Big J

I'm probably the wrong person to contribute towards this thread being a massive misanthrope. I had a super frustrating day dealing with builders merchants yesterday, all of whom were on "Devon Time", failing to understand that (for instance) I might require the hardcore and cold lay tarmac at the same time (or even just before) hiring the whacker plate from them. Staggering inefficiency and ineptitude. I don't know how the rest of you handle it, but if I speak to too many people too regularly, it leaves me with the overwhelming urge to buy a cabin deep in the woods in Sweden and never return. At least there would be no fecking Devon lanes there! ?

Are we talking Brexit now?! ?

You're telling me! ? First impressions of the phone and network are very good. The phone is rapid, and I'm getting far fewer signal drop outs than before. For instance, the site we've just finished is about 50% out of signal for EE. With this new phone, that's perhaps 1-2%. The major difference is that at the bottom of the hill where previously none of us had any signal at all. That made working on machines and accessing technical support very difficult. I now have 4g there.

What bloody chance do I have for a house if you need PP for a fecking pond?! You can't just plant woodland either. Over 2 hectares and you need an environmental impact study.

What he says. I imagine you are fairly young. We all do stupid things when we are young, and live to regret them. If something goes wrong and you have an accident when you're 3-4 tonnes overweight, the best case scenario is your vehicle is impounded, you go to court, lose your licence and pay a hefty fine. Worst case is you kill someone and do some serious time and have to live with that fact. Routinely overloading your vehicle to that degree will lead to catastrophic mechanical failure much sooner than later. Think how you'd feel if you had to live with the knowledge that you'd killed someone because you didn't want to have to do a second run? I struggle to think of a more trivial reason to cause someone elses death.

I wouldn't be so naive Jack. You are very easy to find online, complete with address and telephone number. Get a bigger truck or seriously reduce your loading. If you kill someone by dangerous driving (which is what running around with that level of overloading is classified as) then it won't take prosecutors much effort to find this thread, which catelogues a pattern of behaviour and an apparent total disregard for the safety of others. That wouldn't play well in court.

Given that I'm likely to dig a large pond as soon as we get land, what difficulties have you had with the council? If you don't mind me asking.

Speak to James Ransley at Whetstone Oak. I've supplied him with loads and loads of elm over the years. He's just in Kent

I work in forestry, with a fairly long history in sawmilling. I've worked with timber hauliers for almost ten years and will be co-running a timber lorry later in the year. My opinion is also backed up by the law. Your opinion is that if it saves you money and time, it's fair game. Your arrogance is extraordinary.

Second google search result for "Penalties for overloaded vehicles". I would say that you are comfortably into the zone to which the red highlighted text refers. What to do if you’re fined for overloading your vehicle: If you have an address in the UK, you will have 28 days to pay the above fines, or ask for a court hearing if you want an appeal. If you don’t have an address in the UK the authorities find ‘satisfactory’ (bed and breakfast, hotel, agency or solicitor’s addresses are not normally accepted), you will have to pay the fine on the spot, or £500 per offence if you go to court. Any excess you paid will be refunded after you’ve paid all your fines. As you will see, if you have seriously exceeded your permitted weight you will be required to go to court. In most situations you will be made to pay a fine if found guilty (up to £500) – but if you’ve overloaded the van to the point where it is a real hazard to other road users you could be charged with dangerous driving. This is a serious offence which normally carries a prison sentence.

My responses are in red.

Your attitude is absolutely appalling. You cannot equate overloading by a small percentage with the extent to which you are routinely taking it. A few hundred kilos is still within the foreseeable parameters to which the vehicle is designed. The chances are you are still within your axle weights. 200% overloaded means all components on the vehicle are massively stressed and primed to fail. You say that other road users "used their common sense and gave me space", which sounds like a euphemism for "they recognised I was running around with a dangerous load and engaged in self preservation". Your one and only defense of your actions thus far has been to save money, which is no defense at all. I won't do it personally, but don't be surprised if someone tracks you down and reports you to the police on the basis of your posts on this thread. You've so far provided photographic proof of gross overloading, shown full understanding of how far overloaded you are, shown no remorse for doing so, and provided photographic proof of mechnical failures on your vehicle as a result of your overloading. You should not be on the road, but equally worrying seems to be the extent to which you seem happy to incriminate yourself on what is a public forum.

Because you are knowingly overloading your vehicle with at least double it's legal load. You are running illegally, endangering the lives of other road users and seem to be remorselessly doing this on a daily basis. Chucking a few extra logs on to be a few hundred kilos over is one thing. To put three tonnes on the back of a transit knowing that it's overloaded by two tonnes is quite another.

Perhaps a percentage that doesn't cause the rear spring to snap. A Mercedes Vario is as close as you'll get. They have the highest payload available for a 7.5t gross vehicle. When you see the construction of a Vario next to a standard 3.5t pickup, you understand why they are able to carry 4.2t on a daily basis whereas a Transit isn't. Anyway, my original point stands Jack. You're (regularly) horribly overloading your vehicle because you're too tight to pay for delivery or do two trips. You're defiant when this is pointed out to you, even when you're suffering mechanical failures associated with overloading. Please upgrade your vehicle to something suitable for carrying the loads that you seem intent on regularly carrying.

My objection is the sheer magnitude of it. It's one thing towing an overloaded trailer, but to have a seriously overloaded trailer and a tow vehicle with three times it's legal load on the back is another. For the sake of saving a few quid, it's endangering other peoples lives.

We've all done overloaded trips, but posting about it online isn't a great ideal, especially when that overloaded.

Very silly. Could have been done in two trips without risking your driving licence. You're not only risking your licence, but also the safety of other road users with that kind of overloading.

Yes, global population increase is an issue. Should that have any bearing on European immigration policy? No. They are separate issues and should not be conflated.

Probably not!

If I go into the saw shop in the same outfit, twice in a row, I get laughed right out of there. I won't apologise for my impeccable fashion sense, from the top of my scruffy head to the tip of my Birkenstock clad toe! ?

With a kit house, the drawings are ready to be submitted so there is no delay. The chap at the Danwood stand at the housing expo said that a typical build time from the point of order is 6 months. That's 12 weeks for it to be built in the factory and 14 weeks on site until it's ready to move into. Most normal self builds are 3 times as long on average.

400 plus miles apparently. Have faith! The end of internal combustion cars/trucks is nigh, and I can't wait to be electric only ?

If we were able to navigate planning in a fairly expedient manner, we'd just go with timber frame and straw bale construction. It wouldn't attain passive standard, but it would be very environmentally friendly, require fairly minimal heating and the vast bulk of the house would have been grown in a small radius of the construction site. I'm lucky to have access to huge amounts of very good quality timber, that I can cut to my own specification. A kit house is however a pretty good compromise, as whilst there are some slightly dubious materials in the walls, they overall environmental impact is minute compared to an older house, and the construction time is only 14 weeks, start to finish. I do wish that UK planning law would make special exceptions for very green buildings. There has to be something to incentivise green building.

I'd be waiting for the electric pickup from Rivian: Looks so cleverly laid out, and 750bhp and 1124nm of torque would might light work of towing, say a medium sized artic trailer.

Too rustic for my liking. You forget that I'm half German and require straight lines and order. Form follows function and function is king! ?