County4x4

You should be able to get a .co.uk domain for MUCH less than £50 - I usually buy mine from uk2.net and have done for years. For a simple and straightforward website I'd recommend webs.com Basically a case of choosing a template and filling in the blanks, and some of the templates look rather good actually. You can also change the template for the whole website with a couple of clicks without having to re-enter all the information and links etc. Basic is free, but for a few quid you can remove all external advertising etc and make it "just yours" You may spend a few hours putting the content of your site together, but by the time you've done that you'll know your way around the system - and you can make regular tweaks to it as often as you like without having to go through a third party and ask them to do it for you. Sometimes you'll just look at a paragraph and think it could be worded better - two minutes and it's changed and hasn't cost you a bean. Hope this helps! Andy

I've got them on my County Transit in a different size - very hard wearing - the tread doesn't seem to go away does it?! Andy

:biggrin: You're proper hardcore mate:thumbup1: Andy

A lot of these sites are aimed at setting up small industries in developing countries and they often have indications of how much a family or group of workers can produce. I think this is one of them. Although the "suggested schedule" indicates working from 0800 until 1700 - and I'm guessing most of us "poor workers" here are doing a bit more than that!! Steve - I seem to remember reading about Ian Taylors fun and games shifting his kilns about in some fairly steep Lakeland woodlands! As for the rest of your post - I quite agree. There are some dodgy things going on in charcoal world - I know of a local company who were re-bagging multiple artic loads of imported crap as "home grown" - the plant I was running at the time recycled all the original bags - several tens of thousands of them!! Andy

Allotment Forestry local charcoal An inexpensive and efficient mini-charcoal kiln by E G K Rao - Wiki | HEDON Household Energy Network: Methode of making charcoal kiln Chapter 8 - Metal kilns Tons of stuff on google if you have a gander. Andy

I can't really answer your question as to whether it would be worth your while doing it - but I used to sell the charcoal made by Ian Taylor who operates as lakeland coppice products , charcoal making in the Lake District There's a lot of information on his website, as well as a diary telling the highs and lows of being a coppice worker - the guy worked in an office for years before deciding to escape the 9-5 routine and head for the woods. Having used his charcoal I can say that it's about as similar to supermarket/garage forecourt stuff as chalk is to cheese. You don't need to do a lot of reading about what goes into charcoal briquettes to promise yourself you'll never let your food near them ever again! Ian's stuff lights with a bit of newspaper, and you use half as much. I stoked it up like I normally did the first time I used it and had to leave it for about an hour to cool down a bit as it was throwing so much heat out! It really is a fantastic product as it stands - and then of course for many people the fact that it's sustainable, is helping to pay for regenerating ancient coppice, is made locally by a local craftsman etc etc - all adds to it's appeal. I think with a bit of careful marketing it could do well. It needs to be pushed as something that really isn't "just another bag of charcoal" - maybe to the greenies or better off people who want to be seen to be using something ethical and sustainable. You'll probably never win over the people who just want to burn some meat and drink a couple of cases of Carlsberg on a Sunday afternoon, but there are people who care about where their stuff comes from and how it's made. Much of the UK charcoal is imported and a lot of it comes from destruction of mangrove swamps and so on, and it's also stuffed with all sorts of crap to make it burn - like I said - I certainly wouldn't cook on it any more. As Strider said - you could have a go at it on a small scale without spending a fortune on ring kilns and the rest of it. Ian markets his product fairly locally - a lot of village shops and the like are selling it for him. I guess it would be much like firewood in that people will try yours and then refuse to buy anywhere else if it's good stuff. Good luck with it anyway - and keep us posted if you give it a go! Andy

But unless the finished product performs a LOT better than the newspaper briquettes, I'd question whether it was worth the effort and mess involved in making them. I was very keen on the paper briquettes, and had several 205 litre barrels in the workshop with paper shreds soaking in them and a bench with briquettes stacked up to dry. Very keen that is until I actually tried them in the stove! I guess they padded out the firewood supply to an extent - but only in the same way as putting a big green log on the fire - AND they produced a hell of a lot of ash. The press is still out there somewhere but hasn't been used again since. Fatha in law knocked up a similar device to use with a jack for extra pressure - and he's not used that again either. Andy

I hear ya mate - and that's true. It's just a bit sad that people seem to consider humans such a throwaway item. There's loads of clips of the Americans doing all sorts of needless damage to civilians property and laughing about it. If it was on CCTV and they were dressed as chavs we'd all be up in arms wouldn't we? But they have a uniform and the victims are foreigners so it doesn't matter? I'm not old enough to remember WW2 - but I've read a lot of stories concerning the respect that many (though not all - obviously) of the soldiers had for each other in that conflict. It seems that the Yanks seem to see the current situation as one big video game. As I said - you could take almost any of these clips and change the soundtrack about and you'd get a completely different reaction - it would be "wrong" if it was happening to our guys. I dunno - maybe I'm just getting old but I just think it's a bit sad when people think other people getting killed is funny. Andy

I read quite a few of the comments posted on youtube regarding this video - some quite intelligent and the usual crop of "yeah - owned" "yummy - Iraqi hamburger" etc. What I found myself wondering was what the reaction would have been to the same video if the soundtrack was in Arabic and it was the Allied forces on the ground? "cowardly murdering bastards" probably....... But hey - it's not like the Iraqis are humans or someone's son or Dad or husband or anything is it? Andy

The device in the link is basically the same as the paper log makers in principle - using water to soften everything up and hopefully get it to hold together a bit like papier-mache when it dries. The newspaper briquettes I've found disappointing. Very time consuming, take an age to dry and then produce an awful lot of ash and not a great deal of heat. "Proper" briquetting machines use very high pressures and extrude the material through a die in it's dry state. The high pressure (80tons/sq.in and upwards from memory) heat up the material and soften the resins and lignins in it to form a "glue" of sorts that holds the stuff together when it cools. Moisture content is important - too dry and it won't soften up under pressure, and too wet and you can get briquettes that "blow" due to steam pockets expanding inside them. There are some Chinese built small electric briquette presses available for under a grand as I recall - Alibaba would be a good place to look. These are hand fed - though again - a lot of it is down to the qualoty/consistency of the feedstock. Andy

Walked out of the garden centre we usually use when I saw £49 on a 6 foot Nordmann. And they wanted another £16 if you wanted a stand for it! This used to be a proper "growers" sort of garden centre but it changed hands a couple of years back and now they seem to be catering to coach parties of old dears who will have a cup of tea and a bit of cake in the tea shop rather than people into gardening and stuff. New garden centre just up the road on a farm that's been tarted up with a wine shop, craft place and a brilliant kiddies Playzone were doing the same Nordmann trees for not much more than half price. I got a cracking 6' tree for £26 including a chunky log slice stand. We prefer a pine - got a lodgepole this year - as I'm not keen on the scraggy tops you tend to get on a spruce. And it will hang on to all it's needles until next summer! I think the pines tend to look a lot bushier and healthier somehow Took sister in law in the van the day after to get hers - lady there said someone had nicked their banner from the main road! Now who would want to nick a banner with "Greenlands Farm - Christmas Trees now available" unless they were another local seller who had their nose put out by the better prices? Christmas Tree wars eh? Andy

I drove a 7.5 tonne gross one for a parcels firm for a few years - absolutely horrible truck - sorry guys!! Our depot only ended up with them as the company got them dirt cheap as a deal from Volvo - who supplied all the company HGV wagons. They'd taken the first one to the head office depot in Sheffield and their transport manager had a test drive in it before telling them there was no way he was having them at his depot! We ended up with about 13 of them and had to put up with them until the lease expired. The maintenance was contracted out and in the end the mechanics basically breached the contract as they were having to have a guy waiting at our depot six nights a week waiting to fix the ones that returned from their days work! After that we had to somehow get the wagons to their place for repairs instead. The company thought they were onto a winner when they saw how cheap these trucks were, but they ended up costing them a packet, and as soon as the lease was up they went straight back to DAF's which we'd had before. In short, and compared to a DAF: Turning circle rubbish - and steering low geared - no more U turns on a main road. Lock to lock felt like about ten turns. Comfort: Poor - very thin seat cushion and odd shaped cab. Cross cab access difficult due to ridiculous cable operated umbrella stick handbrake instead of air brakes. Ride quality - very harsh and not comfy - wandered all over on bumpy bends Gearbox - unreliable. Old truck mechanic said that the Japs had always struggled to build a decent commercial truck gearbox. Most of ours had at least one unusable gear in the box - third was a favourite Engine - few actual breakdown problems but noisy and underpowered Build quality - poor. Most of the trim (interior and exterior) fell off most of the trucks well before the lease ran out. I guess it should be remembered that these trucks were worked hard - I did several hundred thousand miles in the one I had - but so were the DAF's, and they were no bother at all, and were actually a nice experience to drive. My canter was replaced by a 150Ti DAF that I drove to Hampshire and back every night from the Cumbrian border. Getting into that was like settling into a hot bath at the side of the Mitsi! Aaaaaahhhhhhh:biggrin: Andy

@Justme - tell me you're not on the Transit forum as well 'cos if you are I may start thinking I'm being stalked:laugh1: Andy

I think I'd suggest having a visit to the Navitron forum and asking a few questions on there. There are lots of off-grid enthusiasts and electrical engineers and the like hanging around the place. Some of them use an entirely different language to us mere mortals, but I've found they are a helpful and knowledgeable bunch! Navitron Renewable Energy and Sustainability Forum - Index Andy

Just a quick thumbs up for Anchor Supplies - used to deal with them a lot and never any problems. We used to sell a lot of ammo boxes for storage of high power rocket motors - ideal for the job. Andy

Well I can certainly save you a bob or two on retail price mate! I'd be happy with £30 plus the postage, and I'll chuck in a pack of firesticks and some batteries to get it going as well. The only difference between mine and the one in the video is that the newest versions are a stainless finish, and this one I have is the original white stove enamelled finish. Let me know if you want it and I'll price up sending it to you. Cheers, Andy

Hi all, With all this talk of jetboils and MSR stoves, I wondered if any of you had ever used a woodgas stove? Could be ideal for you guys surrounded by wood and stuff all day. It's like a posh version of the hobo stoves you can make out of old tins, and uses a small fan powered by batteries. It will run on any old vegetable material as long as it's dry - twigs, pine cones etc. Only needs a couple of handfulls to fill it. Easiest way to light it is with a small chunk of firelighter placed in the top of the fuel - let it burn for a minute and then turn the fan on low or high depending on whether you want to simmer or boil up for a brew. I run mine on standard wood pellets - a 10kilo bag would probably last all year. I have to say I was VERY impressed with the performance of this unit. I've used gas stoves, Primus and other paraffin copies, MSR's and others, and this was just as good. First try with it I used a heavy cast iron pan full of cold water and thought it would take ages, but once that fan goes on it was boiling away in minutes. The flame looks more like a gas stove when it's running - and I suppose it is as it's burning woodgas. Without the fan you just have a rather ineffective smoky fire in a pot - with it there's virtually no smoke and a LOT of heat. There's a video of one in operation at Woodgas Stove Camping Equipment I have no connection with this site - though I used to sell these stoves in the UK a few years back. I do have one new one left for sale if anyone fancies it too. Cheers, Andy

Also, if you sell non-CE marked gear and someone has an accident with it, YOU can be held personaly liable. Found this out when looking into importing Indian built Lister engines which cannot be CE marked due to open flywheels weighing about 100kg each. Cheers, Andy

...and one day I WILL own one:biggrin: Andy PS - Have they got cheaper at Witham? Sure they were around the 7.5k mark last time I checked in there?

How come the HGV licence - they're only plated at 5500kg? Andy

I promised myself a long time back that one day I'll get an RB44 - just because I want one! My personal favourite is the Ford A series based version - there was one for sale on the Transit forum a while back but I had no room or money and I think it was scrapped in the end. That one had a 3.5 V8, PTO's all over the place, air and hydraulic take offs - you name it - hell of a truck. This one here - next to a Transit for comparison: Anyone ever considered a Gaz66 (think it's an 66 anyway) A lot of the Russian stuff will run on any old crap, like cross fuel quite happily and those guys put a lot of work into their military vehicles. Andy

Yep you'd need special wire for a gasless MIG - it produces it's own shroud of gas as it burns. If you're not going to be using it a lot you may find the wire will rust - it will do this in just a damp atmosphere - it doesn't actually need to get wet to start corroding. I reckon a stick may be better and keep the rods inside somewhere warm and dry when not in use. Andy PS - there's a very good welding forum that might be worth a visit:thumbup1:

We used to have a job getting pics to upload if we were using Firefox - which is our default browser choice. Never had a problem if we logged in again using Internet explorer - but Firefox seems to have sorted itself out again since and no bother now. Maybe it's just down to however many other people are trying to flog their tat at the same time as you?! Andy

The PDS thing is a hoax and has been around for years. Here's what Phonepayplus said about it in 2007: I always check the hoax sites when I get one of these email circulars, and haven't had one yet that has turned out to be genuine. There are loads of them around that are years old like if you don't delete a certain file from your computer your house will fall down etc etc - evryone panics and forwards the email all over the world and it's a complete waste of time and bandwidth. Andy

That's the point I was getting at mate - wholesale price from CPL IS cheaper than their retail - but 3 pence profit per bag doesn't strike me as a workable proposition! Andy