AHPP

Le prix si vous vu. Le prix plus le prix si vous m’aidez. Christ my french is rusty.

No need. Widely acknowledged.

I'd like some wooden plates. I often eat off boards. Need a lathe. Need space for one first.

Someone enquired about the bruising to my ego. Absent. Gave me and a pair of visiting friends a laugh and now I know the trick for clearing a locked engine. I probably wouldn’t have been so chipper about it if I’d goosed it of course but there you go.

Not very easily at all. They’re good machines. I tipped both fully knowing I was pushing limits. The diesel one I properly turtled hooning it round a downhill corner on a bank, the absolute worst manoeuvre for a thing like these. The petrol one yesterday I clamped a standing tree, step cut it and tried to drive off with it like an umbrella. Tree was too big. Had ample time to put it down etc but was trying to save it to see what could be achieved. I’m at my proving ground, where I test stuff to see what I can get away with. It doesn’t matter if I lose time or break anything (squashed a shit stock fence on this occasion). Dad just shouts at me for a bit but he enjoys that anyway.

You were doing so well until I noticed the nice knife on the ceramic plate.

As of yesterday, I’ve now rolled both brands and both engine choices. The lovely little Honda only needed oil daubing out of the cylinder to stop it hydrolocking and then fired straight back up. Did the rest of the day and all today. Ne’er a grumble. The diesel one last year just worked after being left upright for an hour. Did lose more oil from that one. Real world consumer advice there.

Unrelated to smoking but frequent gearbox oil changes recommended on Masters btw. They’re not fill-to-spill either. My 5 speed manual takes 2.8 litres.

As in the tapered mating surfaces or the stem seals? Please report back on your findings. I’m trying to learn more about mechanics. My turbo shaft is thankfully tight. I have now also made it up to 75 btw. Maybe I don’t have a leak. I am carrying a quite pikey load.

I don’t think I know enough to advise but if I had to guess, openspaceman’s theory about blow by and crankcase pressure sounds plausible. The Facebook groups often discuss injector seals but to be honest I don’t know exactly what they do. It is a known issue though. I did have a slightly oily boost pipe earlier in my ownership. I’ll be inspecting that in the next few days as it happens. I’m currently doing 65 with my foot on the floor. I suspect I’m leaking boost.

I have one of those with the 2.5. It smoked a bit. I put about ten bottles of redex through it and drove it hard. It doesn’t smoke now. Not hugely technical I know but hopefully helpful. Good van. Would have another. Buy an oil filter housing cap with a hex moulded into it btw. Same price as the stupid 18 sided tool you need to take the factory one off (I used jubilee clips and a hammer until I found the replacement cap for sale).

We weren’t enslaving Jews. They’re probably counting that.

Are there any no-standing-charge (grid) tariffs available at the moment? Last time I looked the only game in town was Utilitas and you had to have a smart meter.

A friend commutes from Hartlepool to Sunderland and often takes the back way though through the scruffy villages east of the A19. He reported once seeing a couple of tracksuited lads out collecting scrap with a trailer made from a couple of van axles, being towed by a horse. He suspects the horse wasn’t aesthetic choice as much as necessity.

That can’t be real?

Would still be interested in seeing it though. I assume the high and low gears are the opposite way round down there.

Ah. Well spotted.

I’d be interested in seeing it, maybe even buying it.

Mine is the Marlow stuff, white with black flecks. Polysteel (green) sold on ebay has a good reputation. The garden variety blue stuff is silkier. Couldn't say for sure but gut feeling is that it won't be as good.

A big steel biner saves tying knots btw.

My three strand is 16mm. Compared to thinner stuff, it's easier to grip and more resistant to damage from nicks, abrasion etc (with cross section increasing by pi as diameter increases). Still knots fine and is piss easy to splice if that appeals. Kernmantle or double braid "nice" rope is stronger and just generally nicer for a given diameter but you don't want to ruin it natural crotching or just being a brute. I'd be amazed if you needed 16mm in nice stuff. I do 95% of my rigging on 12mm double braid. 16mm double braid is heavy chunking rope. You wouldn't be asking for advice if you were doing that. I don't know your use but if I had to guess, I'd say 16mm three strand would look after you pretty well.

I personally want a small one that I can use for odds and sods, up a tree etc, more like the Notch. If I was buying one to use as my main rigging device, I'd go for the Stein RC1000/2000 because they have the top hanging point that saves you bending over to thread it.

Plus what Mick said.

I'm always surprised at how big saws hedgelayers use but that's coming from someone who doesn't know much about hedgelaying. I assume you need the power for those long, steep, diagonal cuts?

I rigged for years on hairy three strand. Still comes out on most jobs for a tagline, driftline, buttline etc, if not principal rigs. I often use it to flop something down and then pass it onto the main system (usually Hobbs). There are tricks to make friction quick and relatively repeatable up in the tree. I like it. Portawraps are mint (begging the question why I still don't own one - someone sell me a small one please). Mainly like them for pulling/lifting stuff with a truck and being able to let it off. I used one to do a poplar the other day, the base of which was so tightly crammed between sheds that the Hobbs would have been a pain to use. Bollard wouldn't have been any better but would have been heavier to carry from the van and harder to strap. I'd rather have a portawrap than a fixed bollard used by a less skilled rigger. A bloke nearly killed me twice because he couldn't strap a bollard tightly enough and the wraps tipped onto themselves and held a piece that needed to run, twice. You can't balls up a portawrap as easily.