Matthew Storrs

Flatbed weighs about 650 (its the lightest 3500kg flatbed I for make) digger weighs 2790kg (operating weight) plus the quick hitch and bits and bobs in the cab brings up to 3500kg give or take! Buckets all go in landrover. Although my latest idea is to have an 'attachments trailer' which I tow to the job seperatly- it will contain my auger, postdriver , grab and buckets, but once on site it will be able to tow behind the digger if needed when fencing to carry tools fencing stakes etc. Been so wet presently that I can't get my land up into the fields so it'd be handy for the digger to be able to tow a trailer.

When you say safety galsses , do you actually mean goggles? The only reason I ask is that in my experiance with safety glasses its still very easy for stuff to flick in under neath them. I'm do a lot of work with barb wire and I dread one day of the inevitable, and in the sunshine I'd happily wear a pair of goggles alday but when its raining and muddy I can't get anything done with the ruddy things, forever getting mud on them and then I go to wipe them and even my clothes/hands are muddy which makes it even worse:laugh1: I may try a decent pair of goggles- at least for barb wire work- any recommendations?

Defender tows 3500kg behind but because mine is a 110 pickup I can have about 500kg worth of buckets/attachments in the pickup bed, which is useful for adding a bit of ballast to the landrover pulling up hills etc.

Landrover defender with the digger on a 10x6 I for flatbed. On paper all the weights add up to something like 3495kg, but even the mud in the tracks would bring it over the threshold. Also the digger has to sit backwards on the trailer withe the boom pointing out the back and the bucket sits on top of the blade, its actually very well balanced in this position and landrover tows it pretty nicely. Unless I'm on big roads I do have the transfer box in low to avoid excessive clutch burning on the hills, and the trailer has very good brakes.

It dousn't seem to effect the vision, just hurts. No I haven't seen a doctor other than regular eye tests (every 6 months). I know what the cause of it is and as you suggest safety glasses would seem to be the obvious solution, but given that it rains most days I just can't get onwith safety glasses, they steam up, get dirty and I end up not being able to see anything:laugh1: By the way when I say it happens frequently I probably mean once a month or so.

Didn't think I'd be on my own with this. I must say it seems to be happening quite frequently, wondering if contact lenses I wear may be trapping dirt under it and aggravating the eye when I blink. Good call on the eye drops. Last night it was throbbing- I kept closing the good eye to make sure the sight in the bad eye wasn't being affected! Thankfully it wasn't. Detached retinas and glaucoma run in our family so always keeping check on things.

Wondering, do offer people suffer from this, with all the saw dust and dirt flying around in our jobs I'm sure we are prime candidates for corneal abrasion. Symptoms for me are pain in the eye if I apply very light pressure, or even voluntarily blinking causes pain. Usually goes after 24/48 hours.

Are people following this diet using organic meat and veg, with all the antibiotics found in meat and chemicals on vegetables, who knows what effect this has on our selves. It would be interesting for one paleo diet follower to eat organically and the other not- see if there are any differences.

I don't know how youv'e managed without one if your a fencing contractor? In my experiance a digger with the right attachments is as essential to a fencer as a chipper is to a tree surgeon. Your budget is pretty low unfortunately as they do hold their value, you might be able to find a mid 90s kubota in okish condition. I use my one with a post banger and an auger, plus it does any pre grading works and with the grab on it does any scrub clearance that may need doing prior to fencing. Always getting asked to do ditching and track maintenance with it too- worth its weight in Rhodium! Mines a 3 tonner but a 1.5t is a bit more handy in many cases- being easier to transport, gets into back gardens, sips diesel, As others have said I wouldn't worry about track life too much as they are reletively cheap and easy to replace.I'd be concerned with the slew ring/track motors/pins and bushes on an old machine.

I use the lithium drills for gateposts too, but when iv got several to hang in a day the batteries don't always last so a drill like this would be most handy. Wouldn't have to worry about it getting wet either.

Going by your name, I'd hold onto it- probably be handy for drilling out gateposts for hangers- amongst other things

I thought this too, until I read that one of the them was the owner!

What complete plonkers! They should have been made to swim for their stupidity, good advertising too- not!

There's too many factors involved to give an accurate idea of costs. For example if its mainly a straight line its going to be a lot less then loads of turns of direction which require struts. Average ground conditions and you can get a tractor in I would say £2.3 - £2.8 would be about right if there are a fair few turns of direction If it all has to be done manually then probably looking nearer £3 mark (just labour) Are you sure you couldn't get a small machine in. For example I have a postrammer on a 3ton digger which can reach in amongst trees/over ditches and walls etc. I always use sweet chestnut with telegraph poles cut to length as the strainer posts. Should last a good 20 years plus. Works out just as cheap as tannalised crap.

:001_smile:Not at all, if you are making the changes and feeling the benefits than good for you. My concerns were more with this particular method of dieting (paleo) and the perhaps single track mindedness of the people who invented in. I feel absolutely need to go on a diet because I eat a healthy balanced menu, perhaps mainly vegetarian with smaller amounts of high quality meats , I never seem to suffer from blood sugar slumps, lack of energy or bloatedness, so feel no need to change anything, and that's including plenty of lentils/oats , I never eat fast food or any other crap. We have surely evolved from that diet for a reason and really the bad processed foods have only come in in the last 50 years, which I have no doubt would cause symptoms described above.

What sort of age is the machine- mostly likely a service reminder light. They reccomend that the oils are first changed at 50hours so there's that!

As said, as soon as you add a trailer to any 4x4 it becomes next to useless on any wet mub especially if there is a slope involved. Nearly all my work involves going off road across field/moorland etc and my landrover110 nearly always got stuck if I tried towing my mini digger across- after a few years of it I don't even try anymore, just unload the digger and track it to site and follow with the landrover, possibly using the digger to assist it! Getting stuck is such a massive waste of time on a job, obvious being stated there!

I'm a believer in common sense eating, eat as naturally and unproccesed as possible, but the more I'm reading up on the Paleo diet I'm arriving at the conclusion that its basically more dietary drivel ! Bear with me- I'm not very good at putting my argument into words. Firstly, caveman/hunter gathered ate what was naturally available to them. This would have varied greatly depending on location- I reckon the habitants of Mexico would have had a slightly different choice regarding flora and fauna than England! I can't believe that they didn't have some sort of grain/legume growing naturally. Does this mean that the genetic makeup or our bodies varies according to our ancestors nationality, and regardless we all evolved from Africa (according to latest research) so no doubt English flora and fauna would have been introduced to people as they arrived here and therefore we adapted to it. Im pretty sure Durian has never grown naturally in England. Which brings me to my second point... What's to say that just because a certain food was not available to the hunter gatherers it was bad for them. Humans are evolving and so are our food sources. I can't see how Lentils should be avoided simply because cavemen didn't eat them- I'm pretty sure they would have snapped it up had it been available. High in protein, fibre and vitamins- sounds like a bad idea to me! So my summary is who cares what our hunter gatherer accestors ate. Its irrelevant as we have evolved our knowledge on both production of suitable foods and what is actually good for us. Of course it wasn't available 4000 years ago, but then nor were modern medicines which we all readily accept now as it saves lives. Totally understand eating healthy and unprocessed (although again there's a line between bad processed and good food that has simply gone through a process!) Someone convince me otherwise!...

I'd prefer a land rover

I assume the same rules would apply- if its under 3 years old then no MOT required? With ifors etc holding their values so well it would probably work out cost effective to just replace your trailer every 3 years...

The little lanes we have around us make for very poor economy. Constant gear changes, stopping and starting every time you meet a car. I don't even want to think what my 300tdi does, but recently been towing 3.5ton around and Im sure it seems to be better fuel economy in low range. Take it for a spin on the a38 sometime and see what its like then but I'd say 17 doesn't sound bad towing in the lanes to be honest.

Looks like it has ridiculously low ground clearance, I assume it raises up or something when you start it else its totally impractical for anything other then pavement work (as long you don't have to go up a kerb:laugh1:) Not a fan myself but that does look a particularly blinged up model,

You won't go wrong with any of those options for clearing scrub, the bit more you pay the bit more you get but they all do essentially the same thing. I used to use a fixed 5 tine grab for scrub clearing but I think I'm going to try a rake and hydraulic thumb for my new machine. Perhaps a bit more versatile...

You can't beat a good Camembert served at room temperature on a fresh warm baguette- delicious! Strong chedder is always a winner too.

And it works both ways on that school of thought, I often think if you can strain up a hi tensile good and tight in the winter and the ground is soft, then you won't have a problem in the summer. Summer hard ground can give the false illusion that your posts are in solid only to find in turns into a quagmire in the winter. Although 8inch dia posts machine hammered 1 meter into the ground rarely move in my experiance:biggrin: