Treewolf

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!

As far as I know there has been a suggestion that a test for "illegal remaps" should be introduced to the MOT, but no-one knows how to do this. Also there is the little matter of what constitutes an illegal remap, since remapping is not per se illegal. If a remap causes a vehicle to exceed pollution or noise limits, then it is probably illegal, but in this case it woudl fail the current MOT. It could be argued that since the original map was part of the vehicle during type approval, then any remap invalidates that type approval, but this is unlikely to be succeed as an argument since the manufacturer regularly changes the ECU software and mapping data without resubmitting a vehicle for type approval testing. Bottom line, this is probably another hare-brained Euroscheme which is both unnecessary and unenforceable. The rest of Europe will either laugh or ignore it completely, the UK will spend a fortune of OUR money trying to implement and enforce it.

If you want to get rich, find and patent a method for making road fuel from Japanese Knotweed.

Perhaps they were trying to rescue the cat stuck at the top of the tree.

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.