Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Its better than a good day at work

Today was a bit warmer and we let the fire go out because we wanted to clean the chimney. The wood we were burning was a bit damp and had clogged up some sections at the flue and at the fire end.. When the brush was inserted there was a clutter at the other end and Del just thought the plate had moved above the grate. It turned out that the blanking cover on the back had fallen out. This should have been held on by two bolts with a steel block holding it in but looked like it had just been bonded in, and only the soot was holding it in..
It was a bit of a struggle but Del made up a contraption to hold it in place to hopefully get us through the winter. We already have a crack round the collar and the cement bricks need replacing. This will all have to be done through the summer months..
On top of that we have at last got a reply from Beta, and it came with our invoice. One point made was that "We do say to check all external nut bolts"

The fact is that the Crankshaft nut is NOT an external nut and things have to be removed to get to it..
Our questions still wasn't answered!

1. Why have we had to pay for a modified kit which is clearly a design fault
 
2. Why haven't you warned all customers of the problem of the Crankshaft nut coming loose and at least added it to the Maintenance Schedule, or even highlighted it under a recall for them to get the clamp fitted..

2 comments:

Paul Shuter said...

Dear Del & Al, Paul here from nb Melissa. We are thinking of taking a trip along the K&A this spring / early summer, but we hesitate because of the many bad reports that we have heard regarding shortage of moorings etc. Knowing that we can really on an accurate report from you we thought we would ask your opinion.

Del and Al said...

Hi Paul, the last time we went down the K&A was in 2012, so things may have changed since then, but we thoroughly enjoyed it, and will certainly be going back at some point. We went May & June and I think going outside of holiday time made a difference. Yes it was busy with moored boats, but we used to moor up by 2pm most days and had no trouble getting on the visitor moorings. It's tough going at times with the fierce locks and swing bridges, but the key is to not be too ambitious and do say six locks, six mile, per day. We thought it was really pretty, quite wild in places and would recommend going right down to Bristol harbour. On the way back we managed to moor at the top end of Bath, just off the 48hr moorings, so had 2 weeks there! At the bottom end of the K&A you will be on tickover as there are loads of moored boats, but it 'is what it is' and if you're prepared for it, its fine. Enjoy!