Alycidon

Having run and managed light commercials the mid 70s Escort/Astra type vans have always been 50/60 on normal roads. In the south west some years ago they had a speed camera with a separate high sensor, so cars could pass below and not be flashed but a taller vechicle which are likely to be HGV and have further restrictions were flashed. Friend driving a 44 tonner on the A38 in a stream of traffic got done with that. I used to tell my drivers max speed was 60 mph on dual CW and MW, 50 otherwise except in built up areas. Had very few convictions, maybe 4 or 5 in 30 years on running up to 9 vans. A

That I have seen quite often, customers complain of poor performance using kilned logs, dry on the outside but wet in the middle. In 10 years I have never seen a stove where the customer complains of poor heat output to be caused by anything other than wet and sometimes also oversized wood. A

Thats an understatement, I have measured softwood from them in the past at over 50%. A

Please delete, have already answered this. A

I have history with this. As a Hetas approved stove retailer I was one of the first to be asked about the scheme and spoke to Helen Bentley- Fox who was driving the scheme at length at one of the Arb shows. At the time the max MC acceptable was 25%, that is far far to high, yes they have brought that down to 20% but ALL stove manufacturers require a maximum of 15%, some 16%. So 20% is still for me far to high, they are being corralled by CW whose KD moisture warranty was last time I looked 20% - 22%. Chalgrave steve did not mention ( unless I missed it) the requirement to also prove that you are using legally obtained timber, so felling licences, management plans etc all are to be audited on at least a yearly basis, more info here: https://woodsure.co.uk/is-your-fuel-legal/ Last Sunday I was processing mixed hardwood, some mixed Syc,Cherry, Ash and Pop in the main, this had been split into billets a year ago and stacked under a hedge to dry. The timber itself had been down 4 years, the pop maybe 6. Internal MC was well below 10% except on the Ash that had not been billeted. It goes into vented bags stacked using a Manitou 10 wide, 8 deep and 3 high mostly under a dutch barn with one closed side only. I have been burning the same stuff in the showroom today and it was going well, even using pop only I got perfectly acceptable heat output in the Morso 7940. So given time and a half reasonable climate ( I am in the East Mids) then it is perfectly possible to get seasoned wood below 10% but being hydroscopic this will creep up externally by December. Recently Hetas audited my installer, they required the full tech specs of the flue liner we used on the jobs they chose, we use Poujoulat for all our flue products, arguably the finest flue manufacturer in the world with the specs well known and accepted, yet Hetas still needed them. My view is that the value for money I get from being a Hetas approved retailer is marginal, the costs and admin burden involved with Woodsure for small business like ours ( and yours maybe !) make it a non flyer. Still most people buy on cost, some are loyal but people looking for suppliers as new stove owners are usually price driven and there are lots of people out there selling at £100 a cube. Put dry firewood into Google, Woodsure do not appear on either P1 or P2, say no more. A

As far as I am aware garden bonfires which usually provide lots of smoke at low level will not be banned. With rubbish now being collected by councils on an even longer collection cycle I can see far more bonfires as people get rid of rubbish. I had 25 bin liners full of crap dumped in my lane on Weds, mainly bottles, beer cans and pizza boxes. The local tip is 5 miles away. A

In fairness it depends if you have any harvesting companies near you, the FC/Tilhill etc can usually supply but bringing it 100 miles plus kills it financially. I see no profit in paying £60 a ton for decent hardwood, processing it on maybe a 30K + tractor processor set up, storing it, delivering it and then selling it for £90 a cube (+ vat at 5%) when a ton of fresh cut cord will only make about 1.4 cu m of logs depending on the timber species. People doing a good job are usually buying standing and doing all the cutting/extracting etc but even then the profit on the job must be questionable. A

Good luck, I am importing as its almost impossible to find reliable suppliers who can supply what they say when they say. A

The is all about Lot 20 EcoDesign, a proposed Europe wide directive on stoves. It increases minimum efficiency from 65% today to 68% and reduces emissions. At present there is no implementation date but 2022 was proposed. At that time it would be illegal to sell a new stove that did not conform to the new regs. There is no retrospective requirement to replace older equipment. At present it looks like most of the EcoDesign ready stoves currently in the market are dedicated wood burners, solid fuel is simply to dirty. However technology is moving forward all the while and there are a few EcoDesign compliant multifuel stoves starting to appear. The days of being able to burn overnight will be gone, to get the efficiency and emissions figures you wont be able to close a stove right down, reduce it yes but not close it right down. Many manufacturers are today producing stoves that are EcoDesign compliant, currently about 12 in my showroom are compliant. Older dirtier designs are being discontinued already. But some are stocking their heads in the sand saying these are proposed euro regs and may not happen in the UK with Brexit etc. Some smaller manufactures are likely to go to the wall as they are financially unable to redesign all their range and get them all tested. Annoyingly the main sources of pollution from burning wood are caused by wet wood and open fires, usually working in conjunction with each other, but there seems to be no intention to ban open fires or to criminalise the sale of wet wood for immediate use. Kiln dried is not necessarily the solution, last winter I had issues with one of the wood fired cookers I sold, they were burning kiln dried Beech, 7% on the outside but 35% + in the middle, made hell of a mess of the flue ways in the cooker. I have this week been cutting mixed hardwood that I split from large diameter trunks a year ago, moisture content was 5% - 10%. Bark has long fallen off so wood dried nicely, down 5 years maybe 6. Its the internal moisture content thats important not the fact that its seen the inside of a kiln. An awful lot of stuff that has been into a kiln has not been in there for long enough and is dry on the outside but not in the middle. A A

As long as it can carry over 1050kg ( from memory) of goods then you should be OK. BUT in a meeting with my accountant a couple of weeks ago, he told me that the HMRC are kicking off about hi spec pick ups, this VW Amorak with leather, air con, auto, etc etc they are currently saying is a car. So be carefull that you dont spec it to high especially if its a 4 door. Think the Ford, Isuzu, Mitsu and Toyota are Ok. A

Game cover maybe, would make a bit fo woodland holding cover for a year. Leylandi does a similar thing.

I have only ever found one reliable cord supplier who actually supplied exactly what he said. I have had 4 or 5 who said they had what I wanted, I ordered, they failed to deliver. maybe me needing it to go 200 yards accrtoss a grass field is whats off putting. Alas my first guy now no longer deals in cord. You could ask the FC and Tilhill, last time I did FC had nothing within 120 miles of me and Tillhill never even came back. My cord now comes off the family farm and I import the rest as kiln dried crates from Lithuania. A

I thought all splitters these days had to be two handle operated, might be wrong. I A

Your should see the Disco 4 and 5 facebook pages, cranks snapping, auto boxes failing, if someone does 300 miles in one without a breakdown they post about it !!.

H&S would have a field day if you tried to use that especially if you hurt yourself.

Think Mortimer Firewood has packed up, at the time I believe he had a Tajfun 400. A

That is one excellent book, the last line in the wood pile section for ladies selecting a husband was from memory No Log Pile = No Husband !!. A

No, busy working I am afraid, got to get a 300kg range cooker up a flight of stairs. I am though at that point in life where I have all the gear I need and it will see me out footwear and clothing excepted. A

When a friends double decker bus hit a bridge and the main London Leicester rail line had to be closed for inspection the rate from memory was 30K an hour going back to the 1990s. More recently a local farmer had cattle stray onto the line, 2am they get hit by a freight train, line closed for the carcases etc to be removed, his insurer the NFU settled a claim at around £1 million for that plus the cost of the dead cattle. That line is going to be closed for months, hope he is well insured. A

In those sort of conditions a 4wd will get stuck just as easy as a 2wd as at least one other has said and of course you are panning the ground down. Many years ago we bought a new 595 4WD, one of the tractors on the shortlist was the SAME, while it pulled almost as well it was far noiser and uncomfortable to drive, but that was maybe 40 years ago, That 595 is still being used locally, I doubt the SAME would have lasted half as long, If you can have a look at JD, nice comfy tractors, pull well, no engine liner cavitation issues but a decent 2850 is probably 9k so maybe over budget, of your choices given they are both in the same condition with similar hours then it would be 595 for me, A

Pics of the Elm planks please, !!, appreciate it might now be to late alas. Thanks A

Dried cat food in an old small wide Tuna tin soaked in water works well.

Its lengthen the tube not shorten it, sorry.

Its still standing, coming down mid week, so will split and process in the following 7 days weather permitting. Thanks for the input, A

Used those when we had hay being taken from the farm yard overnight, work well. If you cut the tube back on the end of it you get a bigger bang !!. The Police response issue is due to Police numbers cuts, chief constables prefer palatial buildings. If you knew just how many are on duty at any one time you would be horrified. Recently I got blue lighted for parking under a working streetlight on the top of a hill in a small local twon without leaving sidelights on, had I left the sidelights on I would have had a flat battery in about 30 minutes. I know that the constable who had a chat with me was the only one within 15 miles. He has to cover a fair size town and about 35 villages, helped by a couple of PCSOs. So they are unlikely to be wanting to put themselves into any dangerous situation as there is just no trained back up. If you shot the perpetrators on the other hand you would have armed response police with you in a matter of minutes. A