difflock

At a decidely judgemental 53 years of age I have concluded that most drivers have never outgrown their unthinking teenage years, and generally fail to read the road and the traffic, whilst taking time of day and weather into the equation. I therefore mostly drive in defensive mode, this does not necessitate driving any slower, and can indeed allow one to proceed faster bytimes, especially on roundabouts. What I really want is a horn switch located under my left foot, then since I drive a DSG or the SDP auto, I can really carve them up, all quite correctly and legally. Pet hates (i) Poor lane discipiline on roundabouts. (tailgating) (iii) Unthinking pedestrians walking through the closing gap as one attempts to reverse park in a tight space. Sometimes while leading a child by the hand. (iv) failure to slow and flash one out when they are approaching a tight right turn, and they could more easily swing in by letting one clear the road end first. But no keep coming and make a proper feast of getting turned round ones bonnet. The best or worst example recently was as I was driving behind a tractor with a 4 fur plough on the back, along a poor country road. Not a mission of getting past so tootle behind. Another car came up behind me and stuck very/too close to my bumper. Approachiing a farm place on the left hand sde, the tractor started to slow, I thought, chances are he will be turning in here, so I hung back a bit furthur. Dork behind dd not think and decided to pass us both as the tractor slowed. Tractor driver indicated and proceeded to turn in left Well whadday know the plough swung out, what else could it do? just as brain dead driver got abreast of the rear furrow. ****** near **** himself, and I still dont know how he got squeezed through the gap, but hey it warnt his fault was it, it was that bloody farmer.

Mark, that is indeed the obvious means to determine the correct weight.:001_tt2: As any Civil Engineer (even failed:blushing:) would appreciate. However, whilst also appreciating that heli pilots are probably less cognativelly challenged than most, I bet more than a few are fishermen at heart. So when relating the tale, which payload figure are they most likely to use?, especially down the pub. Cheers Marcus

A couple of considerations vis-a-vis the "weight" of the trees Since F=M*a The effective "weight" of the trees would be increased by both the acceleration of the heli as it lifted, plus also the drag of the air resistence. I will not attempt to quantify by what %age applicable. PS Comes of being married to an Astrophysist (female btw) for 20 years.

The best IW is actually a BJ's:001_tt2:

Erm, iffen merely a demo I understand the clip, but I pulled a heavier (subjectively / vsually) load behind the ould 1490 through Moss with a bog standard russian wheeled single axle log trailer. That "going" is proper hard and good. PS When I did get the trailer laired on one side only, I swung the single heaviest stick out as far as possible to the hard side suspended on the crane, and drove out away, a trifle hairy but hell the trailer only cost me £2000 with a couple o hundred extra for the Russians which I fitted myself. Cheers M

I found this US supplier but cannot seem to find a UK equivalent Surplus Center - 9.59 CU IN PTO DRIVE MOTOR Cheers M

It is my understanding that our Van is the identical spec to Tom Sheppards, other than the LHD?RHD issue. I also understand that of the 30 or so sold in the UK, most of the rest were heavy duty types, and that ours is one of only one or two to the standard spec. Sussex Fire Bridage bought a batch for rapid response vehicles. I would say one reason they are now so valued was the installation of the 120 HP turbo intercooler Merc engine as per the Sprinter van usuage. An absolutly perfect match with virtually no electronics to go wrong, and the electronic controlled Bosch high pressure rotary pump is now old hat and widely understood/fixed. My biggest problem is that she is happiest cruisng at 60 to 65, and will easily cope with extended Motorway work at Motorway speeds.......but I generally want to go slower:lol: So as to look over the hedges, without crashing. Cheers Marcus

Having has a plethora of dogs from the Council Pound. (i) They visit the vet to get castrated or spayed or only if badly ripped up in a fight (happens every few years with the ever changing mix) (ii)Generally their next visit to the vet is to get the big needled, i.e. put down. Any wound needing less than 5 stitches is def NOT for the Vet, purple teramicin spray is good. They get ad lib cheap dry dog food, eat **** for fun and have unlimited access to clean water, but appear to prefer wallowing in sheaughs and drinking distinctly off colour water. They also are allowed to roam free up the moss when on walks. They also share our bed. They invariably live to 12 or 15 years unless hit by the Post Van (only happened to one mind) Cheers m

((i) In 1982 as a student I went to some sort of motor show in the Kings Hall Belfast, where I drooled over the recently (1979) released "G" Wagen, I was especially impressed by the underside/suspension/engineering. (ii) In 1982 I also happened to join the Officer Training Corps (((33% female (nurses and students) plus cheap booze and the opportunity to travel (to Barrybuddon like))) Where I first enjoyed the Land Rover Experience, I was truely impressed by their capabilities (and ease of repair to a farmers Son) (iii)Fast Forward to about 2004/2005 when I went shopping for a beat up Land Rover, for me to fix up and the children to larn to drive in (off road obviuosly) I spoke to Frank,our local Land Rover Guru ( Jamison Landrover Services?)) in the village vis-a-vis the costs. £3000.00 for a scrapper, £5,000.00 for a rough but reasonable driver. I then found that "G" Wagens were CHEAPER, Didnt rust out, plus most bits easily and cheaply available across the local Motor Factors counter ( Merc Vans) PLUS, They sure as hell drove better across country ( and so acknowledged by a local farmer/contractors Son) The 460 diesels were it must be (Cough!) admitted a trifle lethargic on the road. (iv)I then bought the Van direct from Automotive Technic. I missed the car type which was disposed of by them a few years previously ( I surmise), currently back on the market after a re-spray at I kid you not £35,000.00 I Paid £8,500.00 for the Van Currently worth about £25,000.00:thumbup: Tee Hee:001_tt2:

An I will try again

And Dog in Van cos I canny afford a Mog for him.

PS Van sits for 2 or 3 months, fitted with a battery of indeterminate age and pedigree. And starts!! Every time (fingers crossed so far incl the -15 of Dec 2010)

Am a hogging this thread

Practise makes perfect

an again an again

Boy I's is on a roll now.

Dooh!

Lemme see if I kin master this darned technologh

I do appreciate that tyre choice, tyre tread remaining and last but not least INFLATION pressure are more important than the chassis on which they are mounted. I reversed down a steep bank to turn in a tight spot, and then failed to make forward progress, simply spinning on the very stiff but greasy wet red clay. A bit concerned since I had dropped the Mrs. off in the back of beyond and was due to collect her. Before mobile phones, this was, or we didny have any leastwise. After reducing the tyre pressure to probably not much over single figures in PSI's , she simply drove out with very little fuss and no revs or clutch slipping necessary. Prior to letting air out there was only about 30 PSI in the tyres. Phew!

Sniff, One simply engages the factory fitted dff locks and drives or reverses out, assuming one is still running the proper factory spec tyres. If one drives a Steyr Daimler Puch Van that is:001_tt2: Which SDP van is now conservatively worth twice what I paid for her about 8 year ago:thumbup: Tis a pity about the constant 24mpg mind:lol: If I said that an otherwise identical spec vehicle but car type instead and a year older with more miles was on the market for £35,000.00, with viewers coming from South Africa to view:001_smile: Van 1998, car type 1997, seriousley!

As I slowly get organised in respect of firewood production, I am fairly well set in the notion of going down the Continental route, why re-invent the wheel after all> All I need is a strapping Gizmo and to fabricate a semi-circular frame with hydraulic closing top section(s) to clamp/force the billet nice and tight and round, then strap it up and then onward mechanically handle with a agricultural round bale fork, on a forklift mast. I reckon the strapping has to be cheaper than vented bags? I suspect this might also be a way of selling to those who fancy cutting their own sticks with a chainsaw. Since I would be using Polywhatsit strapping, they simply cut the still strapped bundle to length as desired when they get it home. Then cut the straps, worth a try and it will cost me no extra, or I run the opened billets through my wee cross cut saw. My only as yet unsurmountable problem is getting the bloody trees out of the Moss down an unpaved peat rodden, generally only get about 4 weeks in Feb or March to do so. I will admit I am better at theorizing than actually doing:blushing: But today I got the SolarBayer log boiler jury rigged and working,absolutly 100% despite a totally disfunctional, and therefore bypassed, mother-board. I'm not an electrican, but! hey its only 230 V.

The hottest I ever got the Morso was when burning the hardwood offcuts from the joinery work to our house, after picking out any potentially useful larger pieces,(an I still got them squirreled away) the flue directly above the stove was glowing bright cherry red. More than once. I was quite impressed. Would that be considered "overfiring":lol:

One would to perhaps consider hyd oil capacity and hyd oil cooling. Though more a problem if driving a hyd motor as opposed to a single ram I dd at one time price up a PTO(tractor 6 spline type) for the DB 1490 to get 300 bar for a linkage mounted crane. Only a wheen o hundred, but one minor bollocks was the oil supply/resovoir location, otherwise a no-brainer.

Per the above, been heating on a mix of Lodgepole pine and Sitka this past 5 years. Advantage (i) Easier to kindle split logs direct, Advantage (ii) No kindling needed (in a stove) Disavantage(i) More carrying involved due to bulk density Disavantage (ii) It will not burn overnight like Birch or other Hardwood. Actually works better in our relatively oversized stove as it limits the heat output from an always stuffed to capacity firebox.

A relatively longer tunnel will possibly/probably be better, IF located on a slope as the warmed air will rise and create a draft, thereby dumping the acquired moisture. we have 2 No. 28 foot by 80 foot tunnels here at work, used for plants, but on a slope to aid ventilation, to prevent "damping off" and other problems. cheers m