monkeybusiness

With that B2500 you only have to stop to switch between 2wd and 4hi if you’ve disconnected the RFW since you were last in 4wd. As long as the hubs are still locked you can shift into 4wd when on the move (I think up to 60 mph). The only issue leaving the RFW connected (ie the light on the dash is on) would be a negligible increase in fuel consumption, as the turning wheels are subsequently spinning their respective half shafts, the front diff and the front prop shaft. You could drive like that all of the time and not cause any damage to the transmission, and the advantage is that you can pop it into 4wd without stopping.

Look for a decent sized firm, be honest about your ability, and don’t expect to walk in to top-dollar. You’ll get more real-world experience and will improve as a climber working for a bigger outfit than ending up as a one-man-band’s brash dragger (although I’m sure this post will make me really unpopular on here)!

No leaf springs on the new Navaras - just a pair of turbos and lots of other little pickups disappearing in the mirrors....

Sure it wasn’t them ba***rd crows?!

Steve, if you're ever up in the north west come and take mine for a spin with the BFG ATs - they definitely aren't as bad as you are experiencing.

I'm on BFG All Terrains and think they are pretty good tbh. They try to spin up (until the tc stops them) if you pedal on. I don't think any of the more 'off road' biased tyres will handle as well on road in all conditions as the tyres fitted as standard in reality, particularly on wet or icy tarmac. Deep snow is a different matter though.

Are the plastic sheets Stokboard? Good gear that, pretty much indestructible!

Very sad story. Impossible to comment on the time pressure part of the job - a 70 tree conifer hedge can take a day or a month dependent on a whole world of factors. £2500 for a 3 man team for 4 days has plenty of margin in it - not the end of the world if it overruns a bit (particularly if the chap was taking half the dosh, as suggested in the article). It is unfortunately not the first of this specific type of accident - pressure/fatigue/complacency etc have led to this before and will probably lead to more in the future (as horrible as that is to think about). Thoughts to the family left behind, and the crew on site that day. Take care everyone.

HSBC - the global bank? Can’t help you in Norway?!... Total shysters as far as I’m concerned. A few years ago I was in New Zealand getting married and have banked with HSBC for 30 years (since it was Midland Bank). All my cards mysteriously stopped working a couple of days before my wedding (where I had a lot of people to settle up final bills etc). (I had plenty of money in the various accounts and had told HSBC I was going abroad for a few weeks and to expect subsequent foreign transactions). No problem I thought - they have HSBC branches in NZ, I’ll sort it over the counter (day before my wedding). Computer says no - no way anything abroad can be accessed, totally different company effectively - everything was shut in the UK when I called (not from branch - they were unwilling or unable to help in any way). Maximum stress and a lot of shouting eventually ensued... Since then they have systematically shut every branch anywhere near where I live and regularly insist on minor issues being dealt with in-branch, which can basically write off half a day. The latest was me failing telephone banking security (they weren’t able to tell me why on the phone). It turns out they had the wrong date of birth for me at some point - I’d given them the correct one (I’m pretty confident that I’d got my own birthday right) and they locked my access. They are a ridiculous company that don’t deserve any customers IMO.

I’m pretty sure in an employee/public liability claim (ie a third party affected by the actions of the ‘insured company’) the insurers would have to pay out for whatever they were insuring, whether the company met their conditions of insurance or not. The insurers would subsequently look to recover what they could from whoever hadn’t done what they should have. The reason I quoted the post above is because my sister wrote off her car when drunk (into a field, nobody else involved, no injuries). She reported herself to the police (incredibly) and the car was recovered while she was arrested (and later charged). The insurance paid out the value of the car/recovery/3rd party damage. Seemed bonkers to me but there you go!

I have this issue with one of our stoves (a clearview that was always a doddle to light in our previous house). I’ve basically got it nailed now through trial and error - I shut the door of the room it’s in thus sealing it off from the rest of the house (not amazingly sealed!) and open a window. Then light as normal (paper, cardboard, anything flammable from the recycling bin, some small logs) with vents wide open and door open a crack. The door open is the key and not something I’ve ever had to do previously with this or other stoves. It seems wrong and likely to fill the house with smoke which is why it took me so long to try it (without the door open the stove was always filling with smoke to the point where it would start to find its way out of joints in the flue and around the door). Works perfectly for me every time now.

I think you are way too cheap at £80 for 1.2 cube personally (and it is this sort of pricing that keeps me well away from entering the firewood market). As for Centre Parcs - it's supply and demand. If people will pay it then why not sell it to them?! They are no doubt better off selling fewer logs at higher prices than knocking out hundreds of tonnes a week at little-to-no-profit.

Professional thieves - the world is unfortunately overflowing with them and this place and Facebook are shop windows for the dirty swamp-dwelling cowardly scumbags. If anyone encounters them please make them disappear and be sure that you don’t mention anything to anyone.

You've also got to look at it as a great way of selectively removing your less desirable customers - if they are fickle enough to go with someone approaching in this way you probably don't want/need their work anyway. Not all business is good business...

No idea on price but I'd imagine a lot... There will be a firm local to you who can re-core it for a couple of hundred quid - be like new then.

Have you had the rad inspected/tested by a specialist? You can get them re-cored. It could have internal blockages that restrict the water flow, even if it appears clear through the fins.

The sycamore isn't huge - it's all firewood really. Probably about 10 tonnes in total, will be ringed up unless someone wants to come with a crane.

Hi - we are felling a couple of big ash trees and a few sycamores in the middle of Usk next week and need a home for the logs and chip. If anyone is interested please give me a ring on 07970188050. Cheers, Dan

Dunno really, I'm open to offers. It's got Mot etc, is the big 3l engine (amazing tow truck), huge chip box, uprated springs. Needs a couple of tyres and has an occasional intermittent starting fault but runs perfectly once started.

Where are you in the country? I've got an Iveco daily double cab and Toyota dyna tipper both looking for new homes but haven't got around to advertising. They are a bit rough cosmetically and might need a bit of spannering but both have decent chip boxes and are ready to earn money. I'm in Cheshire, not far from Crewe if of interest.

If the groundy kept up with the brash with that chipper on that job then you need a quicker climber!

I know JPM will build them in from the factory if you want.

Attach a ball hitch to the headboard to help secure, and winch it in/out via a strop around the chipper's axle as it gives the ability to steer it still. It's at least a two man job loading and unloading though!

This is great advice. We sub to a number of these large outfits, GC are pretty good to be honest but it would be easy to grow your business on the back of any one of them promising/requiring/demanding all of your resources right now for a really important project they are struggling to deliver. The problem is none of them (IME) offer sustained, guaranteed long term work - remember that you are simply providing them with a resource that they can pick up and put down at will - don't get too dependant on any one of them as the workload can dry up very quickly and there is no loyalty with any of them, no matter what they tell you. Also watch how much you end up bank-rolling these firms for - it is very easy to have them owing you £30k, then £40k, then £50k etc. You never get that money out of them until you stop working for them as their payment terms can be pretty poor (Ground Control tend to be 30 days which isn't too bad). If they go bump (which unfortunately appears to happen frequently in this game - look at Fountains and Man Coed as examples of firms that have gone bust and taken subbies for hundreds of thousands of pounds, sometimes more than once which seems ridiculous but is the world we live in!) then you will lose whatever money they owe you. Use them only as an additional work stream (in the same way that they will use you) but don't ever get into any of them for more money than you can afford to lose would be my advice.

Get a lorry and a box of matches pal.