Kev Stephenson

Are you actually doing anything from the yard e.g. logs or is it just parking for the works vehicles (how many vehicles/operators licence)? Do the staff park there through the day? If you are just parking a van there is it any different from a travelling sales man parking his mondeo on the drive and arranging appointments on his laptop. If the council want to visit it might be worth moving any excess logs/kit. I got a letter though re running a business form home and after discussion the council had no objections as 1. I have no staff and other than use of the PC, use of the phone and kit maintenance I don't work at home. 2. All my gear is out of view in the garage other than the van and they could not come up with a valid reason why I was any different from Mr AA up the road who comes home in a works van as he is on call 24 hours a day. 3. No issues with the water board, you are allowed to wash your company vehicle and having no staff and the fact I carry out no work from home means I do no tuse any additonal water or produce any additional waste water. Kev

Hoping to be there provided I don't lose a day this week to rain.

What was in it? If it's conditioner and a pack of rollers then it must be obvious

What you riding at that money? I was racing for Orange back then on an SP1 but used to love the Gary Fisher hard tail I had aswell. I went through a spate of my paerents garage getting broken into for my bike and the insurance company refused to pay for the third one so I packed it in.

So before I can go cut grass I must thoroughly walk the area to look for hidden hazards? By doing this surely I would end up flattening down all the grass I am supposed to be cutting making the job near impossible. What if the grass is really thick, can I cut the grass as I am surveying to make sure I find all the debris thus am doing a thorough pre work inspection. It isn't going to be long before it is too dangerous to get up in the morning to go to work.

Pete McTree in a leopard print thong

I got a sequoia a few weeks ago and love it. It feels so much more like a rock climbing harness than the cumbersome tree harness I used to have. Leg loops stay where you put them and don't slip down your thighs, waist belt doesn't slip around your waist when leaning out to one side and the side D's are always 'just there'. I've not got much experience of different models but the sequoia is definately a winner for me. If anyone in the Huddersfield area wants a play in it then just let me know, I will take it to the next Dean's wood meet.

speak to Iain (Yorkshireman) - he is Chas accredited

I know, I questioned a bloke at the DVLA about this using the comparison that my car is capable of 150mph so am I therefore commiting an offence by driving a car capable of exceeding the speed limit. He agreed with me the towing law is so flawed it is unbelievable and it would ultimately boil down to a judges common sence if anything ever went to court.

Soory Iain, not true. The law is written based on maximum gross weights, not kerb weights. See my post above. You can be done for capability to break weight restrictions!!

Lad who lives across the road form me had this out with the DVLA and it is the case that you can tow more than 750kg provided the maximum gross weight of car + MGW of the trailer is less than 3500kg. You cannot therefore tow a 751kg chipper with a 3500kg MGW transit even if it is empty as you have the potential to break the law, nor can you tow an empty trailer of 1000kg with a 2000kg MGW truck if the trailer is built to carry more than 500kg. The DVLA wrote to my mate so he had something to show the police, he was towing a caravan with MGW of 1200kg with a shogun Pinin MGW 2200kg, therefore uless he overloaded either the car or trailer (which is another offence) he could not weigh in at more than the 3500kg limit. The law around this is utter bollox really and based on the amount of hassle my mate got from the DVLA and police who did not understand the law something needs to rectified. Kev

PM Bill on here, along with other issues the flywheel bearing has gone on his so he knows the prices etc for changing it. IIRC he said orange plant wanted 3 hours labour plus the cost of the bearing. Kev

Been doing a bit of DIY today, decorating the spare bedroom in preparation for the new arrival in the summer. One of the jobs was to run the network cable into the room properly and sink the connection point into the wall. So out came the hammer and chisel and the wall was marked up for the back box. After chiselling round the outline I tried to knock out piece by piece the waste only for the whole bloody block to fall straight out the back onto my bedroom floor leaving a hole 15 inch by 6 inch in the other room!! Cue a bollocking from the other half and yet another job to add to the list - replaster the main bedroom that until lunch time today didn't need anything doing to it. Anyone else had any disasters they are willing to admit to?

They have been in Meltham this last week and all they left is a f'king mess. I'd be embarassed to leave a site like they have. On the plus side I seem to be getting a few jobs tidying up the destruction they have left behind.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00j4h2x/Inside_Out_South_East_11_03_2009/ Starts just after the 20 minute mark

you have PM

I'm definately looking to go to this, very unlikely I will make the AA show as it coincides with the due date for my little one.

where abouts are you Bill? I run an Entec with the 25hp petrol engine and am in Meltham about 2 miles from Holmfirth. If you want a look to establish the connections you need just let me know. You can't be that far away. I might even have the original service/owners manual but I don't think it gives details of wiring/throttle cable routing

I live about 2 miles from Holmfirth and my yard is on a farm owned by the Hinchliffes. The Hinchliffes are fairly big land owners around Holmfirth. You lot even have your own website http://www.hinchliffes.com/

mine weighs in at just under 2500kg so does not fit dual purpose classification. Looks like a class 7 test, just wondered what was different from class 4 on the inspeaction schedule. I am seeing a tester at the weekend so will get a definative answer. Thanks for all the replies so far kev

I thought yours was class 4 Dean. Been looking on the VOSA site and all vehicles with GVW of 3000 - 3500kg need to be class 7. I think all 110's are 3050kg or 3500kg but class 7 doesn't include vehicles over 8 seats (110's can have 12 seats) so what are these tested as? There is a dual purpose vehicle listing in class 4, is a land rover not in this group? Looks like my local 'friendly' tester won't be able to do my landie then. Bummer....

Couple of questions, firstly those of you with 3500kg landies (130's and some 110's). What MOT class are your vehicles in? secondly does anyone know what the differences are between the tests for class 4 and 7? Mine is due at the end of March (class 7 according to the last cert) and I want to know what, other than thatI am used to from car tests, I need to check before I send it in. Thanks Kev

My experience is they are still running a tight ship. Delivery within 20 hours to the oposite end of the country. Thanks

at what speed Garth. You are not saying that when you are doing 5mph the speedo says 20 mph and the same 15mph applies when you are doing 70mph. Steve, you usually find the speedo underreads by 10%ish on standard tyres, on oversized tyres (unless you go rediculous) the speedo usually reads dead accurate. The MPG on a Navara is calculated using the speedo reading so would change by about 10% (showing better economy) if no other factors influenced the MPG. If you are wanting to find out how much the oversized tyres is reducing your MPG then take your old MPG and add 10% (rolling radius adjustment), any reduction on this is due to the new tyres. Note the 10% is an approximate figure. You can calculate or measure an accurate fiddle factor by comparing the rolling radius of the new and old tyres. Hope that helps kev

regularly reverse onto the chip pile to get the chip to the top