Tom D

We can do it Jake, we have our own licenced bat handler now. Give me a call tomorrow..

???? If a machine has a pto shaft setup for the machine the shear pin is designed to break before the machine does. Simples. The drive train on the tractor is designed to be strong enough to handle the engines horsepower.. hence the bigger tractors have stronger drivetrains. The only time you have problems is when shafts get mixed up...

Why bother? Changing a shear bolt is a pita, turning the key on the tractor is much easier. The shear bolt is setup for the strength of the shaft / machine that it is attached to. If your tractor hasn't got the power to shear the bolt then thats fine, it hasn't got the power to bend anything either....

We had one for a couple of years, nicest car I have ever owned. But i'd never have another. Fantastic to drive and if you have a hi spec one (we had the HSE with TV, DVD multi changer, etc) it really is awesome. But you need to allow around £2k per year to keep it on the road. ours wasn't a bad one but it still cost a fortune. There is just so much to go wrong with them. Like Dave I miss it, but my bank manager doesn't.

The standard factory ones are ok too.

We had a landrover written off due to this a while back. I have also had a very near miss myself with the same trailer (snaking across all 3 lanes of the M8). Luckily there was a gap in the traffic. I have been towing heavy trailers for 20+ years with a variety of vehicles, so here's my tuppence worth. Snaking is caused by the drivers response to a small movement which, if timed correctly (or incorrectly depending on how you look at it) exacerbates the yaw. So you feel a small wag and unconsciously apply opposite steering pressure at the exact moment that the trailer is moving back in the same way. This makes the yaw bigger not smaller. The thing to do is learn to not react to the initial wag. Just hold your line. Accelerating out of a snake is best avoided. It doesn't always work and if it doesn't work you are going faster than you otherwise would have been so the resulting accident will be worse. Best policy in my experience is to lift off the gas and don't brake. Try, if there is room, to make a slow turn, change lanes on the motorway for example. Don't try and make corrections to the steering, try and hold your line or your turn if you have room to make one. The best policy overall is prevention. Do not have any tail weight, you need positive pressure on the drawbar at all times. Do not however have too much nose weight as in the picture earlier in the thread this lifts the front wheels and severely reduces braking performance. I discovered this to my cost when I went up the back of a lorry on a wet road towing a tractor on an ifor. Use a trailer with indespension type axles rather than leaf springs, these are much better in my experience. Make sure the towing vehicle is up to spec. Our defender that rolled had no anti roll bar on the rear axle, (many don't) our other one does. There is a noticeable difference in towing performance between the two. Make sure your tyre pressures are correct, soft tyres help exacerbate the yaw, especially on trailers with high walled tyres, sot so much of a problem on the modern low profile jobs. Finally, test your load, I always do this. Once loaded you set off and at a moderate speed, 30-40 mph, on a quiet straight bit of road give the steering a wee jerk. This will make the trailer wag, then hold your line and watch it in the mirror. If it comes back into line immediately then all's well. If it keeps wagging for any length of time then stop and adjust your load, if you can't adjust it then you will need to drive accordingly, i.e. slowly!

I've seen a few with honey fungus that wept resin like that, pull off some bark and look for the bootlaces....

They look good.. I'll drop you an email..

its funny, I thought that would be too light but I was playing around with an iron bar about the same length earlier and I could feel the stretching in my bad elbow, and that bar only weighs a pound and a half! So I'll take the ladies set... I think a heavier set at 2' long and 6" diameter would be plenty for the swinging type excersises...

Thats perfect! another one the same and thats the small ones done. The larger ones could be 2' long and they still wouldn't hit the floor despite my monkey arms. I found some nice big lumps of burry elm in the yard, There's also a massive lump of oak that was dead standing when we felled it, it might be dry ish, there's no shake in it maybe the big ones could be made out of that, I could rough out some 6" square lumps with a chainsaw??

Thats the beauty of these Rab, I reckon they would look quite nice lying round the house... I think the trick is not to have massive heavy ones, just sensible weights its more a joint work out than a muscle work out. I'll probably get a 1-2kg set and a 4-5 kg set. My right shoulder has a patch of numb skin on my back due to a trapped nerve somewhere and my right elbow is knackered too. Plus my wrists don't bend like they used to, I'd like to get it all moving again in a gentle-ish way.. Edit. thanks for the PM's I'll be in touch..

I was thinking of getting some Indian Clubs to compliment the kettle bell training that I ought to be doing. I was looking on line and then thought why not get some made... It would be nice to have something made by an arbtalker. Plus if you make me some prototypes and get the weights - sizes worked out there may be some money in selling these things.. Apparently they are becoming more and more popular...supposed to be really good for shoulders, wrists and elbows which is what attracted me.. Pm me if anyone fancies making me a set..

Yep, there's a monster stone in the bottom of there, couldn't build through easily, I had positioned it with the digger..

It is, it will look nice when it's done, and every time I see it I can have an 'I did that moment'.. Right now I can't see past the back ache..

Having a week off to landscape the garden after having an extension built, been dry stone walling today...

Totally agree wit your point though, why bust your balls to earn less than joe average?

Halfords socket sets are badly let down by the crap cases that they come in. The tools are ok though..

Where did you get the 38 from Dave? I thought it was about 26..

I don't think dropping your price on the second bite of the cherry is necessarily a good idea, unless you change the job spec in some way, leaving the brash or timber for example. Otherwise if you knock off more than 5% I think you are starting to look like you were charging too much in the first place.

I can't believe how many people don't follow quotes up. I will be the first to admit that I don't do it all the time, when you're rammed with work what's the point, but when things quieten down why wouldn't you. I don't just ask if they got the quote, I ask (if they have gone elsewhere) why they chose the other Co. and how much they paid, and who the other company was. Three vital bits of information, if you missed out by miles then fair enough, but if it wasn't by much then you have a chance of beating them next time. There's nothing dodgy about calling someone to ask this information, it's professional. Same as asking where they heard about you, how will you know where to advertise if you don't know where your jobs are coming from? There's a good chance that most of your old quotes will have gone elsewhere, but some will have just not done anything, remember that for people on a wage suddenly finding £3-500 can be tricky, maybe they are saving up, or maybe the cars mot was due that month.. Then your competitor calls to follow up his quote and they give him the job as they can't remember your quote or have lost your number.. On at least 3 occasions I have been rung by someone looking for another tree surgeon, they have dialled the wrong number or forgotten the name etc, 3 times I got the job too..

And the others in the car, there were 4 apparently, can't imagine they walked away.. Just because tractors are capable of towing diggers along doesn't mean they should. I see loads round here.... There will definitely be a crackdown now. Thats how H&S law works here, its reactive. Guy parks his discovery and trailer on a railway, we all have to get tacho's. etc.

Thats screwed things up for everyone, VOSA will be all over tractors and mogs now. Cheers Land Engineering.

Is this because so many customers take sugi bars instead?

My understanding was that you had to get 4/4 on the fungi ident or it was a fail? I could be wrong though, it's years since i did mine.

To be fair the bearing problem on the 261 is widespread and widely repoted.