Sleipner PJC control

[OSK]

Attention other who have Sleipner PJC controls for bow/ stern thrusters, the lever is attached with tiny plastic snaps that can crack, causing the lever to loosen and making the control unusable.

Unpleasant experience when suddenly not be able to use the thrusters, this can not be fixed, the whole control must be replaced.

The problem was pointed out to Sleipner without the slightest desire to help except selling a new unit.

 

[longjohnsilver]

Not my experience of Sleipner, when I needed to replace an oil seal in my bowthruster they came and removed the worn seal, and rather than sell me an expensive and out of stock (meaning a delay in launching) they told me to but the exact same seal from a local company at a cost of about a fiver. And the total charge for their assistance. Zero.

IMHO they are the best guys I’ve ever dealt with in the marine trade. And when I had another problem with my bowthruster, the company in Plymouth that fitted it advised no repair was possible and a replacement was needed at a cost of £000s. I contacted Simon Blackaller at Sleipner, who duly turned up and fixed it, took a few hours and 2 new bolts needed, only asked for less than £100. The best guy in the business.

And I’ve never had any problems with my bowthruster control.

 

[vas]

interestingly bitter first post...
yes all bowthruster controls are relatively delicate plastic contraptions and yes they may crack, so fcking what?
if it was under the med sun for 10yrs it's probably EOL due to uv degradation.
50-100euro gets you a brand new one (doesn't even have to be sleipner - iirc there are three thin cables under it)
Probably one of the cheapest failures you're going to have in boating...

enjoy boating!

V.

 

[julians]

Hmmmm, Just got a brand new boat with sidepower/sleipner bow thruster. It doesnt have the controls the OP is talking about - which I think are much more complicated than just a left/right button stick, I think the OP's have variable speed control etc, anyway mine just has the simple joystick on the dash. But in addition to the joystick it has a wireless remote control to allow you to control the thruster and the windlass from anywhere. It works quite well - for the first 2 weeks.

Then I came down to the boat, and the remote control was beeping, and flashing lights, I couldnt make it stop, didnt know what was wrong , but it wouldnt work. After a few hours of this beeping and flashing the battery in the remote went flat, so I put a new battery in ( after ordering a special tiny torx driver from amazon to get the stupid torx screws out - who the hell designs something that needs tiny torx screws for replacing the battery? ) and the beeping and flashing , but not functioning started again. I took the control apart, and found moisture on the circuit board, I dried it out, put it back together again and its been working fine ever since - that was 10 days ago.

I'm not sure how moisture found its way into the control - its not been dropped in any water and its kept as dry as anything else is on the helm. I'll be monitoring it to see how it goes, but so far I am not impressed.

 

[vas]

Hmmmm, Just got a brand new boat with sidepower/sleipner bow thruster. It doesnt have the controls the OP is talking about - which I think are much more complicated than just a left/right button stick, I think the OP's have variable speed control etc, anyway mine just has the simple joystick on the dash. But in addition to the joystick it has a wireless remote control to allow you to control the thruster and the windlass from anywhere. It works quite well - for the first 2 weeks.

Then I came down to the boat, and the remote control was beeping, and flashing lights, I couldnt make it stop, didnt know what was wrong , but it wouldnt work. After a few hours of this beeping and flashing the battery in the remote went flat, so I put a new battery in ( after ordering a special tiny torx driver from amazon to get the stupid torx screws out - who the hell designs something that needs tiny torx screws for replacing the battery? ) and the beeping and flashing , but not functioning started again. I took the control apart, and found moisture on the circuit board, I dried it out, put it back together again and its been working fine ever since - that was 10 days ago.

I'm not sure how moisture found its way into the control - its not been dropped in any water and its kept as dry as anything else is on the helm. I'll be monitoring it to see how it goes, but so far I am not impressed.

could it be moisture at the wet and humid factory up north that now in SP decided to present itself?
granted I was talking about simple joysticks, mines' coping v.well down here.