Treewolf

I would have chained that dumper to a trailer, not strapped it. Four chains, a crossed pair at each end. Personally, irrespective of the tare of the dumper and the GVW of the trailer, I wouldn't have moved that dumper on that trailer, since even if the weights are in order (which I doubt) looking like that it will a) be a rozzer magnet (if there are actually any about) and b) the appearance to the public is not one which I would wish to advertise. If that is how I move my plant, how well do I build things? Irrespective of weights, it is categorically not adequately secure in that photo and should not have been moved in that state.

Thank goodness, a breath of common sense! The human race will never be able to remove all risk to life and health from our environment, and if we did so life would become pointless IMO. We are biologically attracted to and invigorated by risk - it kept us alive in the old days, and is why we undertake sports etc now. I dare say to an extent it is why everyone here does the job that they do. The more you legislate to remove risk, the more you abolish the need for common sense and hazard perception. We bring up our kids now to believe that everything is safe, so they no longer need to recognise risk. It's why they walk into roads, play on railways etc (well, possibly the latter is in an attempt to get some risk - excitement - into their lives). Without common sense, "accidents" like the one that started this thread will continually happen. I wouldn't walk about in woods on a blustery day without looking up and assessing the risk from falling debris, and I'll wager that no-one else on this forum would - we all recognise that there is a risk. Most visitors to an NT property probably have been lulled into the belief that there cannot be any risk - it is totally safe - because the law says it must be. Everyone needs healthy awareness of hazard perception in daily life; it is called common sense. It would be better to teach kids to be aware of risk and be sensible than to force landowners etc to create totally safe enviroments. Not sure I have expressed this very well but I am sure you understand my point even if you don't agree with it!

I think the Beeb and most of the other media got the figures very wrong indeed! When I drove past the fire on Thursday the Beeb and local radio were reporting the "over 1000 acres" were burning. On the BBC TV local late news tonight they are now saying that the fire burned 200 acres. When you look at the burned area 200 acres seems realistic. So much for accurate reporting! Sadly there is no word yet that they have caught the deranged scrotes who started it. I imagine that todays prolonged rain will have helped damp down the hotspots, but it won't have helped the good people out trying to rescue the wildlife. It really has been a monumentally wet and grotty day today, seriously unpleasant. I spent the day manning a stand at the show at Kingston Maurward College at Dorchester, and most of the stallholders had left before noon it was so wet. In recent years, visitors have complained it is too hot for the annual show, this year tractors were needed to get visistor cars out of the car park. Really sad after the efforts that the organisers put in.

My journey home from Blandford to Poole takes me through Broadstone - half four yesterday Broadstone was thick with smoke from this fire, then fast approaching Springdale Avenue. The view back towards the fire from my house (on the edge of Canford Heath) was looking straight into the sun; the light was really sinister - shades of Dante's Inferno. Good news is that it was under control by 18:30, with no serious injuries. Bad news is that over 1000 acres of one of the south's most important habitats has been destroyed, and it was apparently started deliberately. I have lived on the edge of the heath for 25 years now and seen at least 15 serious fires, some so close you can hear the flames. I think that every single one has been set deliberately. 99% of them are in school holidays - it is as predictable as Christmas, the schools break up, the heath fire season starts. Most depressing. Police are now hunting for 2 youths seen running from the seat of yesterday's fire; anyone like to speculate what punishment they'll get if convicted? Not nearly enough, I'll wager.

Does this happen often in your area?

Given that the owner is legally responsible for the actions of the dog, doesn't that make this criminal damage? Can't the owner be prosecuted? On second thoughts, that is probably a stupid suggestion. If plod can't catch/prosecute the theiving scum who pinch our tools, there's little hope that they'll be interested in this sort of thing.

It is a heartwarming story, but I wonder if it is really true - sadly I think not! The first time I was told this was perhaps six months ago, the exact same story but the clipping was from a Perth, Western Australia, paper. Then the four were Aus SAS troopers. All other details were the same. A good story, but probably wishful thinking.

There is of course the age old question "how do you know if a politician is lying?" The answer, of course, is "his (or her) lips are moving". (Can also be applied to lawyers, presidents, and just about anyone else really).

Try ringing Wiltshire CC - they always used to be very helpful. At one time they would even supply a map showing all the vehicular ROW in the county. Incidentally the Ox Drove doesn't run past Salisbury Racecourse, that one is the Old Shaston (ie Shaftesbury) Drove. Ox Drove runs from Win Green to the A354 a few miles south of Combe Bisset. It looked very overgrown when I went past this afternoon.

I like the fog idea, but was sorry to read that the makers say it is harmless - ideally it would be very poisonous indeed.

No, standard tune. Pulled the halfshafts this morning and the problem is wear in the splines on the outside (wheel) end of the shafts, the n/s drive flange is a loose fit on the splines but the o/s drive member actually rotates on the shaft. So two new shafts, two new flanges, and a big bill coming.

Within minutes of posting how much I like my puma I have snapped a halfshaft! Could have done without this!

I have a PSI Powerbox on my TD5 Discovery and am very pleased with it (I have also done a proper EGR valve removal) and the result is a much more lively and driveable motor. It is also marginally better on fuel, presumably because I now drive it less hard to get where I am going. It has done 50k+ miles with this fitted with no problems at all (200k total miles from new now). On the Puma Defender the best performance upgrades are probably those from Bell Auto Services (link - Diesel performance tuning and economy remap chip tuning for Landrover Defender Discovery TD5 Puma TDV6 TDV8) or Alive Tuning (link - ALIVE TUNING - Remap Chip Tuning for Improved Performance and Economy.). I don't have a remap yet on the Puma but both of these guys have a very good reputation and are highly spoken of in Puma Defender circles. As far as the Puma-engined Defender is concerned, although there are undoubtedly some bad ones out there, on the whole now it is a good and reliable vehicle. The torque available at low revs is very useful, and the six-speed box is great. It may be an oversimplification, but in my experience the Pumas which are driven by their owners seem on the whole to be reliable and durable whilst those driven by employees seem to be less reliable, which suggests to me that how you treat the vehicle is crucial. No doubt there will now be people who have cherished theirs and they have still been rubbish posting! Remember all the "issues" with the TD5 when it was new ? It's the same with the Puma. When the Defender replacement finally comes along we'll all be saying how good the Puma Defender was and how rubbish the replacement is. All I can say really is that I actually prefer driving my standard 07 Puma Defender to my TD5 Disco, and both vehicles have done everything I have ever asked of them.

I doubt that it will ever be possible to stop someone breaking in if they want to badly enough. What I would like is for those "in authority" to take this kind of crime seriously and catch and punish the offenders appropriately. If that happened, then there would be less of it. My "put their eyes out" post was probably OTT, and I am sorry if anyone took offence, but in principle if the punishment was horrible enough and the chances of being caught high enough, then this would stop. I am all for a tolerant society, but tolerance requires mutual respect and that is lacking. As posted many times here though, no-one in authority seems to care. That is the depressing thing, and I have no idea what any of us can do about it.

Put their eyes out. They won't do it again, and better still, won't be able to identify you as the one who put their eyes out.

Personally I would always go for BFG MTs (never ATs). They are excellent on and off the road, and last forever. I am on the second set on my Disco, and both sets have lasted for about 100,000 miles. By my reckoning this actually makes them a very cheap tyre.

I always used to use soap flakes and a washing machine for my caving ropes, which often got very dirty indeed (if they were too bad, I would tie them off in a river for a while to rinse first). I was taught never to use modern washing powders (or fabric conditioner for that matter) since they contain very aggressive chemicals which can damage the rope. The rope should also be air dried thoroughly afterwards if being put into store. I was told as a kid that soda bicarb was the only way to kill mould and smells in a refrigerator, but I am not sure I would try it on a rope since, if i recall correctly, it is quite a powerful alkali and would possibly damage the rope. The weirdest thing I ever saw in a washing machine was years ago in Wells, Somerset, when we spotted was a pair of caving boots banging around in the drum of a machine in the launderette in the High Street! I guess that is an occupational hazard of running a launderette in a city in a caving area. Don't suppose it did the boots much good either.

And there's someone who doesn't know the difference between a drum winch and a capstan winch!

Stunning photos!

I was trying to think of something to add to this thread but I have to admit that I'm stumped.

One thing to watch for with any epicyclic geared winch used with a synthetic rope is the location of the drum brake; many winch designs (eg Warn 9000 series) have the brake inside the drum. A characteristic of this kind of winch drive is that the brake will get hot - very hot indeed - during prolonged paying out under load (ie lowering) operations. This can easily cause the drum to get hot enough to melt a synthetic rope. However not all epicyclic winches are like this, and looking at the exploded photo of the Goldfish 9.5 on DB's website it looks as though the brake is outside the drum so it likely to be less of a problem, although it may still be a problem. Personally I don't like any epicyclic geared winches (give me a Superwinch Husky any day) but they are so much cheaper they are popular. I would never use one for prolonged lowering or paying out under load, since even if you don't destroy the rope you'll wear out the brake quite quickly. For this application (lowering) I would be more inclined to go for a traditional mechanical capstan winch (which used properly can do almost anything), or failing that a mechanical or hydraulic drum with a steel cable.

Believe me, it made me feel a lot better than not taking Piriton 4 times a day!

I never used to suffer as a kid but started in my early teens, quite badly. At about 15 I had a jab, which involved a needle about 4" long into my bum and was very uncomfortable, but worked for about 2 years. Since then I used to use Piriton about four times a day throughout spring and summer which worked quite well and didn't seem to cause drowsiness, but from about age 38 (I am an old git) really started to knock me out, quite dangerously so. I then started using Beconase which works very well. I tend to react to various things throughout the year, so now usually have one shot of Beconase every day, upping the dose to 2 shots (sometimes 3) per day during peak season. Grass pollen and Yew trees set me off without fail! The thing I find a little disturbing is that when I was a kid (1960's - gulp!) it was quite rare to find people with hay fever, I can only remember about three at my school of about 200 kids. Now it seems to be quite rare to find somone who doesn't have allergies of some kind. This doesn't bode well for the future in my opinion. Anyway, as a hayfever sufferer, my sympathies go out to all fellow sufferers! My dad used to bug me quite alot when I was a teenager, because (as many people on here will I am sure agree) it is miserable to suffer badly from hayfever, and he always used to tell me that I was making a fuss and it was nothing, just a runny nose. I never really managed to make him see that it was like having a severe cold for about 7 months of the year, very tiring, irritating, and generally debilitating. During peak season I woudl be amost completely unable to sleep at night, and the cumulative effects of sleep deprivation were really quite horrible. At least the treatments now are getting better.

I think that the effect that this has had on the nuclear debate is interesting:- On the one hand, the antis are arguing that this highlights the vulnerability of nuclear power stations to natural disasters and therefore we shouldn't ever build any more; instead we cover the entire surface of the planet with windfarms or something equally futile. On the other hand, the pro-nuclears are arguing that here is a power station designed to withstand no more than an 8.2 quake that has survived (just) an 8.9 without melting down and without any widespread catastrophe (yet), thus proving that nuclear power is a lot safer than anyone believed. Not sure which of these arguments I agree with - I tend to think that there wouldn't be a power problem at all if there weren't so many people roaming the earth - come to think of it there probably wouldn't be anyproblems if there were significantly fewer people roaming the earth. Incidentally has there ever yet been an earthquake somewhere where there was a wind farm? If so, what happened to it?

Unimog. The 4x4 that can tow more than almost anything else!