also agree on the rev counter, not 100% needed. I'd recommend a loud beeper on the oil pressure light though, you don't want to miss that!

 

On skin tank cooled boat with an undersized tank a temperature gauge can be useful if you're on a river, otherwise a temp light is fine. I've worked out that my skin tank is oversized and it can be run at full throttle without an increase in coolant temp so I just have a light.

 

I also have a switch which disables the alternator; no point wasting diesel chucking 60 amps into the batteries for a few hours when I'm starting a cruise on a bright summer's morning and solar will fill the batteries fine!

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4 hours ago, Loddon said:

Possibly the most useful "dial" I have is the one on my slide.

A GPS unit, enables me to monitor my speed and stay within the limits.

When on the canals it also allows me to see when more throttle equals less speed.

Screenshot_20230518-081503.png

You can get all that with phone apps these days, well not engine throttle but I can hear that and see my wash and I’m never bothered about speeding as I know there will be a lock to slow me down up front.

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21 minutes ago, bizzard said:

And those old cars didn't have banks of relays to protect the lights, wipers, ect ect switches. They used proper solid contact switches that didn't need the complications of relays. More to go wrong.

Or a man with a computer to try and find out whats wrong

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24 minutes ago, bizzard said:

And those old cars didn't have banks of relays to protect the lights, wipers, ect ect switches. They used proper solid contact switches that didn't need the complications of relays. More to go wrong.

My Series III Land Rover didn't have relays for the horn/headlights. Meant that the headlight toggle switch would routinely overheat and become intermittent, or the dip/main beam stalk switch would melt itself. Tiny tiny contacts mounted on plastic to pass 10a continuously, absolutely terrible design, as soon as they get dirty it gets hot! The horn switch in the end of the stalk also gets in

 

Replaced the whole thing with a new system with relays and it's far better, headlights actually work every time and are brighter and no more melting plastic smell when the contacts get dirty...

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Relays are pretty reliable. An exception was the relay in one of my Saab's air con circuits. It was for switching the magnetic clutch. Air con becomes unreliable. The contacts had burned. No fire but probably a poor design or non original relay in place. 

 

I didn't take it to garage. I expect if I had done they would have made up an elaborate story about it whereas I replaced the relay and it was fine.

 

Relays are very nice. I especially like the transparent ones. 

 

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Faulty fuel gauge senders have been fatal. In helicopters so not quite the same as boats but it is very unwise to lose awareness in favour of a gauge which relies on a mechanical sender. 

 

Much better to be generally aware of what is going on. 

 

One thing I am tempted to do is put a good quality cctv camera in the engineroom with a small screen at the helm. This way you can check if there is anything serious happening like split exhaust hose on wet systems or unexpected leaks. 

 

 

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I’ve just delivered a boat that has the full gamut of gauges. Absolutely none of them visible from the steering position. That’s a semi-trad for you.

 

All I have on Vulpes is charge voltage, engine temp and the oil pressure gauge on the engine, which is visible from the steering position.

 

All of them could be replaced with warning lights or audible alarm but it is nice to see that if it’s less than mid-day, early afternoon and between three and four respectively then all is good. And by that I mean whatever sort of gauge you have make it one with a needle not a digital readout.

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24 minutes ago, cheesegas said:

My Series III Land Rover didn't have relays for the horn/headlights. Meant that the headlight toggle switch would routinely overheat and become intermittent, or the dip/main beam stalk switch would melt itself. Tiny tiny contacts mounted on plastic to pass 10a continuously, absolutely terrible design, as soon as they get dirty it gets hot! The horn switch in the end of the stalk also gets in

 

Replaced the whole thing with a new system with relays and it's far better, headlights actually work every time and are brighter and no more melting plastic smell when the contacts get dirty...

That was when L/Rover began to cut corners with cheaper switches. I had three of them, Series 1, 2a and 2b, never had any of that at all.

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15 minutes ago, bizzard said:

That was when L/Rover began to cut corners with cheaper switches. I had three of them, Series 1, 2a and 2b, never had any of that at all.

Yep, my father had an ex ambulance Series 2A with a Webasto that ran off paraffin with an impressively complex clockwork controller and relay pack. Took a lot of work to get the clockwork bit going again but it did actually make heat reliably in the end.

 

...but yeah, switches on that were much better and the loom was a lot shorter too.

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13 minutes ago, cheesegas said:

Yep, my father had an ex ambulance Series 2A with a Webasto that ran off paraffin with an impressively complex clockwork controller and relay pack. Took a lot of work to get the clockwork bit going again but it did actually make heat reliably in the end.

 

...but yeah, switches on that were much better and the loom was a lot shorter too.

 

If you had that switch apart and got it going again, well done. I hated the ********* things.

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9 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

If you had that switch apart and got it going again, well done. I hated the ********* things.

Yep! It was some years ago now but I remember there being seemingly hundreds of little copper contacts and wipers, didn't touch the spring and gears part of it though.

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1 hour ago, BoatinglifeupNorth said:

You can get all that with phone apps these days, well not engine throttle but I can hear that and see my wash and I’m never bothered about speeding as I know there will be a lock to slow me down up front.

Yes you can but they are generally not as accurate as a device designed to be used at low speeds. Also I would hate to lose my phone overboard, the GPS is fixed and way cheaper than a phone to replace.

As for speed I haven't been on a muddy ditch ( apart from the ML through Upwell )  for 4 years and haven't missed it one iota. 

One problem I used to have on the GU was that Loddon makes almost no wash at 3-4 mph so I never could tell what speed I was actually doing.

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If you have a pump out toilet an MCS waste tank gauge is very useful.

 

When I bought my boat it only had a "waste tank full" indicator light, an I worried about the bulb blowing, so I fitted an MCS waste tank gauge as well.

 

https://www.mcsboatproducts.co.uk/our-products

 

The MCS gauge showed that the "tank full" light came on when the tank was just under 50% full, so soon paid for itself in reduced pump outs.

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1 hour ago, Loddon said:

Yes you can but they are generally not as accurate as a device designed to be used at low speeds. Also I would hate to lose my phone overboard, the GPS is fixed and way cheaper than a phone to replace.

As for speed I haven't been on a muddy ditch ( apart from the ML through Upwell )  for 4 years and haven't missed it one iota. 

One problem I used to have on the GU was that Loddon makes almost no wash at 3-4 mph so I never could tell what speed I was actually doing.


What’s the problem of exceeding 4mph if there is no breaking wash? No one knows what speed you’re actually doing.

 

In any case it’s difficult to achieve 4mph on any non-commercial canal. I tried it with Vulpes on the straight at Denham a couple of years back. Had to slacken off for one moored boat but still took 16 minutes. It’s built for torque not speed.

 

Yesterday I had a boat with a 3:1 reduction box on the Shroppie. Set it at just less than 1800rpm where it sounded comfortable and did an uninterrupted mile between Gnosall and Norbury Junction and it took 19 minutes, so only just over 3 mph.

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2 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

What’s the problem of exceeding 4mph if there is no breaking wash? No one knows what speed you’re actually doing.

People think they do and yell even when they are walking along the bank, especially if you overtake them 😱 

Many people think they walk at 4mph, they don't! 4mph is a fast walk that most boat owners couldn't manage for more than a few yards.

 

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2 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Yell back 'walk faster!'

I will let you know next weekend if that helps. Off to the brokers next week and I no longer care if I upset anyone 👹

This is a useful dial.

 

 

743566_460s.jpg

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1 hour ago, Loddon said:

I will let you know next weekend if that helps. Off to the brokers next week and I no longer care if I upset anyone 👹

This is a useful dial.

 

 

743566_460s.jpg

 

The skipper's approach when we were doing a boat move some yars ago was to shout back "I''m afraid this is good as it gets. If you don't like it buy a caravan and it won't happen" 

 

Quite a good line. 

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