blazer

I took my cs30/31 on the 22 March but still haven't had the certificate come through yet, I checked with the college and was told NPTC are running abit slow - have others had simular delays?

just watching a 1/2 dead Gum tree doing the 'fan dance' waiting for the bang. Say 12 yrs ago a large storm came in and the estate manager went for a drive around and had a tree fall behind, then one dropped across the front so he took to the fields as more came down - very frightening to be out. I just stay out of the way untill it's settled but even then the odd bough will suddenly drop. Will the dry weather affect the strength of trees and root systems besides being in leaf having a sail effect?

I met a guy say 20 yrs ago who goes up Scotland every summer:confused1: and claimed that by putting Dettol in his morning wash water it acted as a Midge repelant:001_huh: anybody tried it? Once when treking in Scotland my wife washed her hair, off she went with loadsa 'Cleggs' after her - all I had to do was stay a few steps behind her and I had no problems at all - tried and tested method:thumbup:

Postman just delivered my 'tough phone' by throwing it through the window:thumbup: Just brought the 'sitemaster' good clear phone to operate - see how it goes:001_smile:

Yep no problem. The key is the old 2" square section draw bar with a towball plate with 2 sets of holes - I fitted a 2 ft length of heavy gauge 2" angle to pick up these upper bolt holes, giving a flat bed for the winch base plate with a pair of 12 mm bolts to form a clamp onto the draw bar. Note the 2 tow bar spacers and drop plate going to the combi tow ball. I had problems with the tow ball using the roller fairlead so I fitted the black iron type, giving more space to hitch up. the only slight problem is the tow ball assy now sticks out and can catch the ground on rough off roading, but it needs to be low for my IW trailer. I run a pair of 16mm cables alongside the chassis from the battery with a 150A fuse and isolator. I only needed the winch for woodland work, so on the back is brill, plus 'if' something goes I get to keep the windscreen:sneaky2: I used to do alot of heavy lift work years ago, so assessing the physics involved really helps - pulling down a large bough could easily rip the back off my truck. Overall it doesn't get used alot but really make life alot safer and saves ringing up and hand lugging wood out over ditches - now I just winch it out and ring up:thumbup:

The winch has heavy current connectors, so soon comes off although it's on alot in the winter but I fitted another number plate to the Ifor Williams back flap (although technically it doesn't have 2 little lights). The plate above the anchor is a bit of argi kit, basicly a plate with 2 large holes - not really neaded. The anchor bar is made of heavy 2" angle with plates welded on, I just stand on the anchor as I'm winching to make it bit. I will get the Lad to do some more pictures. The front bumper. On my old Ranger I a made a 3" tube bumper set low so it did'nt show but was useful in the woods. The lad who later brought the Ranger made a better one, so when he sold it I had the 'improved one' and modified it to fit the L200 (hardly shows- not an Aussie cow bar) for woodland - it's risk but it's coming off soon. No other mods , just jacked up the front torsion bars and reset the steering and fitted HD springs to the back, to give it more lift handy on rutted farm track:thumbup1:

here are some pics, towing out a fair size tree out of a ditch, with the help of in effect a reverse ground anchor that hooks into the tow bar and acts as an extra brake for the winch to pull from, and the winch cable doubled up back to the tow bar!

will get my son onto it tonight - I'm 62 yr old spanner type. The winch fork was made by a Agri eng, lad near us makes anything for landy's etc, so he may be able to help. I found the winch so useful with fallen boughs in hedges etc just makes the job alot safer. I'm just 1 mile south of Banbury:thumbup:

I have the old type L200 and run into problems with insurance, so mounted a winch on the back, fairly easy to mod the tow bar. modified a heavy tube bumper for the front, for shunting in woods. The winch really works well and even made up a large rear facing fork to anchor, which gives me far more pulling power than fitting a winch to the front. If of interest I will ask my son to put up some photos. If you are not too far from Banbury drop by for a demo.

always a bit upsetting to see any crash, from the position of the crash and the nose down position it looks as if it clipped the hedge. Bit of a problem seeing how high you are with an engine in front and wings below. How often do you beat? I'm involved with a large shoot between Banbury and Oxford.

Love Horntails - totally harmless. Working away a few years ago and some Hornets flew by, like small aircraft zooming close by but they didn't buzz around me like wasps, these guys were on a straight line to their mission. Feeling brave ok I was after 'man points' with my son we followed them back to their nest, and found I could stand say 1m from the entrance keep still and quiet and they ignored me. A few weeks later on a group fungus trip I found another Hornet nest, I told some of the families of the nest and to keep quiet, who totally ignored me and let there daughter walk up to the nest and she promply screamed - instantly the whole Hornet gang came out to attack her. She ran off screaming so all the more Hornets joined in by now she had Hornets in the goldilocks. I took her away from the nest area and started brushing them off her plus remove them from her hair. Afterwards still upset it turned out she hadn't been bitten nor me or anybody else. When my working cocker was a pup, he went off in the woods and came back with biting wasps on his back, I picked them off but felt he had been stung so left him on my coat for a rest - not realizing he was in danger, he slept for an hour or so then was ok. Later on an early shoot day the keepers dog bit an apple with a wasp on and in 10 minuites went totally flat in his arms. Luckly the under keeper has a reaction to wasps and kept some 'anti- histomeme' on his quad - they pushed 2 tablets down the dogs throat and slowly the dog recovered recovered. Since them I keep a strip of 'anti- histomene' * on the back of my mobile phone. *ok I can't spell - I'm are a engineer.

glad you are thinking safety with your legs sticking out - nearly got mine crushed as a lad. There are 2-types of oil leaks, pressure side, this could includ the turbo and none pressure side. First like blood a little looks alot, is the level dropping much? and does the oil pressure light switch off soon after startup?. Without a look it's hard to tell, I have a 03 4life (I think it did 4 lives before I had it) Mine smelt of burnt oil along with engine noise, when I had it nearly 2 yrs ago. I found one of many leaks from the rocker box, leaking onto the exhast manifold, hence the smell. I replaced the rocker box gasket, reset the valves. Changed both cam belts and the waterpump and the bottom pulley - they fail by becoming unbonded and a bit of general work it was sorted. I was concerned with the turbo leaking and the induction leaking oil and the intercooler bunged up with old oil - yep done more miles than Apollo 11. But my idea of a 4x4 is not an imaculate 'gaylander' but covered in mud with hunting dogs on the front seat redneck style, chainsaws in the back and blood dripping from the tailgate I cleaned out the intercooler with 'Gunk' and boiling water, took a few goes - if you do this don't reconnect the intercooler to the inlet manifold untill you have run the engine to blow the last of the muck out - or it goes into your engine. From some US websites these guys don't worry about turbo leaks, so I didn't saved 500 quid and yep it's oily but the engine oil level hardly drops. It could be a leak on the oil pump mounted on the back of the alternator or it's pipes, also it could be the front crank pully seal. But in general get a few mates to check it out, and if it's none pressure don't worry to much.

Lite the burner for the last few evenings - soon warms up the house, wife warm and dogs sleeping by the fire. Got most of my wood stacked in for next winter:thumbup1:

A 'friend' broke the shaft on my old black forest type splitter a couple of weeks ago. Replacement fibreglass handles don't seam to be available in the UK, so I had the idea of cutting down a 'roughneck' f/glass pick handle from screwf* for 13 quid. The shaft hole in the head is say 2" x 1.12" which just fitted over the base of the shaft. I took 4 cuts off the plastic head end with a wood saw to give a slight taper and worked it down with a rasp, untill I had a good interferrance fit with the head just 1/2" back from the end well bumped on to allow a bit of creep. I part expected to find a problem within the moulding but for 13 quid it was worth a go. I did find some of the plastic not bonded as I worked down but maybe I was lucky it worked down onto solid plastic. I finished it off with rubber tape and a 3" long alloy sleeve. I have only used it for tested but if feels good:thumbup:

I have done a bit of hedging, and was told the end of hedgelaying moved back from the end of March to the begining of March - not sure about the start but say the beginning of September to be sure all birds have fledged. the problem for hedglayers, is they only lay a few 'chain' at a time but they come under the same rules as tractor cutting who can cut miles per day. Must be some info on the 'national hedgelaying' w/site:thumbup1:

Need a bit of help please - looking at the JCB phones, does 'SIM free' mean I could fit a 'talktalk' SIM. or what do I need to look for when buying online to be sure my 'talktalk' SIM will work ok. Thanks in advance:thumbup1:

One tip I have found is to look under a few bonnets and look at the corrosion on pipe clips, bolts etc = high winter mileage, and alot of flys in rad = high summer mileage, along with stone chips etc. I looked at a 1 yr old Jimny but noticed rust in the inner outer seam on the steel wheels (it shouldn't do that in +10 yrs) = driven in the sea, along with dog smell - or may be they didn't wash:blushing: OK they are both subjective depending on the salt down in the winter etc but over the years I can tell if a motor has done 100+k with one look, check with a look at a few friends motors to compare corrosion against mileage. I have just noticed my last MOT on my wifes motor the tester put down a +20k on the mileage - must check next time.

Just found some easy dems's on you-tube entered 'stihl fs100 valve clearance'

I run on the makers recommendations, Stihl claim theres is ok at 50-1 then I run at that no probs. 2 stroke engines and their fuel/oil has changed alot over the years. My only caution is not to fill up from somebody elses can, when offered on a big job. I have heard of problems in artic conditions where the locals run on a weaker mix for 2T snowmobiles etc. I often wonder if left for a long time the oil/fuel can separate, in the early 70's Yamaha bike race teams would remix up fuel fresh for each day - I used to 'help' dispose of the old mixed fuel with a free fill-up when with friends in the pits.

I'm with you there, I have say 50 edged tools, Plus 3 elwell '7'. I don't just sharpen then I 'tune' them for different jobs. With buying old edged tools, they are best just blunt as it sharpened in recent times they may be softened up by a misused grinder. I have all types of edges from solid cast steel, wrap on forgewelded edges ( can wear out, and forge welded sandwiched heads + a few swedish. It takes say 4+ hours to sharpen, from careful grinding ( with plenty of cooling water) to different oilstones. I do engineering plus used to do butchering which helps, with the old saying," if you can see the edge - it's blunt". One point, many of the older axes are now age hardened, I have heard of old axemen putting a new axe in a hedge for a couple of years to harden the head a bit more before using it. Pity you live so far away:thumbup1:

I did simular with my saws, I have a MS390 20" and brought an old Husky 266xp with a worn bar, so made some spacers and fitted the Still bar to the Husky. Now I only use 20" bars on the 2 larger saws and as both are now 1.6mm I can use the same 3/8" chains on both saws (husky 1.5mm). It makes it easy as my spare chains are kept in bags under my seat - did I say that right:blushing:

I have played about with hornbeam, great wood won't split even green but I found it a problem to dry out when making some mallets - nearly there and it split open. The only way I found was to stack it in the shade, part covered to slow the drying, and not to use it in the round but cut logs into 1/4 segments.