Craig.

As Jon said, the gearboxs can be a bit weak, and don't like rough handling, all the ones I`ve seen with problems have been manual type with two sticks, one with A & B ranges forwards and back, and the other gears 1-4, with tortoise and hare across to the left, not see dynashift ones with trouble, so can`t comment on them. Some gearbox problems, can be just external linkage problems under the cab, or unseen internal damage/breakage. Try it to see if sounds and feels right. Front axle, regular checks for play/regular greasing, more so with loader fitter,but no more of a problem than any other brand. Engine, fairly bomb proof perkins. Electrics, The is a black box under the O/S cab floor for linkage, 4wd, diff lock, etc, Have seen corrosion on the wiring connections here giving problems, but a easy fix cleaning/remaking these, also the box can fail internally/burn out, it is possible to do away and rewire for the diff lock/ 4wd just wont work automatically. Not had any linkage problems. PUH, is swing back type and can wear on the pivots, so rattles a bit with trailer on. Cabs and doors can suffer from rust. If you can find a well looked after good one, their not a bad tractor, and very good on fuel, with a good hydraulic output for a loader. The snoopy front is good for loader work, a mate of mind has one with loader, and has no overheating trouble, contrary to what some people say about the snoopy bonnet, and has been a good tractor for him, he has an other standard bonnet 3065 with about 10000hrs, been ok but needed a gear box repair a couple of years ago.

DPF is diesel particulate filter, looks like a silencer or cat in the exhaust system, its to trap very fine soot particles.

I have a shell, Texaco fastfuel, and UK fuels.

From personal experience, comparing my fuel cards price to that of a haulier buying in bulk, the is next to no difference some weeks slightly more, some slightly less. Saying that sometimes pump price comes close if super markets start a war between them selves. As said, paper work, and security swing it for me with cards. If you get a card try and get more than one, and from different company's so to keep them on their toes, price wise, they can get carried away with you using one card week in week out.

Goaty, you are right about the ships using it, but things are changing in certain areas of water regarding emissions. The simple fix for ships is to use low sulphur diesel, downside demand might increase fuel pump prices for us all. http://www.poferrymasters.com/low-sulphur-flyer.pdf Sorry for the derail On the plus side waste oil may be cheaper/ free again for your kiln or furnace, which in theory should work out quite cost effective.

The workshop heater was quite clean burning.

Yes, a visual check only as far as I know. Some of the `kits` for sale just seem to have a piece of pipe to replace the dpf, so would be no good. A bloke I know did the same as you on a bmw he had, he was a tig welder by trade, so that helped.

We used to have a waste oil heater in the workshop, a self contained unit just needing a flue and providing blown hot air, could be used in a kiln no doubt, the one in your link must be a lot more fierce to create the heat needed for the furnace. A lot of garages are paid for their waste oil now, only pennies per litre, but still, not so keen to give it away.

UK government :lol:

Just be aware if removing the DPF, It wont pass, or shouldn't pass its MOT. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-rules-for-mot-to-test-for-diesel-particulate-filter

Off the link, Most vans are under 7.5 tonnes laden (loaded) weight and must follow the speed limits for goods vehicles of the same weight. This includes Ford Transit vans.

Your 3.5t transit can do 70 on a motorway, but 60 on dual carriageway, and 50 on single carriageway. See gregs link, goods vehicles not more than 7.5ton

First bit of snow of this winter to settle this afternoon, rumbles of thunder then about 10 minutes of hail then turned to snow for about 1/2-3/4 hour. Road and yard stayed white for about an hour afterwards, just a bit left on the short grass now. Just looked out snowing lightly at the minute. In North Wales

As the others said that would be fine. You probably know this but, I found doing the bottom two turns over my thumb as well as the line, making it easier to bring the tail back through, while keeping the knot tighter so easier to dress, if that makes sense.

Just had a look on the last ewgs costing and the version I had, august 2011, stated roading cost codes had been removed? Nearest I could see was timber stacking area, N/A Timber stacking areas Use the small car park (A22) operation and cost for similar specification work Square metre £ 20.00 A22 Small car park Small car park (up to about 10 cars) A22 Excavate to 300mm depth and fill to 150mm with clean hardcore. Surface with minimum 150mm of new hardcore (Type 1) with topping of fines to bind surface. Each parking bay requires 5m x 3m, plus turning space (1.5 x car length). Can also be used to create stacking areas where a similar specification is required. Square metre £ 20.00 Giving £80 a metre on your 4m road? Maybe try and get hold of an older issue for an idea, or possibly a newer version might contain road costing again. Not much help sorry:blushing:

I would go for a double axle if possible, weight wise a 8ton twin axle would tow better than a 6ton single.

You've been unlucky there, harsh on the points, I think it is still an offence though. A bloke I used to work for, his brother was a traffic police man, he would sometimes come on the yard and say something like `last week we where checking for racing exhausts on road bikes` or `break away cable's on trailers`, maybe this was his target for the week.

I have put 265/70r17 on my new shape ranger, no problems with clearance on full lock, a very slight increase in ground clearance, and I reckon the speedo is more accurate as I always felt it read a bit faster than you where doing on the old tyres, with the new tyres checking using sat nav, and gps speedo on phone, its still reading a bit fast, but better than before. I can live with that. On a side note, I have just had a new replacement tacho fitted and calibrated in my truck so used that as a bench mark to check the accuracy of the sat nav and gps speedo on phone.

Make sure the handle that operates the clutch is returning all the way back when released, on mine if it hasn't been used for a while the lever sticks a bit, and makes it drag a bit, a quick spray and work the lever back and forth a few times sorts it.

I find it works better when the material is dry, and don't be greedy with the amount in the bucket, the material has room to move and you don't have to shake it as much, more of a tip and crowd movement so not shacking to machine about. Also I found while waiting for the dumper to come back sprinkle bucket full`s onto the top of the pile and let the bigger stuff to roll to the bottom then load from the bottom of the heap, very little riddling needed then.

On the web site you linked, what about the `ram lock` put the legs down and use one of them on the leg rams?

Thought about it this morning, the was ice on the puddles on the yard, but it turned into a nice day. Won't be long before it lit though I would guess.

I know you talked of stickers for the tools in some super sticky material, how about some larger stickers in normal material, (cheaper?) material for trucks/van, with some thing like, "all power tools registered on arbsafe" or something like. Advertising your site, hopefully putting off thief's?

I had a leaflet off the Atkinson Vos stand, tp200 mobile £19960, and tp200 mobile turntable £22360

Top job on this Steve, hopefully once word gets around it will help out with the problem of theft. I`ll try and register some gear later.