richy_B

an ex-colleague of mine was filling the chain oil up with 2 stroke for about a month before someone spotted hi doing it. His excuse was someone had said 'that's the oil you use for the chainsaws...' Some people just shouldn't use equipment.

When you start pulling heavy trailers >2,000kg you are messing with an unforgiving mistress - physics. Once the weight of the trailer approaches the weight of the towing vehicle you significantly increase steering and stability issues. Oversteering, snaking/weaving, braking. You need to be spot on with your loading of the trailer as well as the centre of gravity will have a big impact here. Round town you might not notice it as much but at 55mph on an A/M road you have so much more momentum. A unladen 110, kerb weight of 2000kg will have momentum at 55 mph equating to 49,000kg. If you load it to the limits (3000kg+3500kg) at 55mph you have momentum equating to 171,500kg. A factor of nearly 3.5 times. Towing is a daily thing for most of us but it can catch out even the most experienced driver- my opinion is don't give it any encouragement! Towing heavy weights a lot, get a 7.5t> tow vehicle.

That guy has got some big kahuna's to fell that. Zero room for error.

I would use the vehicle purely for work...

I would still like to give the tempest splitter a go. I reckon it would be good for this application. Heck of a price tag though.

I process quite a lot and my honest opinion - patience! I use a hydraulic splitter, circular saw bench and chainsaw(s) which works well but you are not going to be getting through mountains in a day. Man handling the bit bits, wrestling with the twisted bits, bending and stretching - I just don't think there is a quick way of doing arb waste. At a leisurely pace I split and cut maybe 8-10 cubes in a day. It can be boring but I find you just get into a rhythm and you can 'zone out' to a certain extent (H&S notwithstanding). Best bit of kit - get some radio ear defenders. Makes the task far more enjoyable.

They were never going to hang-around at that price.

Saw those on ebay myself. Looked like a good deal. I enquired about the green one but someone snapped it before me.

Particularly fitting.

LCV Tipper Hire | Tipper Van Rental | SHB Vehicle Hire They have a depot in Ashford. You need your own insurance though. I know a few people who have used them for 4 weeks at a time.

£500-600 for a basic professional site. £2500+ for a full e-commerce with shop front. It is worth spending on a good site. You can spot a sh*t version someone has knocked up in their bedroom a mile off and for the vast majority of customers it will now be their first port of call. For others it will be reinforcement marketing, as in they seen your van or had you recommended so are checking you out. Give a good impression, it could pay itself off in a few weeks. I'd avoid any of the 'template' sites you can buy (wordpress etc). It'll look very generic and dull.

I hate cheques and do not take them. Having to take them to the bank during the working day, time to clear, possibility of bouncing, easy to cancel after you've left, etc, etc. Not worth the hassle. I take card payments via Barclaycard merchant services - It is pretty good. £10 a month minimum charge, 1.75% transaction fee, 12 month contract I believe. You can operate it via any web browser so can take a card payment on a 3/4G device pretty easily. They also do a 3G handset you can 'physically' take payment on. £20 a month minimum, 1.75% still. Instant payment and provided you input an email address the customer gets a receipt straight away.

Not quite on subject but has anyone tried towing 3,500kg with the new ranger? Having used previous models I'd not want to get anywhere near. The new one still only have a kerb weight of just over 2000kg.

Hello, anyone know of a cheap source of plastic stillage boxes? Something like . I've rung around a few places but people want £80+ each for them which seems like loads for what they are. Looking for 10+ Thanks, Rich B.

Why not just get regular insurance in your own name on a car policy and have business use added on? You can specify you use a trailer occasionally. 23 year old even with no NCB shouldn't be more than £2k on that vehicle. If you are insuring under a business name it will be more expensive. You also need to be clear about the situation. If you mum runs your business then it is still YOUR business. If you own the car, you're on the V5, you mainly use it then insure it as you being the main driver. Putting your mum down and you named is called 'fronting'. Insurance companies are far from stupid. Don't chance it by trying to pull the wool over their eyes. If you have a crash they can avoid paying out and you will be liable for recovery cost, third party costs, loss of your vehicle and so on. Saving a few quid sounds good but when you need it, it will come back to haunt you big time.

I use a couple for outside storage. They would slow people down & deter casual thieves but certainly not impossible to break into. Weld a few boxes over the padlock sections helps and of course use 2 very hefty padlocks. If I am away for a few days I forklift something heavy in front of the doors as well (couple of cube bags of sand etc). Stick a pir alarm on the inside as well. Slow people down and make a racket is about as much as you can do. I have seen one broken into via the roof which is quite thin sheet.

I've never used one but the price tags are usually pretty scary! Not to open a can of worms but they are into the mog price range.

I've looked into this before and it is obviously very dependent on your circumstances. I've used leased vehicles in the past and this is my general view/findings (not in a particular order): 1. New vehicles are expensive!?! Do I/you really need one? I now buy vehicles at 5 years/60k. It is the best compromise for me of vehicle condition, initial outlay and future depreciation. 2. You have to be quite detailed with your financial comparisons. As an example you can lease an average spec hilux for £220 a month (ex VAT) for 5 years. Total cost is £13,200. After 60 months it just goes back. If you purchased the same model you would be looking at around £22,000 (ex VAT) so financing it over 5 years at around 7% apr you would repay a little over £26K. At 5 years you could sell it for maybe £12k so your cost to have that vehicle was £14k. In this scenario leasing is the better financial option. If you did the same thing with a ranger though the lower resale might stuff you. The higher the depreciation rate the better leasing becomes. This is very dependent on if you would sell and get a new vehicle at years or if you would keep the vehicle till 7, 10 years or more. The longer you plan on keeping the vehicle the more sense it is to buy it. The loan rate is obviously important here. If you could get a rate of 5% apr then finance and selling would be the better financial option over 5 years. There is a consideration about how it looks on your balance sheet as well. Having a leased vehicle might look better that a loan on your liabilities. It could also impact on future borrowing. 3. Leased vehicles do not generally include servicing, breakdown, MOT (for longer leases)or insurance. You may be tied to going to a main dealer for all work, you may end up paying more for insurance because it is a lease. 4. Damage. If you are getting a working vehicle it is inevitable they will get a few knock. I've found the lease company will hammer you for this. That said it is only the damage they can see. That is not to sound dodgy but if you are using a vehicle as a workhorse it could be carrying a ton in the back, pulling a 2.5ton trailer, 7 days a week, stop start driving around town, multiple drivers, etc, etc. In this scenario you might be glad to give it back at 5 years before big wear and tear items arise. I had a hilux used in exactly that fashion and I felt sorry for the poor soul who would buy it at auction thinking they had a bargain 5yr/50k vehicle. The hard life of that vehicle was bound to catch up with it. 5. Mileage limits. You generally get 10k PA. Is this enough? If not, agree more up front. You get hammered at the end. I've seen up to 12p per mile charge for going over the limit. If you do 12k a year instead of you 10k over a 3 year lease you'll get hit with a £720+VAT charge. That's my 2 cents worth, hope it helps you decide.

Yeah, I'd try that too. 'Land leveller' is what I've referred to it but not sure of the official .

My wife is half French and her family obviously have a lot of stories of WW2. On a particular holiday 2 years ago I visited Omaha beach and sat up on the hills looking across the beach. I remember thinking just how far it was from the water (one of the widest beaches I've seen) and could not imagine what must have been going through the minds of the the poor souls who had to run through barb wire and minefields towards the machine guns on the hills. 'When you go home tell them of us and say: for your tomorrow we gave our today'

Appreciate this is not a current thread but to put in my 2 cents - talk to the banks before you assume they'll lend. I presumed because I had a good credit rating, financial history, business plans, etc that it would be as easy as asking for £15k and off you go. I had all but one high street banks say they do not lend to start ups or companies without 2 years trading history. The one they made an offer did so at 18% APR and want me to put up 50% of the money and provide security against the rest. For £15k FFS. The cliché that banks don't like small business was absolutely the truth in my experience. Even now as an established business with financial history banks still charge very high rates (from my perspective). 12-15% apr over 3 years.

Well worth it. £500 for test/training and use of a suitable vehicle then you have +e for life.

I use quikbooks for all my accounting. Very straightforward and only £19 a month.

Thanks guys, just the insight I needed!

Hello, was having a chat with someone the other day about thinning out some broad leaves for firewood. Nothing too exciting, a bit of ash, syc & oak. Relatively straight lengths that could go through a processor but we were debating the best size lengths. The kit for extraction plays a big part of it but generally speaking what do people go for? 2 metres is probably a bit short but you could ensure it was good straight lengths, 3 metres and straight might be far more difficult. 2.3? 2.5? or just a mixed bag of lengths as long as its straight. What would you go for?