At the end of 2011 we said goodbye to John Boyne. After rejoining us for 2 years, the changing needs of the business meant that his superior engineering knowledge and expertise were proving a waste at Sleeman & Hawken. He is now hoping to get ‘back on the tools’, and with a few jobs lined up already, we wish him and his partner Cherry success and happiness for the future.

With John’s departure, we welcome Duncan Ayres who has joined us on a permanent basis to provide support to the various areas of the business. Duncan will be primarily giving Graham (much-needed) help in our bustling dispatch department. He will also be trained in the office, allowing him to cover the various holidays of the staff, and to become the ‘Jack Of All Trades’ at Sleeman & Hawken. He has been with us almost a week now and is settling in well – and Kevin is enjoying being a teacher!

I hope 2012 has started well for you all.

Keith

I hope you all have had an enjoyable festive break and now ready for what 2012 brings.

All the best for the coming year.

Keith

Our recent order book shows we are proving competitive on PERKINS, FG WILSON and ATLAS COPCO spare parts at the moment, so do please give us a try.
Also we are seeing a steady increase on the supply of FG WILSON gensets and complete ATLAS COPCO compressors.

Off to Suffolk tomorrow for LISTER PETTER ‘s Annual Shoot, very generous of them and looking forward it.

Cheers for now,
Keith

We are now all back from Southampton Boat Show and catching up with things back in the office.

We had a lot of positive feedback on our new Tempest 850WA, with lots of sea trials booked in the coming weeks back on our river Teign in South Devon.

Here are a few pictures of the boat at the Show.
Click to view slideshow.

Hopefully we will sell a couple!

Get in touch if you are interested.

All for now,
Ryan

Last weekend I ended up at the Dorchester Show in Dorset to watch my girlfriend compete in the show jumping.

Fortunately there were some old Lister and Petter engines on display to keep me interested, some dating back to the 1950′s and earlier!

Take a look:

Ryan

Here are a few more kind words that we have received from clients in the last few weeks:

Thank you very much for your prompt collection of damaged cylinder and delivery of replacement received this morning.
Excellent service!!!
Keith in Berkshire

hi package arrived today thanks very much will use again
Mr C. Hopper in County Durham

Thankyou – excellent service.
Gary at Lister Petter in New Zealand

Thank you Keith for an excellent service – and I mean that sincerely!!
Keith in Berkshire – again!

Thanks Keith you’re a star
Paul in Bristol

We are very proud of our customer service – please give us a try and we will endeavor to help you.

All for now,
Keith

Hi John,

Thanks for all those spare parts for my old Sabb single cylinder 1976 motor ive been repairing in my little yacht… see attached pic, i have just sailed into Greenland 12 days at sea from Canada.. all is well, but ran into engine problems and hoped you could give me some quick advice..

So.. I was motoing along on a cold moring, started the engine fine, ran for 15 min to escape some small icebergs, and then the engine stopped. turns out it had run out of fuel completely, something I religeously try to avid with a detailed fuel log book, but after 10 days of delerium I must have slipped up. anyway, so poured in more fuel, drained the whole system.. and simply could not get the engine to start.. changed all the filters… then took other stuff appart, and in the end found that there wa water in the cylinder (because when I had the fuel injector off and cranked the motor by hand, water gushed up out of where the injector would mount into the top of the cylinder. so.. then cranked it by hand a lot of with the decompression lever open and injector off etc to try to drive out all possible water, changed sump oil (had water in it) etc etc, and then eventually mamaned to get it started but ONLY if I disconnect the hose that links the cooling water from where it exits the water-jacketed silencer and feeds into the exhaust stream.. when I pulled off that hose before I managed to start the engine, the (raw) cooling water was under pressure for some reason and errupted out of that hose and drained, and then if I left that hose open, I can EVENTUALLY get the engine to start and after it’s running I can reconnect the hose and all is well… but.. weird? It’s alsmost as if there is a blockage where the cooling water injects into the exhaust, but when I disconnect the hose as escribed and tart the engine, exhaust gasses have no problem billowing out through the fitting where the hose is supposed to attach, so it can’t be blocked?

Why might it be under pressure, and why would the engine be sucking water back into the cylinder? Some ppl here are suggesting my head gasket may have failed internally and is letting cooling water flow into the cylinder directly through the gasket which would explain why it is so damn hard to start? (starter motor failed also a week ago, so ive been hand starting, which used to be easy but now it’s an inhuman effort to keep cranking the dngine for perhaps 10-20 seconds even after decormpression lever is closed!

I think I have a head gasket i bought from you and may do this, if you think it sounds like a reasonable cause?

Any advice you may have here would be very much appreciated…

Cheers, and thanks,

Chris

Here are a few kind recent comments we have received from our clients old and new:

Thanks for your VERY prompt reply. Most impressive…. could you add your thoughts about leisure batteries, please? …… nic (R.H.Nicholls)

Thank you very much for your prompt collection of damaged cylinder and delivery of replacement received this morning.
Excellent service!!!
Keith in Berkshire, UK

Please do not hesitate in trying us for all your Diesel Spare Part needs: Lister Petter, Kubota, Lombardini, Perkins, FG Wilson, Sabb, John Deere, Yanmar, Kohler, Cummins, Caterpillar, Atlas Copco, Deutz, Bukh and many more.

Last week we sent some generators to a good client of ours in the Middle East, take a look!

We sell FG Wilson, Lister Petter, Cummins and many other brands of generators, give us a try.