Little and Large

A few weeks ago we discovered the old battery charger  was not working, and therefore so as not to spoil our half term holiday in Wells we relied on a small portable charger from home for the week. This worked well, however since it had to work to its limit at times we had to cool it with a portable mains fan. 

Upon our return to Goole, the old Guest battery charger was removed for testing at home. We initially thought our luck was in, as we found two blown fuses inside the unit. We obtained some 10amp time delay fuses from Maplin, replaced these and plugged the unit into the mains and attempted to charge a battery to prove itself. Unfortunately this blew the mains fuse in the house which didn't bode well with our younger daughter who was on her gaming console at the time (slapped hands!), so we knew that there was something seriously wrong with it even though there were no visible signs. 

We then had to resign ourselves to the expense of a new unit. We decided on a Merlin Kisae Abso 40amp four stage battery charger from Cactus Navigation who were cheaper than other suppliers. This particular unit was chosen as you can prioritise your domestic battery bank over the engine start batteries. It also has a lot higher output than the old one and is considerably smaller in physical size. This was fitted last week and everything seems much more lively, so the old unit must have been on its last legs for a while now. 

It has now come to our attention that the starboard alternator was charging over voltage, and it looks as if the voltage regulator has gone faulty. This has been removed for repair, and we hope to have this sorted by next weekend.

 

This past week we have been busy with cleaning and new waterproofing of the newer and old canopies at home. Moonshines canopy was removed and replaced for the old blue one for the week.  This has been quite time consuming as the first stage of the sandy coloured newer canopy was to treat it with Patio Magic. It was then hung on the washing line at home for several days to let the biocide work, and allow any green or mould to be killed...this is an excellent product which is safe to use around animals and for use on fabric. The canopy then underwent a thorough wash, and finally once dried treated with Fabsil to waterproof it. A 5litre Fabsil container was obtained from EBay for £21.38 which was considerably cheaper than our local shops. The canopy is now back on Moonshine, and we decided to give the old blue canopy a quick treatment of the latter along with the dogs rain coats which were loosing their water resistance thick and fast.

We now have six weeks before our main holidays, with the next two weekends being disrupted due to work commitments. Hopefully...everything will be in tip top condition for our trip south.