checking fuel levels

[nb Innisfree]

When we first filled our new tank we used metered amounts of diesel and marked a dipstick accordingly, waste of time and effort considering we now just fill to the brim regularly.

[kendo]

we now just fill to the brim regularly.

We did that in the summer, but were plagued with having to perpetually mop up small

piddles of diesel, around the filler cap and breather. It seemed to take "forever",

until we'd burnt off enough to stop it happening. I like the idea of brimfilling, and

just getting on with my life, but it was a right royal PITA for us.

 

Sticking to the broomstick, which we will be sure to stash

when it comes around to BSS time. Cheers for the tip, folks.

[homer2911]

I painted up a bit of old 1/2" square dowel to match the boat and then painted gradations on it at 5cm intervals. Trouble is, deisel's a bit more transparent than sump oil for dipstick measuring, so I'm considering adapting it to have a captive float with a little mast on it that will show the level of diesel inside the tank on the bit of stick outside the tank. Probably won't work but it's that kind of tinkering that made this country great, so one has to have a go.

 

 

'There'll always be an England ....................................................................'

 

We have a guage but its not set up right, so until i sort that i have a stick i found on the cut, i marked a few lines on it everytime i put in 20 litres..

 

This is my stick. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. My stick is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my stick is useless. Without my stick, I am useless. I mu st aim my stick true. I will. Before God I swear this creed: my stick and myself are defenders of my country, we are the masters of our enemy, we are the saviors of my life. So be it, until there is no enemy, but peace. Amen.

 

 

Alternative mantra to that offered by 'Full Metal Jacket' (and about as much use to a narrow-boater!)

 

"To be is to do" - Socrates

 

"To do is to be" - Sartre

 

"Do Be Do Be Do"-Sinatra

 

"Scooby Dooby Do" - Scooby Do;

 

"Yabba Dabba Doo!" - Fred Flintstone

[Smelly]

We've a stick with invisible calibration, useful only to a true master, it reads full, plenty, enough, diesel.shop time and "oh bugger"

[fastcarmiracledrug]

I have a side filler and two right angle bends in the filler pipe so a dipstick is not possible. Fortunately it also makes fuel theft very difficult. I rely on the hours calculation and have never been more than a couple of litres out.

 

George ex nb Alton retired

 

HI just wondered is 1 ltr diesel per hour normal for narrowboat we have same problem two right angles so no dip stick option available .thanks john /helen

[bottle]

At tick-over you will probably just about get 1 Litre per hour but as soon as the engine speed is raised so will consumption.

 

For example: the Beta 43 consumption is about 1 Litre per hour at tick-over but at max revs (2800) it is 9 litres per hour

 

Link to PDF for Beta 43 with fuel consumption graph.

 

edit: spelling

Edited January 27, 2011 by bottle

[Proper Job]

If you've got a gauge, don't ALWAYS be complacent. Isn't that right... Mrsmelly?

I think you're being a bit unfair (to the gauge ).

 

The gauge said that the tank was empty, Annie said that the tank was empty; It was only young Timmy that said "nah... there's plenty in there"

 

Chug.. Chug... Chug.... Chug..... Chug....... Chug.......... Chug............ Chug.............. Chu.........................................

 

Bugger...........................

 

 

I mean..... would Mr Hudson fit a cheap inferior gauge

[Nine of Hearts]

We've a stick with invisible calibration, useful only to a true master, it reads full, plenty, enough, diesel.shop time and "oh bugger"

 

I notice that's the dieseldotshop. Do you get yours off t'internet? Is it cheaper?

[furnessvale]

HI just wondered is 1 ltr diesel per hour normal for narrowboat we have same problem two right angles so no dip stick option available .thanks john /helen

 

Depends very much on the engine and use, with vintage engines normally being more economical than modern multi cylinder jobs. For example, ALTON loaded with 18 tons and dragging its bottom on the Macc with the engine working hard still returned about 1.5 litres per hour.

 

The only sure way for you to know is to brimfill then run for, say 30-50 hours then brimfill again. Even then you will have to bear in mind just how arduous those 30-50 hours were compared to other days.

 

George ex nb Alton retired

[Machpoint005]

Clean lath. Remove cap. Insert into replenishment orifice. Lower gently. Remove.

Subtract the wet from the dry, and add two inches for the turn-ups. (very old joke)

 

Fuel tanks are digital.

A fair bit in there - OK, off we go.

A lot of air and not much diesel - no good, put some more in. Easy as that.

Measuring your fuel consumption doesn't make it any different. Not using your engine is the best way to save fuel!

[Keeping Up]

At tick-over you will probably just about get 1 Litre per hour but as soon as the engine speed is raised so will consumption.

 

For example: the Beta 43 consumption is about 1 Litre per hour at tick-over but at max revs (2800) it is 9 litres per hour

 

Link to PDF for Beta 43 with fuel consumption graph.

 

edit: spelling

 

Fuel consumption graphs always assume that the engine is fully loaded. The engine could be running at 2800 rpm and still consume less than 2 litres per hour if it is relatively lightly loaded. If it is in a narrowboat you will find it very difficult to load it fully.

 

Our Perkins MC42 produces 42 hp at 2800 rpm, it consumes 1 litre per hour at tickover (in gear) and about 1.5 litres per hour at normal canal speeds. On rivers it manages to consume about 2 litres per hour, and on the one occasion when we cruised for a length of time at max revs on a seaway (at 7mph through the water) it still consumed less than 3 litres per hour.

[Chalky]

We've got a length of unpainted dowel that's got notches on it for 1/4, 1/2, & 3/4. Works ok for us.

We tend to use about 0.7 litres an hour no matter what we do. The boat is over engined for it's size - Liverpool fitted the power train off a 58' into our 40' boat, so it doesn't tend to work that hard - 900 rpm cruising. Great on rivers, but can be a bit "enthusiastic" at times.

[BlueStringPudding]

I've got a child's rockpooling net whcih cost about a quid. The bamboo stick end has a notch carved in it which indicates when the tank is full. Wherever the diesel level comes up to on the stick shows whether its half way to the full notch, three quarters full, etc. And the other end of the stick has the net on it for scooping out things that fall into the canal like keys!

[marstonmyst]

I painted up a bit of old 1/2" square dowel to match the boat and then painted gradations on it at 5cm intervals. Trouble is, deisel's a bit more transparent than sump oil for dipstick measuring, so I'm considering adapting it to have a captive float with a little mast on it that will show the level of diesel inside the tank on the bit of stick outside the tank. Probably won't work but it's that kind of tinkering that made this country great, so one has to have a go.

 

Having a modern boat I use 15mm plastic water pipe offcut marked with a black marker, cuts the mustard for me! LOL

[bargemast]

Yes, I know that !

 

If I used the same RPM against a fast flowing river as when on a static canal, I wouldn't expect to make a lot of progress though. I'd usually expect to have to open it up a fair bit more.

 

I have regularly seen people say things like "1.5 litres per hour on canals, double that when working hard against a flow". so I stand by my remark as valid.

 

I suspect our litres per hour figure, even on canals, differs by who is at the tiller, anyway, but on days where we do many locks, and not very many miles, I'm sure we use a lot less fuel for a boating day, than if pushing on with few locks. (Our engine certainly uses far less idling in a lock, than pushing forward at 4mph).

 

I don't think basing on engine hours would be very accurate for us, across a range of different boating situations.

 

 

Your remark is 100% valid, if you need the horsepower of the engine you have to feed the horses, if they have to work hard they will need more food.

 

I had a small harbor-tug that I used for towing non-motorised (or non-running motors) houseboats to different boatyards for their 5 yearly inspection, The tug had a 120 Hp DAF, and running tow-less at 1800n it would use about 8L/h, with a tow at the same 1800n it would go up to about 18L/h as the horses had to work much harder.

 

Peter.

[Quinafloat]

I use a nice whippy fiberglass rod, about the length of a rapier. It's Ok for checking diesel, and the first thing to hand should I find myself in cherub country and wish to repel boarders.

[AndyM]

Instead of a broom handle I use a length of 1/4 inch half dowel.

 

But if you're really posh you could get one of these:

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Diesel-Tank-Dipstick-Narrowboat-Barge-Canal-Boat-/170587481706?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_BoatEquipment_Accessories_SM&hash=item27b7ce666a

 

I'm definately not posh! But I did buy one of these - hand made specifically for your boat, tank dimensions etc. by a very helpful man.

 

Recommended.

 

Andy.

[Theo]

And, of course, all our broom handles are fitted with a special cross-bar to ensure that they cannot go far enough into the tank to touch the bottom, where repeated use might make a hole. Failure to fit said cross-bar will constitute a failure of the BSS test, and the broom handle will have to be flown away.

 

This is a good point of which I had not previously thought. My broom handle is calibrated in centimetres. Since the tank is a nice regular prism, the area of the surface of the fuel does not change with depth. This gives a linear reading of depth and volume held.

 

Initially I used Simpson's rule to work out the area of the surface and then calculated volume from the depth. Since then, each time I fill up I take readings of depth before and after filling. This does two things for me. a) It gives a check on the supplier (Is he diddling me) assuming the supplier's gauge is correct it helps to calibrate the tank. I enter the data on my trip spreadsheet and it automatically averages the litres/mm value and feeds this into the sheet where I calculate such interesting and useful facts like litres per hour, hours remaining in the tank, miles per gallon.

 

I think that I might be an anorak, geek and all round sad person

 

Nick

 

PS I will add a cross bar and then cut the end off the broom handle.

 

PPS I did the tank each evening so that I can relate fule usage that day to locks locked through and miles miles travelled.

Edited January 30, 2011 by Theo
To add the post postscript

[mrsmelly]

I think you're being a bit unfair (to the gauge ).

 

The gauge said that the tank was empty, Annie said that the tank was empty; It was only young Timmy that said "nah... there's plenty in there"

 

Chug.. Chug... Chug.... Chug..... Chug....... Chug.......... Chug............ Chug.............. Chu.........................................

 

Bugger...........................

 

 

I mean..... would Mr Hudson fit a cheap inferior gauge

 

:P :P :P

[Theo]

Like on most modern narrow boats I can see the top of the diesel through my (lockable) filler.

 

I use a sort of "reverse dipstick" principle. I look at the reflection in the surface and feed a dipstick down until it disturbs the reflection. I then withdraw the dipstick, keeping my thumb at the same place, and measure the distance to the end. Since my tank is 28" deep, subtracting the length of dipstick from 28" tells me how much diesel is in the tank. If I want to do the further calculation I can reckon it's almost exactly 10 litres per inch. The dipstick therefore never goes into the diesel by more than a gnats-whisker.

 

The advantages are that the dipstick doesn't get covered in diesel, so it doesn't drip everywhere and it takes only a few seconds to dry again, and it never reaches the bottom of the tank so it can't wear out the steel (as if it could!) or stir up any crud from the bottom of the tank. Also I don't use a broom handle or anything else wooden that could soak up the diesel, I use my steel VHF radio aerial (unless it's in use at the time of course).

 

What you are doing id measuring the ullage. I might well see if that is practical for Theodora. I use bits of diesely kitchen towel as fire lighters.

 

N

[Dalesman]

And, of course, all our broom handles are fitted with a special cross-bar to ensure that they cannot go far enough into the tank to touch the bottom, where repeated use might make a hole. Failure to fit said cross-bar will constitute a failure of the BSS test, and the broom handle will have to be flown away.

I would love to know how you make a hole in a steel tank with a wooden stick, is a power drill not better..?

[Guest wanted]

If you find a long enough stick you can use the other end to check your bog tank!

[ditchcrawler]

I would love to know how you make a hole in a steel tank with a wooden stick, is a power drill not better..?

I think you will find that the regulations don't just cover Narrowboats with 10 mm bottoms too their tanks, or kiddies fishing net canes as dip sticks.