Treewolf

Utterly stunning, what talent! The videography is breathtaking as well, awesome!

Just go to you tube and type "lock pick" in the search box - there's hundreds of them! Scary stuff.

It's a bit shocking how easy it looks to pick some of these "good" padlocks from the Youtube vids, however I doubt that the people who sniff around shed generally have the skills, patience, or intelligence to do it. I nowadays like to use a good padlock and then make it as hard as possible to get at the padlock, by boxing it in or shrouding it. You only need to be able to get a hand in with a key to work the lock, someone trying to pick it needs two hands, to cut it they need croppers or a hot spanner, so it is possible to make it harder. Ultimately (and sadly) if they want in, they will get in. All you can to is make it take longer and increase the chance of them getting caught doing it, and by doing so make it more attractive to them to go elsewhere and break into someone else's shed. If you have hinged doors and they're not terribly strong, consider using a removable bar (channel section RSJ or similar) that fits to strongpoints on both doorjambs across the doorway.

Oh dear, towing using the winch cable. Tut, tut!

I run 265/75x16 BFG mt (KM1) on my Disco 2 and 285/75x16 Kumho KL71 on my Defender. They are both excellent tyres, by choice I would go for BFGs since they seem to be longer lasting. The last set on the Disco lasted 100,000 miles before needing renewal, and allwere still legal when they came off. The Kumhos on the Defender I reckon will last half that at most. They are both excellent on road and off road and have never caused a moment's concern on the road. I am told that the reason that both Kumho and BFG mts are sometimes hard to get is that because they are (in tyre terms) low volume sellers they are made in batches about once a year. When the batch is gone, you won't get any until the next batch is made.

Yes, it makes us feel that we are not alone after all!

Husky - it will be winching long after the others have given up the ghost.

I've used a Paslode nailgun for several years, great bit of kit, saves hours in the long run! But I agree that you should always use genuine nails and gas though. However what I really could do with is a Paslode style gun that will fire large U staples (for wire fencing), but no-one seems to make such a thing. Anyone know of one?

100,000 years of evolution and just look at the result.

Interesting, yes, but also complex and probably overengineered. I really cannot see that working after a few months in the crud on the front of a 4x4, and I reckon also that it will be rather expensive. An expensive solution to a non-problem!

Is that a genuine nameplate over the door? If so, WOW!

That's round the back of the Somerfield store, isn't it? If it's where I think it is, it's just by the place where the shortlived branch to Blandford Camp used to join the main Somerset and Dorset line - there are very few traces of the branch left. Looks like another good job by the Ranger team, well done!

I'd love to take a Lombard Log Hauler for a run on the local roads!

Unfortunately not, all TD5s may suffer from this. The problem is actually caused by oil seeping through the connector pins and down the inside of the wires in the harness. The 'fix' simply put more/better O rings on the outside of the connector shell where it passes through the camshaft carrier, and stopped the 'other' problem of oil leaking out and down the outside of the block. The simple and permanent fix is, when you replace the injector harness, to fill the connector shell up with oil resistant silicone sealant to plug the inside of the connector completely. This will prevent oil getting into the pins and hence fix the problem. LR will tell you (at least they told me) that to fix the problem on my Disco (which was one of the ones they claimed wouldn't do it anyway!) I needed a new injector harness (£50), main engine harness (£120) and possibly ECU (£lots). In practice you only need to replace the injector harness, modifiy it as above, then clean up the ECU connector periodically until the residual oil stops coming out.

Very nice! Like the workshop too.

And if you are an employer your obligations under HASAW86 to provide for the general safety of your employees means that if you require them to drive anything you should ensure that they do it safely. This could (and has been) interpreted to mean that even if they are driving a company car you should have a policy of encouraging them to take adequate breaks.

YES! I can now steer round reasonably sharp corners again! There is no adverse affect at all on the steering from the spacers. If you think about it, a 30mm spacer with a standard wheel has no different effect on handling (or wheelbearings etc) than a wheel with a +30mm offset, yet for some reason people who would happily put a +30mm offset wheel on will sneer at spacers. I've never understood this! If you use decent quality ones (mine are from Rakeway Engineering, probably the best) you will have no problems.

Interesting, thanks! You guys are doing a fantastic job on this, it's already a huge improvement and it will be a really nice local resource.

One thing that really, really, annoys me is the amount of c**p that I find on the doormat when I get home. Every single day now there's about 10 items of unaddressed, unsolicited and unwanted junk mail which goes straight int he recycle bin. Why should I have to through other people's rubbish away for them. If I want a kitchen/windows/to sell my house/chinese food etc I will ask for it! When we have to pay for our domestic waste collection I am going to seal up the letterbox. The latest one is plastic bags for unwanted clothes for "charity" (though I think most are stolen by illegal immigrant gangs from the doorsteps before the charity can collect). Typically I get two or three a week at the moment, sometimes two a day. How many flaming clothes do they think I have?? Anyway, by the time I throw my clothes away no self-respecting vagrant would be seen dead in them.

Nice to see classic tools properly looked after. Good job!

My view, for what it's worth (probably not much) is that wind farms are utterly pointless. They are a symptom of the human race's denial of the inevitable - that the earth cannot sustain an ever-growing human population of destructive, resource-consuming parasites. We obsess over issues like hybrid cars and renewable energy, but unless we can address the bigger issues of global population etc then the human race is ultimately doomed. Since we can't even achieve world peace, what hope is there for global agreement on anything. Ulitmately I think that the human race is incapable of self regulation and survival. The good news for the "save the planet" brigade is that the planet will be completely fine long after we have either wiped ourselves out, or nature has done it for us! It will be different, but probably better without us. For the avoidance of doubt, I don't suggest that the things we do to be "green" now are pointless, I just think that they are not enough. To ensure the survival of the human race indefinitely we need to do so much more, and address issues that are so huge we are simply not capable of even discussing them rationally now. When did you last hear a politician talk about population control? What woudl be the pulic reaction if one did? That's cheered you all up!

Probably, to be certain you would need to find the rim width rather than the width of the current tyres, but I am pretty sure on a 110 on (presumably) standard steel wheels you would be OK with 255s. You may find that there is a better choice of 265s, though, 265/75 x 16 is a popular size and is the largest "standard fit" tyre on a defender. I run 285/75 on mine on standard alloys, but this is pushing the envelope a bit and you need 30mm spacers if you want to keep the steering lock. With 30mm spacers the 285/75s are just in the arches still.

I think also that it is the maximum permitted GTW that determines the need for a tacho, not the actual weight. So if the trailer is rated for 3.5tonnes but is empty, you are still committing an offence. I actually believe that every time we set foot out of our homes now we are breaking the law in some way (especially if we then get behind the wheel). The world has gone mad. Very depressing.

Matt, whereabouts is that bridge/tunnel? I don't recall one round there apart from the long bridge that took the railway under the A350 by the A350/A357 junction and bridge over the Stour, is this the one you mean? Great photos, and the trailway you're working on looks really good. It is a stunning route up the valley there.

As I understand it any RRV must now run on white unless it is a vehicle which falls into a catgory allowed to use rebated fuel (mobile crane, engineering plant etc). Doesn't mean that they do - yet, of course.