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Norm S/V Bandersnatch Lying Julington Creek FL N30 07.68 W081 38.47 > [Original Message] > From: Lew Hodgett <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Date: 11/15/2010 6:16:38 PM > Subject: Re: [Liveaboard] Float Switches > > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I know what you mean about the Rule switches. I use them but have > > lots of > > spares on hand. However:... > > > > I have a Johnson brand bilge pump and switch in my dinghy that works > > very > > well. It is a small pump, like you would expect for a dinghy, and > > includes > > a small (about twice the size of a cigarette package) switch that > > attaches > > to the pump. It is a sealed plastic box with two wires coming out > > of it. > > Apparently it uses capacitance sensing. You can test it by holding > > two > > fingers on two spots on the case. It gets mostly rain water but has > > worked > > well since I installed it a couple of years ago. > ---------------------------------- > Would you consider installing this device in a difficult to access > part of the bilge of the mother ship? > --------------------------------- > Norm - Yes. So far it has worked well for about two years. The most active Rule switch is in my propeller shaft stuffing box bilge. When the ship is not in its winter home, where I tighten the stuffing box so as not to leak, this switch operates regularly about every three minutes. This switch has been installed for about two years. I do have a relay (one of those small black cube types with push-on quick connect blades) between the switch and the pump. I use these relays in various places and I think they help prolong the life of the actuating switch as well as help deliver more amps to the loads. > > Many years ago I saw a float switch on a friend's boat that used a > > plastic > > toilet float, piece of 1/4" threaded rod and a normal household > > toggle > > switch in a plastic handy-box. He said it worked well. So I made > > one on > > my boat with a ss spring to pull the switch up (ON) and a string > > tied to a > > gallon milk jug partially filled with sand as a float in the bilge. > > It has > > worked flawlessly for three decades. The switch handle has a hole > > drilled > > in it with a wire gizmo to attach the spring and the string. > -------------------------------- > Would you consider the above as a marketable device to be installed > and maintained by the mechanically challenged or installed on a > smaller (30 ft or less) boat? > Norm - No. This type of float switch is something that must be custom built to suit the situation and yes, it can be used on any size boat. Mechanically challenged people must become capable of dealing with engineering problems on their boat if they are to be "out there". You cannot achieve the livaboard lifestyle dependent on outside help to deal with the myriad of technical issues that constantly appear on a active vessel as reading the logs of voyages published on the List will quickly reveal. An Aside: A friend recently accidentally had water, about 20 gallons into a 30 gallon tank, hosed into an unmarked deck fill that unfortunately led to a diesel tank. This prompted him to implement my suggestions for upgrading his fuel system. He had previously installed the NAPA electric fuel pump that I use between the tank supply manifold and his Racor and had a vacuum gauge on the Racor T-handle to reveal the condition of his filter so he was already halfway home. His fuel pickup tubes were welded onto the tank hatches. They did not reach to the very bottom of the tank, a major defect found on virtually every factory-built boat. He had on board some 3/4" ID vinyl hose that fit his 3/4" OD fuel pickup tubes. He cut 3" long pieces, one for each fuel tank, one end square and the other end cut at about a 30* angle. He slipped these pieces onto the pickup tubes with the angle cut down then temporarily reinstalled the hatches to push the vinyl tubes up the pickup tubes to a position where the vinyl tubes with the 30* cut were touching the bottom of the tank. He then pulled the hatches and clamped the tubes in place before re-installing the hatches. This insured that he could now pump EVERYTHING out of the tanks. Next he installed a bypass ball valve at the output of this Racor with a line to the fuel return manifold. (There is a further issue where the 3/4" aluminum pickup tube reduces down to the 3/8" copper fuel supply line to the supply manifold. This bottleneck could be a problem if a large piece of trash should get into a tank, yet another factory supplied and possibly deadly defect. We did not deal with that at this time but a more sophisticated configuration of the vinyl pickup tube extension, one with many small openings around the foot of the tube perhaps, might be have been called for.) With this done, it was a simple matter to open the bypass valve, open the drain on the bottom of the Racor into a trash bucket (actually a funnel to the 5 gal trash bucket), then turn on the electric fuel pump to pump ALL the water and trash out of each of his three fuel tanks. He may get water in his tanks in the future, but now he will deal with it at the twist of two valves and the flick of a switch. BTW, he did cancel his $700 appointment with the fuel polishing company and bought me a steak dinner. I have heard of many instances of vessels loosing engine power when encountering rough seas. This is a devil built into the vessel during manufacture by building diesel tanks where the pickup tube does not go to the bottom of the tank thus insuring the collection of water at the bottom of the tank up to the level of the pickup tube. I blame the standards "authorities" for this deadly situation. The main one to blame I suppose is the ABYC and its "Safety standards for small craft", standards that the insurance companies insist boatbuilders comply with. I suspect this situation originated from the days of professional yacht operating engineers who pumped fuel into a day tank and then drained the settled water/debris regularly with a valve at the bottom of the tank. Even the installation manual I have from Detroit Diesel describes this same configuration stating that the pickup tube should end at a point 10% of the height of the tank above the tank's bottom. This deadly design insures that eventually 10% of the contents of the tank will be water waiting for some heavy rolling (as in leaving port between the jetties) to stir up and overwhelm the filters, an often fatal situation that happens with some regularity. Do not trust "authorities" blindly. Use your own brain. "Authorities" are often correct (and so are you), but they are also sometimes wrong. You are the superior decision maker because you must live with the consequences, "authorities" do not. Remember that "authorities" simply means those who author, or those who write, from the old days when most people were illiterate so writing was a secret language used by the powerful to keep the masses controlled. (As in "walking papers", for example.) Lean on the experiences of those who have been there and done that. It's what The List is so good at. Norm S/V Bandersnatch Lying Julington Creek FL N30 07.68 W081 38.47 _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
