Richardsons 12v Conversion

[andyhesford]

my mate has just come back from being on coral horizon he had agreat time nice boat , only problem was he could not use his electric cool box because they have taken out the 12v socket , and putting in 3 pin ones, does anybody know if they are doing this to all the boats, you would think they would leave them in .

[Maxwellian]

I thought they had an adapted lead if you asked.

[BroadScot]

Hi Andy,

I would suggest a quick phone call to Richos may answer your queery. 

Just now, Maxwellian said:

I thought they had an adapted lead if you asked.

Hi Ian,

I thought they had withdrawn that.

Iain

[Maxwellian]

We have been with Maffetts for the last four years now so you are probably right.

[JanetAnne]

Just a guess but that may be to stop people plugging in 12v cool boxes which are quite high consumption items?

By going to the small 3 pin plugs you could ensure that only items supplied by the yard are used?

[Siddy]

I thought they had put 12v sockets in the boats in last few years for car chargers I know Melody had one install on the console and the old 3 pin still behind tv.

 

[BroadScot]

Our old 12v coolbox drew 36watts, but have seen them for sale at 40watt output. I thought all hire craft had the cigar car type socket for charging mobiles?

Iain

[riyadhcrew]

Carousel had a 12V car type socket on the dashboard. Commodore, I think, had a USB charger in place of the 12V one.

[andyhesford]

we had melody in may it had both and we have got major gem in september which is just 12v i think its got two sockets, maybe a certain person from richos could enlighten me.

[LondonRascal]

Coral Horizon is an old boat and I suspect the three pin socket is not a new addition but likely left over from when the boat was built - as many older boats have these.

 

It was commonly used for powering the television or in some cases a small 12v lamp – and often wired ‘the wrong way round’ in interesting ways. Such as positive going to the earth terminal and negative to the positive so people could not plug in items from home and expect them to work and so give up.  

Cool boxes do consume rather a lot of amps, because the Peltier Module that is used to transfer heat to one side and cold to the other can use up to 9Amps, and some have two of them along with the cooling fan these boxes are pretty inefficient ways to cool a relatively small area so I’d use one when the engine was running, and when off use ice to keep the contents cool with a ‘boost’ of cooling every now and then

 

[BroadScot]

7 minutes ago, LondonRascal said:

It was commonly used for powering the television or in some cases a small 12v lamp –

Hi Robin,

They used the 5amp three pin for the TV and the short cable with cigar socket. The ones on table lamps were even smaller, they were 3amp.

Only two wires were connected on the socket. Different yards used different connection combinations, so hair driers etc could not be used. As Vaughan said on another thread, they were done to be HIRER proof !

Iain

[vanessan]

We have a 12v cool box that I sometimes use to supplement the fridge. It can run from the mains as well and we have found it doesn't seem to use much juice at all. It has been used a number of times on BA electric posts and is very efficient so I am rather surprised at the comments on high consumption.

[vanessan]

30 minutes ago, Jonzo said:

It'll be fine on BA electric posts as the wattage is peanuts when we're talking 16A+ supply @ 240V, but on batteries they do use a fair bit of juice..

Got it, thank you. 

[Vaughan]

Cool boxes are designed to be used when travelling in vehicles, and the engine is running, so no drain on the batteries.

For this reason you will often find hire boats where the 12v DC socket is only live when the engine is running.

These cool boxes use greatly more power on 12v than the fridge in the boat but on 220v they are no problem, so plug them in the shore power or as Jonzo says, plug them in on the bank.

It is true that the TV plugs in hire boats are wired specially (with the positive to the earth pin) so that only the boatyard's TV can be plugged into the socket. This is done to protect the batteries, as well as customers' own TVs, tablets, DVD players etc, which are polarity sensitive and might blow up if they are plugged in wrongly.

[ranworthbreeze]

6 hours ago, LondonRascal said:

Coral Horizon is an old boat and I suspect the three pin socket is not a new addition but likely left over from when the boat was built - as many older boats have these.

 

It was commonly used for powering the television or in some cases a small 12v lamp – and often wired ‘the wrong way round’ in interesting ways. Such as positive going to the earth terminal and negative to the positive so people could not plug in items from home and expect them to work and so give up.  

Cool boxes do consume rather a lot of amps, because the Peltier Module that is used to transfer heat to one side and cold to the other can use up to 9Amps, and some have two of them along with the cooling fan these boxes are pretty inefficient ways to cool a relatively small area so I’d use one when the engine was running, and when off use ice to keep the contents cool with a ‘boost’ of cooling every now and then

 

Hi Robin,

If boatyards are wiring these sockets up incorrectly they are guilty of using bad practices and any of their professional installers should be ashamed of themselves.

Regards

Alan

[JennyMorgan]

38 minutes ago, ranworthbreeze said:

Hi Robin,

If boatyards are wiring these sockets up incorrectly they are guilty of using bad practices and any of their professional installers should be ashamed of themselves.

Regards

Alan

Who is to say that the wiring was incorrect? It was correct, e.g. safe when used with appliances supplied and authorised by the yards. 

[Vaughan]

On 16 Aug 2016 at 10:27 PM, ranworthbreeze said:

Hi Robin,

If boatyards are wiring these sockets up incorrectly they are guilty of using bad practices and any of their professional installers should be ashamed of themselves.

 

Sorry, I have only just noticed this comment.

I agree that the plug point used is an old-fashioned AC round pin fitting but this is a DC circuit and the negative is still on the correct pin, so still on the same common return.

Remember that when TVs first came to Broads boats they were all hired from Snellings, So Blakes and Hoseasons agreed that the plugs should all be wired in this way, so that a Snelling TV would work on any association craft, whilst the circuit itself was protected from any other strange things that might have been plugged into into it. The sockets were also clearly marked TV only.

So there is nothing to be ashamed of in what was, in fact, a very practical safety precaution.

[JennyMorgan]

Thank you, Vaughan, for clarifying that one. Black & white portable TV's, the height of sophistication back in the 60's and 70's. Probably more trouble than they were worth with aerials mounted on bar type stools and lashed to mop handles which in turn were lashed to boat hooks! Great for those on a mudweight as the boat swung in the wind the picture came and went, great fun watching the antics of some hirers determined, against the odds, to get a picture. 

[Vaughan]

Just another thought, you may ask, what would happen if someone pinched a Snelling TV and then plugged it into a 5 amp AC socket at home? The answer is nothing, as the live pin of the Snellings plug is not connected to anything. So still safe!

[ranworthbreeze]

8 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

Thank you, Vaughan, for clarifying that one. Black & white portable TV's, the height of sophistication back in the 60's and 70's. Probably more trouble than they were worth with aerials mounted on bar type stools and lashed to mop handles which in turn were lashed to boat hooks! Great for those on a mudweight as the boat swung in the wind the picture came and went, great fun watching the antics of some hirers determined, against the odds, to get a picture. 

Hi Peter,

Just goes to show TV's have come on since the 60's/70s the downside is that there is nothing on the TV's other than ornaments and the reception is just as bad.

Regards

Alan

[BroadScot]

Twas £ 10.00p a week deposit to hire a B&W tv in the early 70's. Dunno why we bothered, as we were far more interested in sampling the local beers instead ! Hic !!

Iain

[Siddy]

The 12v socket is live 24/7 on Melody, Commodore & Broadway I only unplug the socket last thing at night.

I remember on the narrowboats installing tv's for them who'd hired them and removing them Friday nights again in the 80's.

 

[Broads01]

When I first came to the Broads with my parents in the early 1980s many boats, including the first we hired, only had a black and white tv option. I can recall watching the tv aboard, I think the screen was only about 10 inches. Things have improved since!

[vanessan]

2 hours ago, Broads01 said:

When I first came to the Broads with my parents in the early 1980s many boats, including the first we hired, only had a black and white tv option. I can recall watching the tv aboard, I think the screen was only about 10 inches. Things have improved since!

And a lot of them were stuffed in a little cubby hole beneath the helmseat, you ended up with a stiff neck and a squint!