RN DM2 info

[Athy]

 

I'm quite surprised how many.

 

Can easily find at least 8 narrow boats for sale on there with DM2s.

 

 

How did you find them? I typed "Russell Newbery" into AD's search facility and only five boats came up.

[alan_fincher]

How did you find them? I typed "Russell Newbery" into AD's search facility and only five boats came up.

 

You have assumed people can correctly spell the name of an engine they own, for a start! Quite a few people miss-spell this engine builder.

[Athy]

 

You have assumed people can correctly spell the name of an engine they own, for a start! Quite a few people miss-spell this engine builder.

Tee-hee...

Ahem, behave yourself Michael....I will try again with just "RN" and see what comes up.

It would never happen with a Gardener.

[Richardcn]

Do not. Repeat. Do not run a gas or petrol generator in an engine room. If the CO doesn't get you, the gas or petrol vapour explosions will.We live aboard and have a thump-thump engine that rattles the whole boat when running. We very rarely run it for battery charging,that's done with a petrol suitcase generator. When we're likely to need that is when we're hanging out in a secluded country mooring,so there's no-one for it to annoy, and no-one to nick it. I just put it in the towpath hedge in a long lead, far enough from theboat that we can't hear the noise either.MP.ETA Solar is good. It doesn't have to be massive. If the solar makes power at half the rate you use it, then it takestwice as long for the batteries to go flat and the generator to come out.....

I heed your warnings, I was never going to do anything like that though without a thorough understanding that it would be a COMPLETELY safe arrangement. Thanks though, yours may be the abiding thought when making decisions on power generation at a later point!

[Richardcn]

It is possible to fit a diesel generator in an engine room with an engine already installed, thats the best bet.

 

She's a late eighties Dagenham built. If you are going to have a genny get something like a diesel Panda properly plumbed in. If you do buy one get it checked out and join the owners club. Out of interest where would you be based

We may go that route if this, that and the other come to pass but I'm not sure that I would want the extra cost, servicing, space taken up etc etc and I'm sure they are not cheap, anybody fitted one recently? I can see the benefits though, especially if one doesn't want to run one's main engine for this reason or that. Please chip in anybody that went this route and has lived with one.

 

Based? Well for now Fenny Stratford but that might change at any time and we'd be CC'ers across the network within a couple of years if the best laid plans...

 

Richard

Edited April 29, 2015 by Richardcn

[MoominPapa]

One more aspect of living aboard with old engines. If water cooled, they can be plumbed to heat hot water in a calorifier,

and after a days running you have a tank of lovely hot water. But, unlike a modern engine, a 20 or 30 minute run will not give

you enough hot water for a shower, it will have just about warmed through the 3/4 of a ton of cast iron. Therefore you need

to have an alternative hot water source, like a Morco or Paloma gas-fired instant water heater.

 

MP.

[Athy]

One more aspect of living aboard with old engines. If water cooled, they can be plumbed to heat hot water in a calorifier,

and after a days running you have a tank of lovely hot water. But, unlike a modern engine, a 20 or 30 minute run will not give

you enough hot water for a shower, it will have just about warmed through the 3/4 of a ton of cast iron. Therefore you need

to have an alternative hot water source, like a Morco or Paloma gas-fired instant water heater.

 

MP.

A good point - but I guess that most modern(ish) good quality boats will have central heating which also heats the water tank.

[captain birdseye]

A good point - but I guess that most modern(ish) good quality boats will have central heating which also heats the water tank.

Well ours does, very handy in the morning. Flick the switch, back to bed with a coffee, then shower. If we have been running all day the water is still hot enough in the morning. Also the big warm lump in the engine room keeps our bedroom warm. Edited April 29, 2015 by captain birdseye

[Athy]

Well ours does, very handy in the morning. Flick the switch, back to bed with a coffee, then shower.

Exactly - I can press the button which (usually) makes our Eberspacher spring to life for an hour without getting out of bed!

[OldGoat]

RNs are spawned out of National diesels which were principally designed for gensets aboard Grey Funnel boats (corrections welcomed) as were listers and others. So hopefully bearings and surfaces were generous to allow trouble free continuous running.

So to my mind they are happy to chug away charging batteries - especially if you have the battery type and alternator capacity suitable for quick charging. (invariably ignored by newcomers on these fora).

Thus my point is that provided that your engine is not intrusive through noise or vibration - then that's the better solution.

There have been many threads here and over on the YBW site about the reliability of the small Fischer-Panda gen sets. If water cooled they are direct rather than heat exchanger cooled. Not so much a problem for fresh water, but a disaster on a sea going boat. Because they run at 3000 rpm, hey are noisy.

A better solution would be a 1500rpm cocooned set - but that's going to be large.

If your lifestyle desires to be independent of shops and you prefer mooring away from 'centres of population' and you have no desire to wear hair shirts, then a fridge / freezer is not an option and you need the power capacity to cope.

 

 

[Timleech]

RNs are spawned out of National diesels which were principally designed for gensets aboard Grey Funnel boats (corrections welcomed) as were listers and others. So hopefully bearings and surfaces were generous to allow trouble free continuous running.

So to my mind they are happy to chug away charging batteries - especially if you have the battery type and alternator capacity suitable for quick charging. (invariably ignored by newcomers on these fora).

Thus my point is that provided that your engine is not intrusive through noise or vibration - then that's the better solution.

There have been many threads here and over on the YBW site about the reliability of the small Fischer-Panda gen sets. If water cooled they are direct rather than heat exchanger cooled. Not so much a problem for fresh water, but a disaster on a sea going boat. Because they run at 3000 rpm, hey are noisy.

A better solution would be a 1500rpm cocooned set - but that's going to be large.

If your lifestyle desires to be independent of shops and you prefer mooring away from 'centres of population' and you have no desire to wear hair shirts, then a fridge / freezer is not an option and you need the power capacity to cope.

Actually the other way round. The original design was by RN, later licensed to Nationals. I can't comment on what they were originally designed for, I suspect a general purpose 'industrial' small diesel engine.

 

Tim

Edited April 29, 2015 by Timleech

[captain birdseye]

Slight correction. Nationals were "spawned" out of RNs, built under licence. Coincidentally, I am off out now to meet a friend on his National powered boat.

Dam these fat fingers, beaten to it by Tim

Edited April 29, 2015 by captain birdseye

[OldGoat]

I'm obliged to you Tim and Cap'n B. That puts a different complexion on things - that I won't go into here.

[rupertbear]

Actually the other way round. The original design was by RN, later licensed to Nationals. I can't comment on what they were originally designed for, I suspect a general purpose 'industrial' small diesel engine.

 

Tim

See:

 

http://rnregister.org.uk/history_1.html

 

The RN engines were developed and successfully sold to run lighting plants, ie electricity generation for larger properties before the arrival of a cabled supply. I would have thought that battery charging on a boat wouldn't be that much different as a task. The National was produced under licence when a large supply was required for boats.

 

I'm not a mechanical engineer but would have thought that such an understressed, slow running engine would be far better suited to battery charging than a modern automotive based engine and far less likely to wear itself out?