richy_B

I like the little fleming. I was considering a 1.5t myself. Looks like good value.

Had the little AGT again for flailing brambles today. Steep banks and dodging flytips mainly! I am constantly impressed what terrain these little alpines can work on.

I wasn't aware Hewdens had gone belly up. I dismissed their email as just another auction. Be interesting to see some of the results.

Cheers David, interesting thread. Looks great for parks sites but perhaps not appropriate for my needs.

Width is a key point. For me it is not a valid comparison with machines that go through a standard gate and ones that don't.

I think I might be put off the idea already! Cheers for the input guys.

Sounds like a non starter then.

I am looking at at getting an air spade for our street tree planting work. There is always the risk of services but it might also reduce physical work (compared to a bar and long handle shovel). We are aiming to dig a 50cm x 50 cm x 50 cm hole in a mix of subbase, soil & london clay. I am sure the air spade is capable of this but I don't think we'd have the vaccuum unit due to cost and bulk. I thought once 'loosened' it could be shovelled out. We'd buy the air spade, hose and cone tors and hire a compressor (125cfm is readily available locally but could go bigger). I did have a chat air-vac and looked at the small spade and vac unit mounted on a muck truck. It looked great but was £25k without a compressor - so a non starter. Any thoughts or reviews?

How much use will it get? I have a small 'atv log trailer' from tcf engineering. Was about £800 odd from memory. No crane obviously so plenty of manual handling but great for coppice or limited thinning work.

In practise they are very different machines. I have a 1.7t mini with a grapple and it's great for stacking logs, postioning stones/kerbs or loading a trailer but it's not great for shifting material more than a few metres. If you need to pick something up, take it 10+ metres, drop it in a vehicle and repeat 25 times you will find the compact loader vastly more efficient. That said they are pretty pricey bits of kit so you obviously have to have the work. I currently run a muck truck alongside my mini digger and have a 3t linde forklift back at the yard so hard to justify the extra spend for the time being.

It'll be well seasoned atleast.

You can shield a torch very well with a few guys holding a welding curtain. Makes you want to put a 47kg propane bottle behind lock.....

I don't know anything about their management but the influx of eastern European firewood in the last few years must be driving this. Particularly the fact that their market seems to very low priced, aimed at distributors in western Europe. Low unit price, high volume will drive deforestation if not properly managed and enforced. Their will be good land managers and their will be sh*ts, the same as anywhere. I read something similar about deforestation because of charcoal production in northern Africa and south America. At the same time I guess we can't be too critical as it is our domestic markets that is driving this.

I've seen a container that had its roof 'peeled' back to hiab a machine out. These scumbags are well equipped so there is little stopping them outside 24 hour security. A gas cutting torch is so portable and nothing steel is going to stand a chance.

You get 30kg baggage allowance on Virgin....

F*ckers. That's a lot of gear. Sorry to hear. I'm South and West London so will keep an ear out. Hardly ever see boxers.

Have you considered just trading in your old defender for a 14/15 plate defender? Might be hard to find a 130 but there seem to be quite a few 110 single cab pickups about.

I am not an expert but on my trailers (ifor 3017, Gh94 and lm126) If you put the handbrake on and try and shove it backwards (I use a forklift with towbar on the forks) the wheels will not turn at all. This is with a 5t of forklift pushing. With the handbrake off you push it for a 25cm or so and then the wheels free up.

The aforementioned trailer held by a chain. Quite dramatic as you can imagine but afterwards I felt glad the chain was there as it meant the trailer stayed with us and didn't injury anyone.

I hae no idea about the legal aspect, was just thinking safe.

The trailer handbrake should be effective both forward and backwards. The handbrake is attached to a spring that pulls the brake cables so provided the whole unit is in good order you should have no issues. The brake away cable activates the handbrake so again, if it's in good order it is a fail safe. The issue of brakes not being effective on trailers in reverse relates to over run brakes. It is the same braking system but controlled by a different mechanism -brakes cables are pulled when the tow head compresses, active by the tow vehicle slowing and the trailer pushing towards the tow bar. In reverse there is no tow coupling compression so no brake activation. I have previously been in a crash (i wasn't the driver) where a heavy duty chain has been used on a trailer. This did indeed keep the trailer attached (despite the tow bar being ripped off) and prevented it going into another lane, hitting any other vehicles. Once the tow bar came off though the trailer brakes would no longer have been active so making the situation worse. If you are going to use a chain make sure it is long than the break away cable so that if the trailer disconnects the handbrake is firmly applied. Perhaps a heavy steel braided cable might work. Perhaps could result in shock loading and damage to the tow vehicle though.

Tragic to hear of a kiddie dying like that. I have always been cautious but decided a year ago (after an incident) that I needed to take our trailer use very seriously. Traded in my old trailers for new ones, Include them in our weekly vehicle checks and have an annual check up with our local trailer dealer. Maybe excessive but I know of a lot of people using 3.5t trailers that are unknown age, unknown history, unknown brake or hub conditions. Its risky in my opinion. I know nothing of the case in question but as a commercial user I would expect there to be serious, if not manslaughter charges for someone not using a brake away cable or using a trailer with defective brakes that ended up like this. I expect in the coming years an MOT like test will be introduced for trailers over 750kg. An expense but worthwhile in my opinion.

A nice, versatile set up you have there.

Might be hard work butt what about a 'Mr funnel'? I bought one after a recommendation on here. You could run the hose from the IBC into the funnel and the funnel back into the tank. Then run the pump for a while. Going to take a while but you'll filter the gunk and water out. I have a 600 litre tank, which usually lasts me a few months but as a precaution I always filter it when filling machines. Admittedly they are small machines, maximum 30 litres.

I'd say your right. My l200 ('05 k74) is great as a daily tow vehicle with a 1.5t trailer and cargo combo. Pulling 2.7t (ish) and you can feel how much harder it is working and stressing. As you have mentioned, once your trailer is heavier than your tow weight things get exciting. Ive had a heavy trailer (boat) pull me in a ranger back down a slippery track. Only 15 metres or so but enough to scare the sh*t out of me. I've also lost a ranger and ifor flatbed when it flipped after a snaking incident caused by a heavy trailer (and a colleague driving too quickly consider the trailer weight). After that recap I am wondering if rangers and I aren't best suited to each other....