This weekend we went on a long river cruise from Lighthouse Landing to Clarksville, Tennesse and return. We typically run our generator (Northern Lights 5kw) full time to keep the salon temps cool and at a comfortable humidity level. The Cumberald River was full of lots of floating debris and large trees and smaller stuff. We anchored behind an island at Dover, TN and when we pulled up the anchor we say a lot of small leaves and twigs wrapped around the anchor line. We both commented on how full of drbris the river was. We had no power at the courtesy dock in Clarksville as the recent flood took out the electricty and the Recreation Dept hadn't had time to get it fixed prior to our arrival on Saturday.
We left Clarksville on Sunday afternnon and with a lot of current arrived in Terrapin Creek at around 8 PM on Sunday night. We wanted to go under the Highway 68 bridge during daylight as we had to heel the boat with a boom load to clear the bridge structure due to higher than normal water levels.
About 10:30 PM, the generator stopped and I had been thinking a few hours earlier that I should go ahead and transfer our 10 gallons of fuel in containers into the fuel tank, but had decided I should wait until after the bridge so the weight would be on the port rail. I had calculated that we had used just over 30 gallons and had about 7.5 gallons remaining and would use only about 2.5 gallons more before going through the bridge. When the genset stopped, I thought we had used more fuel that normal in fighting the current upstream on Friday and Saturday and that the genset pick up had been reached. We transferred the first 5 gallons with a siphon hose and then tried to start the generator - didn't start. Thougt it needed bleeding so cracked the bleed nut and went through the procedure, but nothing seemed to work. Then it dawned on me I should check the through hull and stainer! The through hull and strainer were both clogged with small twigs and leaf debris. Cleaned both and now we are both hot and sweat is dripping due to humidity! Start the generator and check for water flow at the outlet and none! I had a spare impeller - so next check is the impeller. Took off the cover and the impeller is toast - not one blade is still there and it is full of rubber dust. It must have been gradually clogged starting on Friday, but since I have no temp gauge on the genset, and it was running, knew nothing of what was going on with it. Get the spare and try to install it and cannot get the impeller into the hole! Spend an hour before giving up for the night about 1 PM and resorting to a fan on inverter power. Daylight at 5:15 and I am up trying to get the impeller into the hole again. I try a plastic tie around it and still have no luck!!!!!! At 8 AM, say to hell with it and we get set to go under the bridge and finish our last 5 hours of the cruise. Wind is directly behind us and temp is 90 degrees with very high humidity. On Friday, it was in the high 60's and cloudy! Tennessee weather has been crazy this year. We reach Lighthouse Landing at about 1:25 PM and plug into shore power and finally get cooled off.
Does anybody have a tip on how to get the impeller into the hole on a Northern Lights 5KW generator? I'd appreciate your advice as it was very frustrating to have one and not be able to install it.
We left Clarksville on Sunday afternnon and with a lot of current arrived in Terrapin Creek at around 8 PM on Sunday night. We wanted to go under the Highway 68 bridge during daylight as we had to heel the boat with a boom load to clear the bridge structure due to higher than normal water levels.
About 10:30 PM, the generator stopped and I had been thinking a few hours earlier that I should go ahead and transfer our 10 gallons of fuel in containers into the fuel tank, but had decided I should wait until after the bridge so the weight would be on the port rail. I had calculated that we had used just over 30 gallons and had about 7.5 gallons remaining and would use only about 2.5 gallons more before going through the bridge. When the genset stopped, I thought we had used more fuel that normal in fighting the current upstream on Friday and Saturday and that the genset pick up had been reached. We transferred the first 5 gallons with a siphon hose and then tried to start the generator - didn't start. Thougt it needed bleeding so cracked the bleed nut and went through the procedure, but nothing seemed to work. Then it dawned on me I should check the through hull and stainer! The through hull and strainer were both clogged with small twigs and leaf debris. Cleaned both and now we are both hot and sweat is dripping due to humidity! Start the generator and check for water flow at the outlet and none! I had a spare impeller - so next check is the impeller. Took off the cover and the impeller is toast - not one blade is still there and it is full of rubber dust. It must have been gradually clogged starting on Friday, but since I have no temp gauge on the genset, and it was running, knew nothing of what was going on with it. Get the spare and try to install it and cannot get the impeller into the hole! Spend an hour before giving up for the night about 1 PM and resorting to a fan on inverter power. Daylight at 5:15 and I am up trying to get the impeller into the hole again. I try a plastic tie around it and still have no luck!!!!!! At 8 AM, say to hell with it and we get set to go under the bridge and finish our last 5 hours of the cruise. Wind is directly behind us and temp is 90 degrees with very high humidity. On Friday, it was in the high 60's and cloudy! Tennessee weather has been crazy this year. We reach Lighthouse Landing at about 1:25 PM and plug into shore power and finally get cooled off.
Does anybody have a tip on how to get the impeller into the hole on a Northern Lights 5KW generator? I'd appreciate your advice as it was very frustrating to have one and not be able to install it.
