Treewolf

What's the problem? Just get one with an external rear camera, such as a Blackview DR750 Truck. I've had one on the back of my double-cab Defender for years, it does the job very well.

If you have a quantity of fuel which needs cleaning, Google for a "fuel polisher" in your area. He'll turn up with a van containing a pump, some clean drums, and a load of fancy filters, and filter your bug-filled diesel until it is clean. It's a common job on boats, so especially if you are near the coast or a waterway there'll be someone not far away. It's cheaper than disposing of the fuel. I had this done to the fuel from my Defender some years ago when the bug got in and it was horrifying how much crud was in the fuel.

I think this is deeper: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc3BC-6Wp38

I find it very hard to comprehend just how dire things must be for Truss to be the least bad candidate. Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel. I feel her article is essentially whiney sour grapes. The reason she failed to my mind is that she appears to be a total dimwit and comes over as a supercilious moron. I've never heard her say anything which doesn't make me cringe. How on earth did British politics sink so deep on the cesspool? I don't think there's a single politician of any persuasion I'd give the time of day to at the moment.

I'm a big fan (and big user now) of Milwaukee M18 tools, and in terms of quality and range think they are hard to beat. I love my impact wrenches (all of them, 3/8 to 1"), the Portaband is one of those "don't know how I coped before I had one" tools, and the mag drill is awe-inspiring in terms of what it can do on a single battery. The Milwaukee angle grinders are superb as well.

Sampson Boat Company - the restoration of the historic yacht "Tally Ho".

Don't worry, not happening!

At one time (it still may be the case) my bum featured on Google Street view. I happened to be working under the bonnet of my Defender, bum sticking out towards the road, when the camera car came round. They fuzzed out the number plate (eventually and at my insistence) but not my posterior. My only claim to fame!

Sheep?

The adjective "cosmetic" that has been applied to the roll-bar could equally well be applied to the Defender in my opinion. I've always felt that anyone who feels the need to add a third axle to a Defender has probably started with the wrong vehicle. It is eye-catching but pointless.

The last ones I bought came from TP. It was a few years ago but they were reasonable value, reasonable quality, and do the job.

Ultimately you'll run into two well-known psychological phenomena which mean a "safe chainsaw" is an impossibility, the Pelzmann Effect of risk compensation (which says people become more careless when they perceive risk to be low, and conversely more careful when risks are greater, and possibly explains why more pros suffer Silky injuries than chainsaw injuries), and the Dunning-Kruger Effect, which says (essentially) that stupid people overestimate their abilities because they are too dim to recognise their limitations. These two effects ensure that however safe you make any potentially-dangerous machine, tool, or task, there will always be people who damage themselves with it.

My mum was halfway across the Atlantic on a plane to Canada when it happened. It was, apparently, the last civilian airliner allowed to land in continental North America for several days and was only allowed to do so because it had insufficient fuel to divert. As was said of an earlier day, it is a day that will live in infamy, but, like the earlier day, it should have been forseen.

My consumption appears to have increased hugely, but I'm inclined to think my old meter was so old it wasn't running freely and was under-reading. Either that or the neighbours tapped their weed room into my meter at the same time! I shouldn't complain really, but from my perspective there was no benefit in the smart meter.

My electricity bill doubled after I (reluctantly) allowed SSEB to install a smart meter (I suspect that the old one was so old it was running slow, I cannot think of any other explanation). I haven't seen a single benefit from having a smart meter, although I acknowledge that there are massive benefits to SSEB. I would have less reluctance to smart meters and less cynicism if the suppliers were at least honest and stated that the benefits are almost entirely the supplier's, not the consumers.

Grammatically you are completely correct, and now you've pointed that out I'll never be able to see one of those signs without it irritating me!

Good point, thank you, that was a senior moment while typing! My mind still lives in a world with HGV1, HGV2, and HGV3, when 2 was appropriate for a 12 ton gross Iron Fairy. You'll be telling me we've gone metric next!

To the best of my knowledge it is as for HGV. I have always been told that I needed C or C1 to drive my 12 ton mobile crane (technically "engineering plant" under Special Types) on the road. Fortunately I have both C and C1 plus E, so it's never been an issue.

I quite agree, and the wording they have used is completely ambiguous too. It could mean that a person with than licence is most likely to be allowed to do that (I presume that this is what is intended) or it could be that for most but not all of the time you're driving you can do it. Complete rubbish really, and depressing that those who should be helpful, clear and unambiguous are slapdash and seemingly ignorant.

Thank you! It really doesn't help de-confuse the issue when the Government says: Category B - if you passed your test before 1 January 1997 You’re usually allowed to drive a vehicle and trailer combination up to 8,250kg maximum authorised mass (MAM). View your driving licence information to check. You’re also allowed to drive a minibus with a trailer over 750kg MAM. Then a little further down the same page: Category BE You can drive a vehicle with a MAM of 3,500kg with a trailer. The size of the trailer depends on the BE ‘valid from’ date shown on your licence. If the date is: before 19 January 2013, you can tow any size trailer on or after 19 January 2013, you can tow a trailer with a MAM of up to 3,500kg My licence for B and BE was issued in 1978, so the Cat BE quote tells me that as long as the MAM of the towing vehicle doesn't exceed 3,500kg and it can legally do so I can tow any weight of trailer. However the first point tells me that I am "usually" limited to a gross combined MAM of 8,250kg but that I should check online for my particular licence. However towing any trailer over 750kg is nothing to do with the cat B, it is the cat BE, so the note under the cat B heading is actually talking about having cat BE. If that wasn't confusing enough, checking online says absolutely nothing about this at all under the cat B entry, and says that despite having a 1978 cat BE I can drive a 3,500kg MAM vehicle towing a 3,500kg trailer, rather than saying any size of trailer. So nothing about any weight of trailer and nothing about a limit of 8250kg. Is it not also the case now that it is the actual laden weight of the trailer which is significant, not the MAM? No wonder people are confused and bl**dy lawyers get rich!

Can I ask what you mean by this, please? Cat B is limited to 3500kg MAM, and BE can tow a trailer with a gross weight of 3500kg. Heavier than 3500kg MAM for a vehicle requires eg C1, but can a sub-3500 vehicle tow a heavier-than-3500 trailer driven by someone with a BE licence if the gross train weight remains under 7500kg? If you had something like a Series Landrover allowed to tow 4 tons with coupled brakes (as indeed they used to be), could you do this on a BE licence?

Since he had a pre-97 car licence the +E would have been present already for B, C1 and D1, no trailer test needed, so I'm not sure what you mean by the lower licences being upgraded (I think they would if he had a post-97 licence). The C1E test he took would have eliminated the 107 note. 03/09/2036 will be Khriss's 70th birthday, whereupon he needs a doctor's confirmation he's fit to drive the non-vocational classes, but I can't quite figure out why the C1E expires on 22/02/24, since it should need renewing every 5 years from 50 which means I would have expected it to need renewing on 03/09/21 (at age 55). If Khriss didn't renew it when it is due, then I think that it should revert to C1E(107) and be valid until 03/09/2036. Some of these dates on licvences tend to be confusing. I have a pre-97 licence which gives be B, BE, C1, C1E(107), D1, D1E(101) all of which expire in 2031 when I am 70. I also have C and CE which I have just had to renew after getting a 60th birthday medical, which expire in 2026. Despite the fact the the C and CE completely trump the C1 and C1E, the C1E still shows the 107 and the 2031 expiry, since it would endure if I didn't renew the C/CE.

I never received a letter, the 107 was just there anyway.

Just found this in DVLA leaflet INF30 "Requirements for towing trailers in Great Britain": "If you have subcategory C1E (107) on your driving licence and wish to drive a vehicle and trailer with a combined weight of up to 12 tonnes you can apply for provisional subcategory C1+E to take the test. You do not need to get subcategory C1 first, but you have to meet higher medical standards and pass both the category C theory test and the subcategory C1+E practical test."

As above, you should have C1 and C1E from grandfather rights with note 107 applied to C1E limiting the gross train weight ("combined MAM") to 8,250kg, which will limit the trailer weight as you say. You'd need to take C1E to raise this, but I'm afraid I don't know for sure if you can go straight to this. I don't see why not though since your C1 is no different to anyone else's, i.e., it isn't restricted in any way.