Carry a spare or rebuild?

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Billyo

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Looking for some opinions/what others do on carrying spares.

I'm part way through a circumnavigation (or at least a very extended sail) and will be heading offshore again in a couple of months with the expectation (subject to covid obvs) of not being anywhere with decent part supplies for the next couple of years.

So I'm wondering what to do about major spare parts, as in alternators/starters. To date my engine and genny have around 1000 hrs each; the engine has run like a dream from new, the genny which is now 20 years old has had imumerate small issues. I'm in prep mode for the off and in the process of pricing up replacement alternators ans starters. However the cost and delivery times are significant, so Im thinking of just taking the existing ones off and getting them rebuilt as a preemtive measure.

Is this a foolish idea? Do rebuilds sort of reset the clock on part life or is it a lottery, or would people suggest biting the bullet and ordering new as a back up?

Hope that makes sense, been a long day and my mind is fried....
 
I dont carry a spare starter on the basis that I could find somebody to rebuild it if I needed to anywhere in the world. My starter is huge and a spare is expensive. I do carry a spare alternator as its small and was only £100.
With regard to our generator, Our was 17 years old when it dropped a valve. I had already found a spare on Ebay for £500. I swapped it and kept all the spares off the old one. We have a lot of spares for the genny as you could imagine.
 
If it’s a circumnav of the UK, if the world well, where do you stop? nowhere is really more than a few days away via the Internet and Royal Mail / couriers. Agree with Kelpie On the spares front. Other than the usual consumables, I only carry a water pump which I replaced a few years ago and refurbished the old one.

Anyway, the rule is you will only need what spares you DON’T carry. ?
 
The one key part is probably your engine starter motor, as so few new engines can be hand started. I have been in a situation where if a dead engine could be started we could have got someone to hospital a least 36 hours earlier. When we did get in to port under sail he then spent weeks in hospital, so it was not a trivial health problem.

Buy new now, fit and keep original as spare is a fairly good plan. No 2 spares priority is probably an alternator - similar but a lot less critical if you have other sources of electric power such as solar or wind.

In my experience on quite a few other peoples boats generators are the least reliable items, but breakdowns usually just influence convenience and comfort, not safety. Assuming a sailing yacht, lots of spare string is possibly the next high priority spare.
 
Kelpie said:
One piece of advice I read was to buy shares and fit them immediately. You end up with all your old parts as spares, less chance of needing them, you know they fit, you know they still work, and you've already practised changing them.
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Never heard that one or thought about it before. But when you read it, it is so obviously the best option for so many reasons. Good one!
 
After some worries with my old alternator I bought a new which had advantage of being higher output and I got old one checked over and overhauled to carry as a spare. Also spare water pump plus all the usual consumables and nuts and bolts.
 
Yup, +1 to the value of old parts coming off as spares...

And it helps to justifying buying new stuff, thinking you’re also acquiring (or likely able to rebuild/recondition) a spare.

Good example for us recently was the Vetus 330 strainer. Horrifically overpriced for what it is so was loathe to buy a new one - but the old one had been well used/abused and was of dubious origin. It worked okay though, on the hard, so in to the locker it goes as a spare.

Another area this works well is the proliferation of alternative Chinese parts (and diesel heaters of course). We’ve got a Chinese racor copy (fettled on the bench to address the QC issues). Do it trust it fully? - not quite. So got another in the locker!
 
Alternators are reliable devices but carry a spare and then just change out when it eventually goes. Later you might be able to get the failed one fixed or exchanged.

There are potentially initial reliability issues replacing working kit with new spares and storage issues keeping old parts fit for purpose e.g. carbon dust attracting moisture, rubber parts perishing. There is definitely a time factor that could perhaps be used on other preparatory works. I don't think it makes sense to change out working items with new unless they are near the end of their life. If something is working, extending the period of operation always makes sense from a productivity, cost and efficiency perspective. Knowing when to change out is what should be understood.
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
Alternators are reliable devices but carry a spare and then just change out when it eventually goes. Later you might be able to get the failed one fixed or exchanged.

There are potentially initial reliability issues replacing working kit with new spares and storage issues keeping old parts fit for purpose e.g. carbon dust attracting moisture, rubber parts perishing. There is definitely a time factor that could perhaps be used on other preparatory works. I don't think it makes sense to change out working items with new unless they are near the end of their life. If something is working, extending the period of operation always makes sense from a productivity, cost and efficiency perspective. Knowing when to change out is what should be understood.
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For the reasons several have given. It ensures it fits (doesn't have 'new' end plates etc) it ensures it has no faults, it allows you to practice the procedure at leisure and allows for reluctant bolts, studs etc when there is no urgency. Possibly also (following recents threads) affords the opportunity to scrape and paint the engine behind that item.
.
 
dunedin said:
Never heard that one or thought about it before. But when you read it, it is so obviously the best option for so many reasons. Good one!
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I should add that it's not my idea, I think I got it from the book 'Get Real, Get Gone'.
The main attraction to me is that you eliminate the risk of discovering in some remote part of the world that the spare part you bought doesn't fit.
If you aren't going too far off the beaten track then it doesn't matter as much.
 
You could always try to do what one customer did i with me
Buy a load of spares and tool for an extended cruise and take them back for full credit and get angry that after 2 years in your bilges you don’t get your money back
 
Some guy called Murphy said that if you carry the spares, they are the parts that will not fail, the ones you don't carry will fail..
 
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KLBH said:
Some guy called Murphy said that if you carry the spares, they are the parts that will not fail, the ones you don't carry will fail..
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True to a large extent :) The only engine spares I carry are routine maintenance bits. Only time I was stuck abroad and had to drag the engine out, a ring and gasket set was couriered within 24 hours, expensive courier but cheaper than paying a marina when waiting a week or more for Parcelforce.
 
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