Running under load

[Timleech]

Ok, iv'e been hooked on this line, reel me in !

 

just the little bitty purpose of not totally abusing your engine, which is not designed to be run off load.

If there is piling it's going to make no difference is it, only long term running on earth banks will do any damage.

 

Any one who uses their main engine to charge batteries is just using the most innefecient and daft method, get a generator.

 

There that's that one shot down in flames, next.....

 

You're forgetting stone or brick waterway walls, it has the potential to seriously undermine those.

 

Tim

[Guest]

Care to expand? I am interested, are there marinas that just offer a parking space with no services?

 

Not particularly - but I prefer the additional (though not Fort Knox of course) degree of security a marina can provide. I also know there are a number of boats on our marina that are never connected to shore-power so perhaps they value the other facilities we get such as on site elsan disposal, rubbish disposal, a small (but spotless) toilet and shower block and an easy accessible (as in next to the boat) water tap.

 

Obviously some 'on line' moorings can provide some of this too but generally not the level of security. A local on line mooring auction near to us went for just about what we pay for a our marina mooring so on balance where we are at the moment I judge the marina better value overall.

[Ange]

Care to expand? I am interested, are there marinas that just offer a parking space with no services?

 

We had a mooring for a few months last winter at Beeston Marina which had no leccy hook up - no big deal for us as we don't have 240 hook up facilities on the boat! The advantage was security, safe car parking and being able to stay in one place for a few months during the worst of the winter. And a nice bar - a very nice bar

[Guest]

 

If there is piling it's going to make no difference is it, only long term running on earth banks will do any damage.

 

 

My understanding (from information that's been posted on here before) is that it still poses a risk as it can 'back wash' out from underneath and behind the piling meaning it's presence does not necessarily protect the bank behind the piling.

 

Besides any of that BW don't allow it, 'piling present or not.

 

 

..

Edited July 1, 2012 by MJG

[Chalky]

My LB widebeam built in 2004 has the standard LB fitted button in the centre of the control lever at the pivot point. There are several other LB boats here that are all the same. The button is a black plastic disc flush with the casting of the lever and needs to be pushed in to disengage the gear select. Mine has fallen out a couple of times and it appears to just cover the securing nut at the centre pf the lever, but without the plastic button, it is very difficult to disengage. Is it possible that yours has never been there? If so, then the neutral position will only be at tickover point.

 

My other boat and others that I have previously owned, have all had pullout buttons or Knobs.

 

Roger

 

Mines a 2003. There's a catch by the control knob to allow you to move the lever from the neutral position other wise it just locks in neutral. The centre of the control has a plastic cover that covers the screw that holds the lever assembly onto the splined centre of the control cam. There are no other controls or knobs on the assembly.

It wouldn't surprise me it it was wrong. The boat was supposed to have a 3 cylinder 25 HP engine with a PRM 80 gearbox. When it arrived it had a 4 cylinder 33 HP engine with a PRM 120 gearbox. Slightly over engined for 40' though it gives absolutely superb economy (0.7 litres hour at tick over and cruising!).

[bottle]

Have you tried pulling the whole lever out, pulling out the centre shaft.

 

ps. I do not actually know your 'morse' type of lever, just guessing.

[alias]

Mines a 2003. There's a catch by the control knob to allow you to move the lever from the neutral position other wise it just locks in neutral. The centre of the control has a plastic cover that covers the screw that holds the lever assembly onto the splined centre of the control cam. There are no other controls or knobs on the assembly.

It wouldn't surprise me it it was wrong. The boat was supposed to have a 3 cylinder 25 HP engine with a PRM 80 gearbox. When it arrived it had a 4 cylinder 33 HP engine with a PRM 120 gearbox. Slightly over engined for 40' though it gives absolutely superb economy (0.7 litres hour at tick over and cruising!).

 

Is it like this one on our LB? If so you pull the whole lever outwards before giving it some revs to keep it out of gear. It drops back in when you return it to tickover.

Edited July 1, 2012 by peter n

[bizzard]

Don't be a knob. All single lever controls (throttle and gears)will or should have a gear unlocking knob or device of some sort.However if its busted or not got one most Liverpool boats with a PRM box have a spring clip through a clevis pin holding the gear inner cable to the gearbox operating lever, if you take this clevis pin out which is easy 'whilst in neutral' you can then rev your engine to your hearts content without it engaging gear.That's if your gearbox is of a type that doesn't mind this. I have the nice old-fashioned Morse control with the neat lever with a little knob on top with the push-pull gear disengage knob below.

This big knob 'me' loves this little old knobbed lever and looks after it, nurtures and maintains it as they are only i think available s/hand now and scarce at that. Personally i don't like the modern sticking out,clonking great club foot type ones,too flimsy and bust easily, they dig in your ribs and hip if your not careful especially on a trad boat,ok they can be recessed on the control cabinet, ok for hanging the shopping on.

Edited July 1, 2012 by bizzard

[Albion]

I would concur that all control levers that I have ever run into have some form of gear disconnect button. My original Morse had a silver button, mounted below the hub of the lever, that you pulled out to disconnect the gear IIRC. Then I have had one where you pulled the whole hub of the lever outwards. Another has had a central plastic cover in the centre of the lever hub and you pressed this to disconnect the gear.

Never known one without anything.

Roger

[Guest]

I would concur that all control levers that I have ever run into have some form of gear disconnect button. My original Morse had a silver button, mounted below the hub of the lever, that you pulled out to disconnect the gear IIRC. Then I have had one where you pulled the whole hub of the lever outwards. Another has had a central plastic cover in the centre of the lever hub and you pressed this to disconnect the gear.

Never known one without anything.

Roger

 

That is exactly how ours works too.

[blackrose]

There is an interesting issue here. To achieve a decent charge rate the alternator needs to be spinning at a good speed. This requires the engine to be running at a speed above tickover. On some boats the morse controls are designed to select a gear as soon as the speed is raised above tickover, thus making it impossible to achieve a decent charge rate unless the engine is running in gear. This design is common on a lot of Liverpool boats (and probably many others) and makes it difficult / impossible to charge quickly and meet the regs.

 

Not the design on my Liverpool Boat (2005). As already mentioned, there is a sprung button on the spindle centre at the bottom of the morse control lever, which if pushed in allows the revs to be raised without engaging gear.

Edited July 1, 2012 by blackrose

[bizzard]

I would concur that all control levers that I have ever run into have some form of gear disconnect button. My original Morse had a silver button, mounted below the hub of the lever, that you pulled out to disconnect the gear IIRC. Then I have had one where you pulled the whole hub of the lever outwards. Another has had a central plastic cover in the centre of the lever hub and you pressed this to disconnect the gear.

Never known one without anything.

Roger

Your first one sounds like the one i have,they were popular for thirty years or so.

[Albion]

Your first one sounds like the one i have,they were popular for thirty years or so.

Fitted to my boat that was built in 1991 IIRC.

Roger

[bizzard]

Fitted to my boat that was built in 1991 IIRC.

Roger

Really,has it a cast chromed slightly curved lever 8 or 9''long on quite a small cast body with a white or black small hard plastic knob on top,if so they've been unchanged since the 1950's i think,and brilliantly reliable if kept lubricated.

[ditchcrawler]

Not an option on the morse control fitted to my boat. The only options are tickover out of gear and forward / reverse in gear. There is no other lever to pull out. The gearbox is a prm120 so there may be an issue running it at speed out of gear.

.

I have never seen one like that, not even 30 years ago.

[bizzard]

People with cruiser stern boats i can recommend covering your control column pedestal up when not in use with a bin bag or something as rain water ingress to the control levers shaft can stiffen and seize it up,a common problem i've found,squirt some oil or WD40 around the the levers shaft pivot from time to time and work it in too and fro.

[Albion]

Really,has it a cast chromed slightly curved lever 8 or 9''long on quite a small cast body with a white or black small hard plastic knob on top,if so they've been unchanged since the 1950's i think,and brilliantly reliable if kept lubricated.

 

Well, we sold the boat back in the late 90s IIRC, but it did have a spindly chromed, slightly curved, lever with a round black shiny plastic knob on the end and, IIRC, a lift up black plastic circular collar just underneath it that lifted a pawl to allow movement out of the neutral position. The shouldered silver knob to allow gear/no gear was mounted just below the lever hub in the backplate. It's all along time ago now though so I may be confused...........it's so easy at my age

Roger

[Chalky]

Is it like this one on our LB? If so you pull the whole lever outwards before giving it some revs to keep it out of gear. It drops back in when you return it to tickover.

 

That's the one! After 9 years I finally find out how to increase the revs in neutral!

 

It's all this mechanical stuff. Far too complex, what's needed is software and electronics to simplify it!

 

Thanks

[bizzard]

Well, we sold the boat back in the late 90s IIRC, but it did have a spindly chromed, slightly curved, lever with a round black shiny plastic knob on the end and, IIRC, a lift up black plastic circular collar just underneath it that lifted a pawl to allow movement out of the neutral position. The shouldered silver knob to allow gear/no gear was mounted just below the lever hub in the backplate. It's all along time ago now though so I may be confused...........it's so easy at my age

Roger

I know the type you mean, similar but its not really the old design i meant which were pretty standard on nearly all boats with easy-change or power assisted gearboxes.

With no other plastic bits apart from the main knob.

Edited July 1, 2012 by bizzard

[Keeping Up]

Just by way of variation: separate levers for gear (vertical for neutral) and throttle (below horizontal for idle)

 

 

P1020523 by Keeping Up, on Flickr

 

All the pivots are nylon bushes - but you should see the mechanism inside (it has a chain drive to the second lever)

[bizzard]

Just by way of variation: separate levers for gear (vertical for neutral) and throttle (below horizontal for idle)

 

 

P1020523 by Keeping Up, on Flickr

 

All the pivots are nylon bushes - but you should see the mechanism inside (it has a chain drive to the second lever)

With a special Cob-web locking device.

[RLWP]

With a special Cob-web locking device.

 

Very strong stuff, cobweb

 

Richard

[Keeping Up]

With a special Cob-web locking device.

 

I use specially trained anti-theft spiders. Their little legs also work the ignition switch.

[bizzard]

Very strong stuff, cobweb

 

Richard

Your telling me, i'm arrested by them every morning when i try to walk through my connecting doorway, just like a plane landing on an aircraft carrier.

[Ratzend]

Very strong stuff, cobweb

 

Richard

 

Somewhere, I have a feeling it is in Australia but I could be wrong, they have crossed the dna of a goat with a spider. They then do some form of distilling of the goat's milk and produce a thread with incredible strength.