aspenarb

+1 I hate the things , they never go where you want them too. Bob

+1 on this but on the small truck side of things they do still tick all the boxes for many . We run trucks anyway for all the clearance jobs but our transit goes off doing small domestic tree surgery jobs during the week with three guys in the cab and a small timberwolf chipper, most days they are out there 8 hours and I would say 90%of the time the transit only comes back partly loaded. So its not one coat fits all but those that have outgrown the transit/4x4 and trailer would soon see the error of their ways if they got a decent lorry. I dont hold with the access thing because I can bend our artic into 99% of the jobs we do and some of those are clearance jobs down normal streets, I think the artic is only 30cm wider than the transit. Bob

What a great little digger and all in under 3 ton, you are probably already wondering how you ever managed without it. Bob

Trying to get a handle on the wattage vs the amount of light these units throw. The lm is the measure of light short for lumen so the 2400lm of these units is low compared to quality jobs which knock out well over 100lm per watt. To try and put it into perspective the good old yard 500watt halogen lamps knock out the best part of 8,500 -10,000lm so you would need 4 of those led units to match one of them for light. Bob

Our lads are in the yard by 7am and work on site till 4pm. If they are done early its back to the yard for a bit of maintenance on the kit or splitting logs. The older of the guys are always in at 6.30am and on the job for 7am. Some of the nippers dont understand that turning up half an hour late when there are four guys waiting to get going + the knock on effect of sitting in traffic is more expense than their days wages. Bob

This one takes some beating LiveLeak.com - Redneck ingenuity at its best.

That makes me feel better ,I didnt think anyone would be brave enough to post up one of those, I will get one of my road king. No micky taking Bob

Go led on the beacons because they only draw a fraction of the current. It doesn`t sound like a big deal but on motorway or any roadside work they are on for such a long time with the engine ticking over the battery will go down. Bob

There is a difference between a work light and a spot light . The work lights on our truck throw a shorter beam over a wider area and dont melt your retinas when you turn around to face them. Spots are a driving lamp. If you look at the lens on a work light they have a crosshatching type of diffuser, so it depends on what you want it for. Bob

They have all got a different take on whats best. This small pine regen will probably get sprayed off, the heather here has taken off well and on other parts of the site its about 2` deep. Some places we work they want the top 100mm of soil pulled off to remove all fertility from the ground , on other sites they let us mulch it off. Both methods seem successful but ours is not the reason why ours is but to do and die Oh and not to question those that know best:confused1: Bob

Depends on the view of the project manager Steve. Bobhttp://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=143449&stc=1&d=1387225101

We have a 100 hectare site to clear and rake for heather regen, we have had this PC130 on hire for a month to do the job. It punches well past its weight and seems to be so versatile ,I think we will have to buy one. Bob 404 - Not found

I think you will find there are incidents daily and its times like this you need to be belt and braces. Here are just a few and if you dig deeper there are hundreds if not thousands of them. Telford rush hour traffic chaos after tractor trailer crash Shropshire Star Welshpool Train Crash Passengers May be Eligible to Claim Compensation - Colemans CTTS Solicitors Boy dies in tractor crash - ITV News Traffic queuing on A38 in Plymouth after tractor crash jacknifes near Forder Valley overturns | Plymouth Herald Tributes to biker killed in tractor crash | This is Somerset Tractor driver dies after A46 accident | Nottingham Post Teenage couple's tractor crash death sparks speed limit warning | This is Essex Although half the time its not the tractor drivers fault it wont stop them being thoroughly checked out. No stones are unturned when there is a fatality . Going back to the wider loads , the tractors have to conform to the same criteria as the trucks on this. Few do but it leaves them wide open if things go wrong, Agricultural vehicle combination maximum width = 2.55 metres This may be exceeded providing conditions are complied with*. 2.55 - 3 m = 20 mph speed limit 3 - 3.5 m = 20 mph speed limit + police notification (24 hours before journey) 3.5 - 4.3 m = 12 mph speed limit + police notification (24 hours before journey) + escort required Bob

Nice truck, load bed is nice and low so you wont be dodging height restrictions all over the place. You will probably end up putting a full time driver on that, the amount of extra work that will come your way when other`s realise you can move kit and sticks is unbelievable. Bob

Its probably going to be the illegal use of tractors and mogs that spoil it for the genuine farmers. The implications of being in a serious road traffic accident when all is not kosher does not bare thinking about. Eg: Mog going on an arb job with a machine on a trailer hits a car and someone is dead. Aside of the death in come the cavalry, police,vosa accident investigation unit and more, The driver is driving on a car license under the agri banner , so we have here an accident involving a vehicle that has no mot plate,o license, its overweight, on red diesel and a driver with the wrong drivers license . Do you think his insurance company will take pity on him and honour a claim that will probably run into hundreds of thousands if not millions of pounds? I think not so we can add the insurance to the list which will probably see the driver put behind bars. I will see if I can find the charge sheet for the driver that was caught with our mog and trailer with kit on as it reads two pages long. Bob

Feast your eyes on this. Especially the bit half way down Re haulage. Tractors become hgv`s outside of the exemptions and need to comply as much as an hgv which is 99% impossible, the same would apply to your driving license. Dissecting red diesel rules - 12/08/2005 - Farmers Weekly Bob

I can answer this one because we have been pulled on it. The answer is no, moving plant and equipment with a tractor or a mog requires them to be plated,on white diesel , used with the right license, O license and taxed. Our driver only got away with all of this because the case timed out due to letters going back and forth , because of this it was dismissed from court. Had it gone on there would have been a very heavy fine and points. Stopped using the mog from that day on because if clever plod get you there is no escape, most spotty young plod dont know the law but the traffic plod definitely do. Bob

I think whats happened here is the tractor rules and regs have not kept pace with the industry. The original concept was for a farmer to drive his fergi between between his fields via a short stint on the roads. Now what has happened is the kit has all slowly gotten a lot bigger and agricultural contractors with the ever increasingly bigger kit is travelling thousands of miles a year with it on the roads between contracts. This is in fact illegal as they are supposed to move them between non estate destinations by low loader. We also have a lot of non agricultural use of tractors on the road like the arb boys and even some ground work contractors using tractors, fast tracks,trailers to move kit about. So yes the rules are due for a shake up , the haulage contractor association is putting a lot of pressure on government regarding the illegal use of tractors for effectively transporting goods on red diesel with no test and no O license as they feel they are being done out of revenue. Bob

bit late now but greasable pins/bushes are best for that application (Quote) You are right but this is how they are made, half of the bushes on these things are plastic which is pants . The bushes that failed had a hole drilled in them to keep the pin located and it was this drilling that was the point of fracture so I never drilled the new ones , I just made the pin longer and used split pins on the outside of them. I dont think long term serviceability comes into it with modern engineering. Bob

You are right it would sound better with a bit of ECHO and a HUSKIER tone. Please dont shoot me . Bob

That is a much better set than the contraption on this transit, that set up is under an old tipper body in the yard so if this gives anymore grief I will swap it over. All these rams have to go this far back because ford have fitted the cross member in the way of the proper location , seems like a fundamental mistake. Anyway straightened out the frame spun up some new steel bushes twice the size of the originals, some new pins and brass bearings on the lathe welded it back together and shoved it all back in . All good again. Bob http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=143064&stc=1&d=1386889936 http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=143065&stc=1&d=1386890147 http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=143066&stc=1&d=1386890225 http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=143067&stc=1&d=1386890319 http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=143068&stc=1&d=1386890388

Its probably much the same beast underneath as our Bedford MK 4x4 watering unit. Just finished five years of watering trees on the motorways and parks so I was thinking of doing the same by fitting a flatbed on the back using twist locks so it can have different bodies or the original tank if need be without all the spannering. Its probably the same as the goddess at about 12ton gross .Tough as old boots. Bob

You bunch of hypocrites, how many of you haven`t tried to dangle cash under the nose of a seller in anticipation of a price reduction? Answers on a post card please. Bob

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=142846&stc=1&d=1386759850 Bob

+1. For your budget a decent second hand quality mig like arctec or esab would serve you better than a cheap chinky set. These micky mouse import things have no duty cycle and you will spend more time waiting for the thermal overload to click back in than welding. Mig is ok in a draft free workshop environment so if you need to be in the middle of a field get a stick welder/inverter . Also worth pointing out is some of these inverters are not suitable for use with a generator so if you need to use it mobile get one that is. Lastly is the supply plug, junk the three pin 13 amp plugs and wire in a proper 16 amp socket off the mains, you wont believe the difference it makes to the weld. Bob http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=142710&stc=1&d=1386664223