Excessive Engine Hours ?

[blackrose]

Thank you all for your very helpful and informed responses. What a great community .

I can't wait to become part of it.

 

You already are. Now tell us what sort of toilet you want on your new boat, what sort of stern you're looking for and whether you want a bow thruster and then we can all have a big argument discussion about it.

[bargemast]

Oh yeah that would look lovely nailed on the dashboard next to the rev counter with the broken hour counter in it!!

 

We know roughly how many hours we do per year and the intervals that we change the oil at are based on that. If it is really hot and sunny and the dashboard has been sat in the sun for a few hours the LED hour counter will occasionally flash up with the hour readings which backs up our estimate of hours run. In fact our estimated hours are usually higher than the actual hours.

 

I see that I made a big mistake by supposing that you would have enough imagination to find a place to fit an additional hour meter without nailing it on the dashboard next to the rev counter.

 

Never mind, as it's your boat, it's fine with me if you are happy with a non (or bad) working meter, and it would have been more of a surprise to me if the tip would have been accepted by you anyway.

 

Peter.

[trackman]

Beta Marine: 01452 723 492.

 

Sorry for the delay, as Mrs T said, I was in a meeting all day.

[Naughty Cal]

 

I see that I made a big mistake by supposing that you would have enough imagination to find a place to fit an additional hour meter without nailing it on the dashboard next to the rev counter.

 

Never mind, as it's your boat, it's fine with me if you are happy with a non (or bad) working meter, and it would have been more of a surprise to me if the tip would have been accepted by you anyway.

 

Peter.

The engine does have its own hour counter. You just need to plug it in to get them.

 

Not really that fussed though as we change the oil regularly enough for it not to be a problem. Usually around every 75 hours rather than the stated 100 hours. Early spring, before the big summer trip and then before winter sets.

[Southern Star]

A diesel engine in a car will have done roughly 30,000 miles in 1000 hours of operation. 11000 hours is roughly equivalent to the same diesel car doing over 300,000 miles. That isn't unreasonable for an 8 year boat which has had the engine run up most days to generate electricity and hot water but it does mean the engine is towards the end if it's life without a major overhaul.

I'd say though that a narrowboat engine would be subject to far less wear than a car engine over the same number of hours since it isn't prone to constant acceleration and deceleration and runs far more lazily.

[Bunny]

Our Beta 43 has 13,500k hours on the clock since May 2005, would have been more but have had a winter mooring on electric for the last four winters. Serviced twice a year and oil changed fairly regularly ,only has a little smoke on start up . Temp goes up a little on tidal crossings when we pop up over 2k revs , goes back down when we settle down to 1,800 revs. Serviced by the same engineer and he says should go on happily to 20 k before we think of a new engine. Hope that helps. Bunny.

[RichardH]

11000 is fine so long as it has been well serviced. I worry more when I see 5 year old boats for sale with 500 hrs on the clock.

[Ten]

We used to have a boat which battery bank was charged exclusively with the engine as we didn't have a genny or solar / wind charging and despite of living aboard we were putting around 50 hrs a month

[boatsandsteam]

Just out of curiosity - did you buy the boat in the end or did the number of hours put you off? I am only asking as I have a similar situation. Thanks.

[Kae]

Ours does about 500 to 700 hours a year, cruising extensively, so somewhere near 15000 hours in 22 years. I certainly hope that it is nowhere near worn out yet.

 

Oops!

[Naughty Cal]

 

Oops!

[RickH]

Put it this way , if it has done all those hours , still works , no problems and has a service history , it's a keeper !

[Nightwatch]

Oops!

Indeed.

Just goes to show.

[Keeping Up]

Oops!

Indeed yes, turns out it was worn out after all!

[cotswoldsman]

When I was running trucks we used to average about 5,500 hours per year and that was pulling about 20 tons on average . We would run the trucks after 3 years so about 16,500 hours then sell them on for maybe another 5 years of use but maybe not quite so many hours. So I would,do recon a boat engine doing about 1200 revs pushing 20 tons through water would last for ever. In my own case before fitting solar panels I used to average about 1,000 you should a year that has now dropped to about 400 hours a year. I have the engine serviced 4 times a year