Treewolf

Several popular misconceptions here. It is entirely legal for anyone to buy a top-handled saw in this country, and for anyone to be sold a top-handled saw in this country, without any qualifications or evidence of such whatsoever. There is absolutely no offence committed and no recourse if it happens. HASAW and other laws only apply to the workplace, and only to the provision and use of equipment, and in fact even then do not mandate that the user of a top-handled saw has any certification whatsoever. The law does however require that employees who use equipment are properly trained and competent to use it, and in this respect a top-handled saw is no different from any other tool or equipment. The industry has elected for simplicity to create and adopt the guidline that this competence for a top-handled can most easily be demonstrated by holding CS39 or 46, but the law does not require it. As an employer, I could let someone use a topper provided that I have adequate demonstrable means to show how it is that I know the user is competent. This is easiest by the CS39/46 route, but there may be other ways (such as evidence of 30-years accident free use, etc). The dealer will have agreed with the supplier not to sell to non-certificated users, but this is a contractual matter between the dealer and the supplier and the only recourse would be for the supplier to stop supplying that dealer if he thought that unapproved sales were taking place (plus possibly other actions if provided for in the contract between dealer and supplier). Remember also that all the HASAW laws apply only to the workplace. It is entirely legal for Johnny Homeowner to chop up firewood on the ground with his Ebay-purchase topper, holding the wood in his left hand and the saw in his teeth if he so wishes.

Ash always used to be (and maybe still is) the timber of choice for quality coachbuilt vehicle bodies. Look at any good quality vintage car and it will have an ash-framed body. Definitely worth milling IMO.

You really think they'll issue that?

So would the policeman rather be telling the little girl off for riding on the pavement, or telling the parents that their daughter has been killed by a car? Whatever happened to common sense? I really despair for the human race sometimes.

I have recently had this warning as well. Fortunately it seems that Arbtalk is smarter than the spambots!

Nice! A proper Land-Rover (old enough to have the hyphen)!

An outstanding, brave, and modest young man acting in the finest traditions of the Service.

They'll work the ignition but alarms and immobilisers would have to be overcome by other means. I doubt that it is any harder on a Transit than it is on a Defender, so seconds only.

I usually have a chain as well as the breakaway cable (chain is also padlocked) but I always make sure that the chain is long enough to allow the breakaway cable to do its job. Both cable and chain are attached to strongpoints on the Landrover not to the coupling. If the trailer were ever to come off, I want the brakes to come on but I also want to retain some control over where it goes. Many years ago I had a heavy flatbed plant trailer stolen. The trailer had a 2" ring coupling, the thieves had a transit with a 50mm ball. To effect the theft they dropped the ring over the ball and set off (not using the breakaway cable). About a mile up the road the trailer came off and entered someone's front garden at about 40mph, straight through a flowerbed and ploughing a furrow across the lawn. Fortunately it hit no one and missed the Beemer on the drive. I got the trailer back but it was only because the homeowner saw it come off a Transit that I was able to convice plod it wasn't my Landrover it came off! It makes you shudder to think what would have happened if it had come off outside a school at chucking out time. Shocking that the greed of these lowlifes completely overules any kind of social responsibility.

Most trailer couplings still have the provision for a manual reverse catch. I fitted one recently to my LM146, since under certain conditions especially on slippery surfaces there isn't enough traction to activate the auto-reverse mechanism. The modern manual catches reset the first time you pull forwards again so you can't leave them engaged.

2002 TD5 Disco 2 approx 200,000 miles (owned from new) 2007 TDCi 110 DC approx 165,000 miles (owned since 2010/50k miles)

Very interesting, truly a giant amongst men! Thanks for posting the link.

I have heard of a premium being reduced for a Landrover which was signwritten on the basis that it was less attractive to thieves than a plain one. Swings and roundabouts really, and they'll always find a way to wriggle out of paying if they can! However I wonder what percentage of claims are fraudulent to some extent now. I suspect that it is shocking how many people try it on, so perhaps it's not surprising that insurance companies try to cover their backsides.

I have a genuine Trewhella Monkey Winch surplus to requirements in good working order, but I am in Dorset so rather a long way away! The trick to getting them in a vehicle (as long as the floor is not too high from the ground) is to wheel them over, turn them round so that the pointy end is facing the vehicle, then lift the drum end so the winch is standing on the ground on the pointy end. Then spin it round so the wheels are facing the vehicle, lower the raised end into the vehicle, and lift the other end in. Harder to write down than to do, and meand that you're never lifting the whole machine. Great tools, monkey winches! In fact I think I have four of them (and two Wallabys), so I could let two monkeys go if anyone wants 'em. I like big old winches!

I think I'd be on the floor ASAP unless there was time to yell "Follow me!" and make it downstairs.

It would be more appropriate is the investigation was carried out by ... ... ... Special Branch! OK, I'll get my coat... Sorry!

Very nice !

Dunno, but it's not going to be easy to steer!

That is a thing of beauty! Thanks for sharing.

The last clutch I changed on the Disco was at 130k miles and the driven plate was fine, it probably had 50k more miles in it. It was the flywheel that was shot. So instead of a £30 repair for a driven plate, it was £200 for a flywheel.

Nobody had modern lightweight high-speed diesel engines years ago, either! Now we have diesels which weigh the same, rev the same, and drive the same as petrol engines, but still have diesel compression ratios, the damping problems have been harder to solve. Whereas before you had a massive flywheel on a low-revving engine, now you have to have a relatively light flywheel and they lack the inertia to provide adequate vibration damping. The DMF is an attempt - and from a technical standpoint quite a sucessful attempt - to solve the problem. By the time they've been "value engineered" into a production environment however there are problems. As the owner of a TD5 Disco (for 13 years and 200k miles) I hate DMFs, without a doubt it is the worst feature of the vehicle. I need soon to fit another new flywheel (which will be number 3), and I am struggling to decide between another DMF or a solid conversion. The DMF wears out far quicker than the driven plate. It is also interesting that when the TDCi engine replaced the TD5 in the Defender, LR ditched the Transit's DMF in favour of a return to a solid flywheel and sprung driven plate. It is a shame that they designed such a rubbish driven plate though! On my TDCi Defender I now replace the clutch every 50k miles since despite having negligible wear at the mileage the springs will be set to fall out. It is almost as though they wanted to make us think that the TD5 clutch wasn't so bad after all - I have never owned a vehicle where the clutch needs renewing after 50k miles (but at least it's not the flywheel). Has anyone done a conversion the other way (ie from solid to DMF) on a TDCi Defender?

Coast website is Coast Portland - Lights, Knives and Multi-tools If you want to buy one in the UK, these guys are very hot on prices UK Tool Centre - Power Tools & Hand Tools | DIY & Trade

About €7000 if I recall correctly, though I don't know what that is in real money ££ !

I have always found my LED LENSER P7 to be excellent, but have recently switched allegiance to COAST of Portland, Oregon. I have a Coast HP314 which is the most awesome torch I have ever handled, and an HP7R rechargeable which is similar to but much better than the P7. They're pricey, but good tools always are.

Tibus Engineering. A really neat product though inevitably pricey. There's a thread running on the Expedition Portal forum about a really nice 130 Puma Double-cab on these, one of the most desirable vehicles around.