Now the cell modules have been removed from their original home, it’s time to get them repurposed! A custom mounting board has been constructed from timber, and the modules mounted on them. To say this assembly is heavy would be an understatement – it’s barely a two-man lift! As assembled
Continue readingBMW 5 Series Battery Pack – Reconfiguring The Modules & Wiring
Since rebuilding the burner for the Webasto water heater on board nb Tanya Louise, I figured it was about time I sorted the exhaust out as well. The standard Eberspacher / Webasto type exhaust system components are shit. Nothing is properly gas tight, no matter how you build the system,
Continue readingNarrowboating Quickies – Webasto Heater Exhaust Rehash
It recently became rather obvious there was something amiss with the water heater on board nb Tanya Louise – lots of smoke from the exhaust, failed starts, and finally a total refusal to start altogether. On disassembly, it was clear the burner was the issue – above. The mesh at
Continue readingWebasto Thermo Top C Burner Mesh Replacement
Well it was only a matter of time until we had a major failure of the onboard hydraulic system on board the boat, and this weekend proved to be that point in time. This is what remains of one of the main hoses to the propulsion motor, the fitting has
Here we have another piece of tech from Sterling Power – this is their Advanced Alternator Regulator, the Pro Reg D. Since I’m rejigging the alternator setup onboard, I figured I’d do a little teardown. Removing the top cover reveals the main PCB, which is slotted into the Aluminium heatsink
Continue readingSterling Pro Reg D Advanced Alternator Regulator Teardown
The Sterling charger we’ve had on board nb Tanya Louise since Feb 2014 has bitten the dust, with 31220 hours on it’s internal clock. Since we’re a liveaboard boat, this charger has had a lot of use while we’re on the mooring during winter, when the solar bank isn’t outputting
Continue readingSterling ProCharge Ultra PCU1210 Teardown & Repair
This is a part of the boat that hasn’t really had much TLC since we moved aboard, and finally it’s completely succumbed to corrosion, opening a rusty hole into the engine space below. I’ve already used a grinder to remove the rest of the locker – and even this had
Since the engine & hydrostatic transmission were installed in the boat a few years back, the hydraulic oil cooler has been in the same fresh water circuit as the engine’s water cooling system, however this has been causing some heat issues with the engine & hydraulic system under a heavy
Here’s something different – below is a standard domestic carbon monoxide alarm, (I did a teardown of the same detector here), but in this case it’s not detecting any carbon monoxide, but another gas in the surrounding atmosphere. We recently had an issue with these detectors on board the boat,
Continue readingCarbon Monoxide Alarm Cross Sensitivity – Hydrogen
Since the batteries on board the boat are located in the cabin, I’ve noticed something rather odd with the Carbon Monoxide detectors: when the batteries are being charged, the CO alarms are triggering on the H² that’s being released. Since the last thing we need is hydrogen building up to
I wrote a few weeks ago about replacing the hot water circulating pump on the boat with a new one, and mentioned that we’d been through several pumps over the years. After every replacement, autopsy of the pump has revealed the failure mode: the first pump failed due to old
Continue readingnb Tanya Louise Heating System – Oxide Sludge
Here the pipework feeding the matrix of the blower unit has been tapped into the heating circuit, the first radiator on the loop is just out of shot to the right, this is all tucked away under the bed in one of the cabins. The pipestat is attached to
Continue readingnb Tanya Louise Heating Upgrades – Matrix Install
With the installation of the new diesel fired heater we’ve noticed a small problem – since the only heat source in the saloon is the stove, even with the diesel heater fired up the temperature doesn’t really change much, as the heat from the radiators in the both the cabins
Continue readingnb Tanya Louise Heating Upgrades – Saloon Heating
With some recent upgrades to the boat’s heating system, the hot water circulation pumps we’ve been using are becoming far too small for the job. After the original Johnson Marine circulation pump died of old age (the brushes wore down so far the springs ate the commutator) some time
Continue readingnb Tanya Louise Heating Upgrades – The Pumps
We’re now on the final leg of the jobs to be done on the boat! Above is the new prop & shaft, supplied to us by Crowther Marine over in Royton. To fit our current stern tube & gland, the shaft is the same diamter at 1-3/8″. Unfortunately no 4-blade
Continue readingBoating: Drydock Time – New Running Gear & Rudder Modifications
Things are coming along nicely with this year’s drydock operations. Shes looking much better, the second coat of bitumen blacking is on, we’re going to continue at a coat a day until we’re due back in the water. I’ve now removed the shaft from the stern tube to gain better
Continue readingBoating: Drydock Time – Running Gear Replacement
It’s that time again, so the boat is out of the water for it’s 3-yearly maintenance. Some things over the past few months have been bugging me, namely a pronounced vibration in the running gear while underway. (Issue was easy to spot here!). nb Tanya Louise being a very odd
Compressed air is a rather useful power source, especially when all maintenance is done by the on board crew instead of by boatyards. Screwfix had a good deal on a 50L 3.5CFM air compressor, to save space this has been permanently mounted in a free space & air will be