LeeGray

10 hours ago, Ian Clarke said:

 

 

 

What about this with a cutter head on it???

 

 

Shit! Sometimes I forget I’ve got my blade down...take a hell of an operator to get the best out that. Possible geometry is mind boggling. 

1 hour ago, Rough Hewn said:

I'm looking for a cheap 4x4 if anyone has one for sale.

Got an old piece of shit 90 200 tdi that really must go but it’s probably worth than everything else I own!

Court issued 3 points and £200 fine, knocked down from £300 for prompt guilty plea so not as bad as was expected really. 

7 hours ago, dicky said:

I’ve got one for my Avant that the dealer gave me. Let me know your email, I’ll send it over. Cheers

I’d appreciate a copy of that too dicky, if possible

[email protected]

Cheers

Longframlington. I’ll have a look for it, know I stashed it somewhere as was going to put on eBay or use it at some point but I’ll never get round to it in reality. Wasn’t a top spec bit of kit probs about £1500 new Like 10 years ago but they’ll have come down in price masses since then. 
 

If memory serves it’s something like 30a charge/5 or 6 kw.

Loved being off grid when it was necessary but also love having a grid connection now, makes life so much easier if not as much fun! Kids used to actually play and read and we only had masses of tv, computers etc on when it was windy! Now they just play Xbox all the time and I’ve got no excuse to turn it off.

18 hours ago, billpierce said:

Not surprised on a sunny day like today you found outside jobs rather than digging inside! Was up to my elbows in silted cundys around the house today. Sadly alot of it has been "repaired" by previous owner which seems to consist of smashing it all to bits every few meters and watching the hole fill with water and leaves.

Still keen to get over and see your solar setup and pick yer brains a bit. Got that to sort out next

Bill if you’re off grid I’ve got an inverter charger you can have. Did us for years off wind/batteries/genny till we got grid connection, can’t remember size or spec but I’ll dig out if any good to you. It’s a bit smoke stained off being in power shed with genny but should work fine. 

I bought one of amazon renewed desktops about 6 month ago to replace a failed all in Lenovo and a failed jp before that both were reasonable money ad I expected more than a year or two from them. The renewed one is actually the best I’ve had, super quick, massive memory and no rubbish on it. 
One of the kids needed a desktop for uni as laptop was not powerful enough for some stuff he does, I showed him the one I got for £150 and he said similar new would be about £800. They come with twelve month warranty but you need to buy all the bits to go with it. I bought him one for Christmas with fancy big screen and wireless keyboard and mouse for less than £350 and all his tech friends are jealous. 
Think they are ex bank or government or something?

A lot of the benefit seems to be tax efficiency. After running new vehicles for years and looking at the depreciation and general cost I decided to run second hand and do something else tax efficient with the money. Like buying machinery which doesn’t drop like a stone the minute you sit in it.
 

I think it really depends what you want. Some people really like new cars and are happy to pay through the nose to drive one. If I was buying new again it still wouldn’t be leasing as it’s still the most expensive way to run a car. 
 

Anyone heard the new hi lux ad on the radio at the minute? Only £199/month? Yep after £10,500 up front you can do max 24,000 miles then a further £12,000 if you want to buy it after the 4 years.

My maths make that minimum cost of approx £15,000 for the first 24,000 miles. Then you’ve still got to pay tyres, brakes, service, getting the scratches sorted before you hand it back. Paying the admin fee because you don’t want to buy at the end and the admin fee at the start to get the thing in the first place. Must work out about 80p mile before you even put fuel, insurance and a man in.

tje person who buys it at the auction pays £10-14,000. Probably could do another 100,000 miles, service when they want themselves, not worry about scratches etc and still sell it four years later for £5-8. So they get four times the mileage for a third of the price. 
 

and the pleasure of not dealing with idiots at the franchised dealer!

Thanks for the replies, put my mind at ease a bit. The forms and license are in the post, I’ll just have to wait to see the outcome and hold onto the ‘WANTED chauffeur’ job listing I have ready.

New plates make a massive difference as does a really good scrape/clean out and tension up. A little bit of grease goes a long way too. Can’t remember if the new plate kit (about £100 if I remember correctly) comes with the plate sequence on so take note of the plate numbers when you take the old ones out. 
I used a seed/feed type dumpy bag to catch the feathers works better than extracting into drum type set up.

It’s a Citroen nemo which I thought was car derived like the astravan it replaced but checked the log book and it’s tax class as goods vehicle so surprised I haven’t been done sooner to be honest as done 70,000 miles in it at car speed rather than van/pick up speed thinking I was alright.

Haven’t had any points or driving convictions for 20 years plus but they show previous convictions that will be considered. These were drink driving and dangerous driving when I was a 20 year old idiot! I thought they were gone after 7 years not decades!

Been clocked at 72 on the a68 in the little van. Limit is 50 (I thought it was 60)

filled in the first letter saying it was me driving now had a court summons and no offer of fixed penalty as speed too excessive. 
 

Ive filled in the form as a guilty plea and enclosed my license then started doubting the system, had a quick look online and now worrying a ban may be on the way.

Anyone out there had a similar experience? Comments appreciated. 

Why bother doing the self employed bit. For £7000 a year? By the time you’ve paid for a vehicle, gear and all the insurance etc there won’t be anything left. Or is it £7000 profit you’ll have after all the costs?

9 hours ago, doobin said:

Good choice. My mig250 has been faultless and the cut 50 good too. Did 12mm stainless no bother last week. 
 

what models did you go for? 

Same mig set but just the 30 cutter. Got a job coming up replacing ag shed legs which are only six mm ub. So hoping it’ll do that clean and save a day of grinding. Never used a freehand little one before so will have to mess about with it a bit first. Any good tips for set up and using?

Plasma cutter and new mig set, just arrived so no one knows about it! Shhh

34 minutes ago, Khriss said:

InLondon, yr man can get a CIS card n go on building site fr 120 a day, no tools no skills. Sleep in his car an go home fr weeknd. Aint a lot of compulsion to work in Arb here tho'  at rates paid round here. Never mind housing costs. K

And rent his car out for the bloke on nights to sleep in for £50/night. Cheap for London son!

On 28/12/2019 at 16:32, aspenarb said:

Not sure whether Hombase are in trouble but they are selling off tools quite cheap. Bought the two measuring wheels and two big tapes for a tenner each, seem to be good quality. Best to reserve them on line and check out availability before trudging down there.

 

Tools | Power Tools, Hand Tools & Tool Storage Clearance | Homebase

WWW.HOMEBASE.CO.UK

---

Find great deals in our Tools clearance event. Available online and in store.

 

Bob

 

 

 

Was a good tip off thanks Bob. Got a 2 of 60m tapes, 2 good big sledghammers, 3 750mm quick clamps, good looking tap and die set, and loads of welding gauntlets for less a hundred quid. Stopping stocking certain items apparently. Got 4 estwing hammers a while back in home base for same reason, proper job £75 type for £30. I’ll have to spray them pink or something though as the leather handles make them invisible to man.

Honda are the best all round and cheapest to own and run. Polaris and can am are good fun and plenty of power but expensive to own and run and not very reliable. Good Honda for a couple of grand will do all you want and sell for not much less years later

7 minutes ago, donnk said:

you spec the mileage at start so no payment at end.

Try specing 30,000 miles a year for four years and the payments will be more than the cost of straight vehicle purchase.

20 hours ago, Rough Hewn said:

I'm open to most ideas,
Had a v8 petrol disco, burnt the clutch out in 3 months. £200-250 a week in petrol.
Ideally a diesel for towing, but also taking crew and kit off road.
My only concern with mercs is the cost of repairs.

If your doing 600-700 miles a week towing and off road I’d definitely be looking at buying new and not leasing or the payment at the end will be massive due to mileage and wear.

With a mog, Land Rover, all the gear and three men surely you need to be above the vat threshold? 

You lads running new stuff must have had much better service than me, had 3 new Nissan vans all had problems and the service was poor and ridiculously expensive. New Isuzu pick same, new Land Rover 110 the same. All seemed to think they had you over a barrel as they new it was financed and you need to keep everything right for warranty and re sale. Ironically the new stuff all had more problems than any second hand vehicle I’ve had since. 
 

The service at Land Rover was appalling from start to finish, Couldn’t help but laugh when the reason the £32,000 one day old 110 wouldnt pull the trailer above 40mph was the turbo was hanging off. Rang Land Rover dealer who did the deal literally the day before “ if you bring it in, we’ll have a look at it” was the response! Should have trailered it the 65 miles back or set it on fire that day and saved myself years of problems, arguments and cash.

10 hours ago, GA Groundcare said:

Not these days! RRC seem to of gone up lately. If you can find a road worthy not rotten example for 1k let me know! ?

 

3dr classics are mental prices now.

 

When starting up 5 years ago I bought a 2002 Disco 2 TD5 Commercial for 2k. It was spot on. 

Not talking classics, wouldn’t fancy running that as a work truck much as I’d fancy one as an appreciating toy. Early L322 can be had with decent mot for £1000 now. No one wants them.

RH just pick up an old v8 Range Rover for a grand and if it goes wrong scrap it and get half your money back! Tow 3.5t and mine goes places my defender wouldn’t.

i assumed I’d be scrapping mine within a year, it’s now nearly three years and about 40,000 miles heavy towing in and still not gone wrong. Cheapest and best work vehicle I’ve ever owned.