Kev Stephenson

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

As stated there are only 2 legally required insurances, employers and motor vehicle. That info came from the NFU during a discussion.

When tree climbing you climb using the rope, the bouce in s dynamic rope would knacker you before you got into the tree. A rock climber will not climb on the rope at all, it is purely there as a life line. Yes it would be better in the case of a fall if the rope was dynamic but the extra effort in using the rope isn't worth the potential benefit in the case of a fall

Dean as promised. The sections bolted to the chassis has a short length of tube in it to give more surface contact between the hinge pin and frame. The section bolted to the body is supposed to have 2 drop pieces on either side but I ran out of plate during manufacture so have just gone with one for now. The hinge pin is 316 stainless steel @ 2" diameter so won't wear. Any problems let me know and I will meet you somewhere and you can have a look. Kev

I will take some pics and post them tomorrow.

Free parking for Freelanders outside the blue oyster club I hear. One of the lads I shoot with bought one and they really are nothing off road. You would be better looking for a disco or jap pickup for the same money in my opinion. Kev

The forst job I did which involved dropping lines took me loads of time chasint eh various call centres and ultimately cost me a fortune (they wanted to charge about £99+VAT for each line dropped on the same pole!!). After that I collared a BT engineer while he was out working, got his mobile number and phoned him direct a couple of days before the job, this only cost me about £50 but you need to know what you are dropping (e.g school phone line, business lines, emergency call lines). I now have a number of BT engineer numbers for different areas of my local town which really helps. My advice, either get the customer to do it (they will want to charge the customers phone bill anyway) or find a friendly local engineer. HTH Kev

Speak to or PM Dean, his has steel sides which have started to rot and they are bloody heavy. It could well be the case that the company that do the conversions has changed there materials of construction but check before you buy that it will tip high enough to empty the load. It could also be the case that the bloke selling them has changed to manufacture his own but 8 months ago he was definately buying from the bradford company, they told me themselves when I was originally looking to tipper convert mine You could look for a box back and speak to Mr Ed about the conversions he had done on his. They look very tidy and worked out cheap. Doing this you would be keeping the middle mans profit for yourself if you are willing to put up with a couple of weeks hassle. There are a few people selling the box back ones e.g GS Drake in Wakefield. Have a look through the show us your defender thread and there is another older landrover thread with loads of tippers and associated info. I ended up buying a flat bed 130 (full aluminium bed and sides), building my own high sides (Aluminium for less than £150 the pair) and doing my own tipper conversion (about £600). I have ended up with a year 2000 45k mile TD5 tipper for less money than some of the P plate 100k + milers are going for now.

Minor correction to this, he buys in box backs at auction, sends them to a tipper company in Bradford (eurolift?) for conversion then sells them on. Ask Dean Lofthouse about the conversions done by this company he has first hand experience, they leave a lot to be desired!! (poor elevation, rotting sides after a couple of years, and more).

Not looking good for me being there this year. Missus is due to have our second kid on the 27th June so unless it's a week or so early then I don't think I will be getting a pass signed

Thanks Yes it is a low power/18" machine bought from somewhere like Aldi for about £50 but it is doing him proud for firewooding (even if it is very slow). I have e-mailed one of the bigger e-bay chain suppliers who says he can supply the chain in question for £10 delivered so I think I will get one and see what it is like when it arrives. If that isn't an exact match then I will have to take the chain to a local dealer for an exact match.

Time to turn to the oracle. Father in law needs a new chain for his 'garden products' chainsaw. He has kept the bag in which his sold chain came and it has the following code on it. 91PJ060X I believe 91 to be the oregon chain type (3/8" 0.050") and there are 60 drivelinks on the chain but what does the PJ and X signify if anything? Looking to buy him a couple of replacements/spares and i don't have the saw to take to the shop with me. Any help much appreciated. Kev

definately sounds like something stuck on the inside of a wheel. If you are sure you haven't hit anything then you won't have bent anything, it could be a loose panhard but why would it have come loose if you have only been through sloppy clay? Time to go outside with a torch and check all the wheels carefully I think.

I would be surprised if it has anything to do with the door locks, most defender alarms do not operate the locks so there is no electrical connection between the alarm and door locks

I had a similar thing with my TD5 130 when doing the tipper conversion (battery on and off a few times). Mine has got a key fob for the alarm but this did not seem to do anything. Had to turn the key on and off about 5 times (all the way to running but not turning the starter) then it fired when I tried it. It flashed the engine management light when I tried to fire it when it was immobilised but this could be TD5 only.

Dean, Company in Meltham Mills called equitrek (based just up the road from the tip if you know where that is) specialise in building horse box vans and trailers using the white GRP panels. Might be worth contacting them to see if they could help. I know they fabricate all their own bits (panels, angles corners, doors, etc) so might be interested in a 1 off landie project if you supplied dimensions/drawings. I am sure they won't be the busiest people in the world with the current economic conditions. Kev

you might be shocked. I know Dean Lofthouse weighed his landie with a modest amount of chip and all his usual gear on and was close to the 3.5tonne limit. There is a thread on here somewhere with the details. I have weighed mine off and can only be just over half full to be near the 3.5 tonne limit

Two ways of looking at it really. My first set of hedge trimmers were B&Q specials, they only cost about £75 and mean't I could work. They only lasted 3 months but had done well in excess of £1k in work so went and bought a brand new set of stihl trimmers which are still going strong. When I started I decided i didn't want to buy loads of new kit on finance and then pay it off with interest. Buying a cheap but usable machine knowing it won't last too long but will make money worked for me. Work the saw as it is, don't spend money on new bars, spare chains etc and as soon as possible replace it with a decent pro saw when you have earned the money. It worked for me.

So they a) dont catch the chipper spout when you have the chipper at an angle to the truck and b) so you don't wallop yourself on them when unloading logs/gear/anything else

Now I see, free sides and I know where your coming from with the overloading potential. What weight do you think you are at with the load shown in the picture above? The drop down sides are the bits that seem to rattle on mine, only if I clean out all the last dregs of chip though. That doesn't seem to happen very often though. The back of mine is currently full to the top of the drop down sides with snow.

Looking good so far but why stop the high sides short of the back of the main body? I did my land rover in a similar way but the high sides are removable by undoing 3 bolts per side (yours look welded in place but I could be wrong) and by running them right to the back of the main body it gave me more space for sign writing and they look like they belong there.

A few years ago I bought a stihl blower for £6 (delivered!!) as a poor runner, needed a new pot and piston which was ~£45 and it taught me how to strip and rebuild the stihl engines. It is still on the shelf as a spare and worked for 3 years as my only blower. I also bought a late MS440 for about £280 with new bar and 2 new chains. Ran a dream, absolutely no issues. I sold it on for about the same as I paid for it after a couple of years when I started to replace all my saws for new gear.

Been out and righted a high top transit that had flipped blocking a road this morning. Came across it after dropping my little one off at nursery and the police asked if I could help. Had to strop the landie to a tree to stop it sliding in the snow and then winched it off the roof rack to pull it upright.

Mine goes over the weightbridge at 2380kg with 3/4 tank fuel and driver in (no tools). Pictures of mine a few posts back. Rear body is Aluminium but there are some heavy bits on it (wheels/tyres at 45kg each!!)

Finally got the pictures off my phone