Dean Lofthouse

I regularly have a 7t train weight Jon, sometimes 8t, sometimes a bit more

Snap!

If I was to rent someone a yard and barn I would want at the very least £100 per week. That equates to £20 per working day. If your pulling £450 per day it's no a lot to add on. In my opinion a yard is one of your biggest neccessities

Haha...but do you cry if you put a big scratch down the side or a log bounces off the wing ?

I have an Isuzu for Comfort, a defender 130 for working grunt and a hilux for work and play, all extremely well maintained.

200 tdi will be of an age that used electrical bullet connections maintainance includes cleaning and putting silicone grease in. Chassis maintainance includes cleaning off mud from the top of the front outriggers and wax oil or rust proofing other areas. Basic stuff on any motor really. Landrover always get slagged; they are a tractor, a work horse and if looked after will last 30 plus years. They were never built for or intended for comfort and just like any other piece of mechanical engineering, if you run them with no maintainance eventually they'll bust

You serious ? (-:

That will happen to any motor with age and no maintainance

I think Ians flat cap just fell off

If you do your books properly, over a period of time overheads should become obvious. By that I mean depreciation and repairs included. You should be able to work out say, how much a chipper costs you to run per hour or per day, which should include depreciation value as well. In other words, when it comes to buying a new chipper, the old one should have paid for itself. This is the difference between a good business and a business that blunders along and when something breaks down is in the schtuck. Yes, you need to work out fuel costs, but it shouldn't be down to 1 or 2 mile per gallon, it should be down to gallons per year. You need to also be competitive but not as competitive as the "blundering" business. I,ve worked out a day rate that models my overheads and working style and I don't budge from that day rate or weekly rate to please my customers, my customers have no idea what it costs to run a tree surgery business. They pay my bills not me, I just provide the service they require Hope my rambling makes sense

3 years.....doesn't time fly, must be my age (-:

I thought VW had only just come out. Wont depreciation value be a guess

That would be a 60t chieftain tank then Adam

They are trucks, work vehicles, I have never in my life looked at fuel consumption figures for any vehicle as a buying point. If fuel cost is a big motivating point then why buy one. My customers pay my fuel bill not me, then the tax man gives me 20% of that cost back, I can't complain

Them wheels are awful

Jon, I believe the ECU on them learns your driving style, many cars do now. I know for a fact the Navara does as I was going to reset my ecu and wellie it to learn the proper driving style. The Dmax you took out will not have been driven hard because it is a demo motor. The engine is the same size as your td5 but it has twin turbo so has a much wider power range, it will definitely pull better, you just need to wear different wellies when you drive it. I think the Navara takes something like 10 to 15 mile to learn your driving style

and its awesome Jon :big grin:

Thanks anyway Dean, much appreciated. I will figure it out, been wanting to do it for a while now.

customer service differs from garage to garage regardless of make

Yes they are, big round black things

It's got the standard tyres on from new, road biased ones, i'll have a look when I get home

I drove from one side of manchester to the other, then did 30mile on the motorway at 65 in the Dmax Auto and got 38.1 mpg. Edit: Our lass drives it like it was a mini cooper locally and it registers 21.9 mpg

If you could, if the cost isn't horrendous, it would be a worthwhile conversion definitely

Pick ups are crap for arb work, unless your doing small scale stuff. I only use mine for pricing, trailer work, shooting, gundog carrying and shopping

No Suprisingly, didn't even lock the car