LeeGray

Good thread, interesting to see how people got here! Grew up on a council estate. Left school at 16 and worked at the local sofa bed factory until my apprenticeship started. Served my time as a welder at Cleveland Bridge, got laid off just when come out of apprenticeship when factory went from thousands to tens of staff. Worked in a little fab shop and realised how shit life would be if I spent the rest of my life watching a little blue light through a bucket on a my head! Set up self employed mobile welding, little unit etc till lost my license drunk driving like a complete knob. No license meant had to get a local job, worked as a cnc profile cutter and miller. got sick of being covered in dust and shit, set up a gym as was really into fitness at the time did that for 18 months, great fun but no money in it. Buggered off for a bit of travelling ended up working on farms in Australia for a bit and really enjoyed it so decided to give it a go back in the UK. Moved to Northumberland, bought a little fiesta van and started as a handy man/fencer etc on farms. Ended up buying a little farm, selling all of our produce direct to customers and doing a bit of logging, milling, digger work, welding, building, fencing, everything else on the side. Always messed about with cars, bikes, houses on the side for fun and £.

It’ll be mounted on a fully welded steel frame/chassis which I’ll either make as the bed and track for the mill or permanently attach the mill tracks to. Want the full length ready to go permanently really without messing about, otherwise I could just put the thing on my 16’ trailer and overhang.

Assume I’ll need brakes for over 750kg, even if it’s a fixed load and effectively not just a trailer?

Cheers for the info lads

Cheers J, was that single axle? Assume that had trailer brakes too?

Planning on building a trailer for my little woodland mill over Christmas time. I want to keep the full capacity length wise (22’)but imagine the trailers going to be about 8-9m long in total. Anyone towed something like that before and was it manageable? I’ve seen a few drilling rigs around that must be that length and they look stable enough. Is there a restriction on how long you can go? Weight shouldn’t be a problem and I can lock the mill off at any point on the rails to get nose weight/balance correct. Was hoping single axle if I can keep the weight down enough. It won’t do many miles, mainly for use in the yard rather loading and unloading one side only in the shed as I do now. But I want to keep mobility at the full length if possible.

They mustn’t be included in the ‘full bell end pack’. I think its a Ford test to see just how much depreciation was possible

Great. Just let me know when your ready for some and we can sort something out, the oak will be heavy work if you want a big chunk but it’ll roll off the trailer easy enough.

Oh dear! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2013-Ford-Ranger-2-2-TDCi-XL-Double-Cab-Pickup-4x4-4dr-EU5/283260025147?_trkparms=aid%3D888007%26algo%3DDISC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140328180637%26meid%3D709e3b681a38461399289361a851654e%26pid%3D100009%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26sd%3D372512219543%26itm%3D283260025147&_trksid=p2047675.c100009.m1982

I’ve got a recently felled beech approx 14-20” dia and oak is well seasoned upto 30” dia. Also got Seasoned birch, larch and poplar upto 20”, fresh ash and birch upto 14” if any use. Can cut whatever length you want, I can load with machine my end if you can get off your end? Failing that size depends on how much you lift and roll off your end. Full load would be £150-£200 depending what you wanted, delivered. Cheers, Lee

Hi Alan I could do you a trailer load of oak and beech. Delivered to you

Daft for sure. I always right my top bid down in the catalogue so I don’t carried away and stick to it. The whole ‘well I’ve come all this way’ doesn’t stack up to me, there’s always someone who doesn’t need to make money at it ? Buying new can often work out the cheapest over the service life of stuff, if you buy right anyway. Had a few bargains that turned into money pits like everyone else I imagine.

Be a hell of a tool that, but what’s it going to retail at? £40k I’d imagine

Always the same at auctions, people go daft. Seen stuff go for more than new before! Never goes that way when your selling though eh

I find variety is the best thing for me and I try to do everything myself where possible picking up new skills and experiences as I go. If I priced my time at what I charge customers I’d never do anything other than quite boring, repetitive stuff and be very unhappy. I much prefer to be self reliant and that comes with motivation of its own. Obviously massive mortgage helps when the boring but well paid jobs are on!

Good roof rack would take plenty of weight, I was thinking of building a half length one for mine. Handy for odd bits, carrying fuel and mounting some work lights, but to be honest you could just put them in the boot easy enough and put tools in the back seat and foot well if needed

If you’d have been close you could have taken it for a day to try it out. Don’t be tempted by a diesel, there either expensive for repairs for the V6 or V8 or dog slow for the td6. Things to look for are full service history, ideally few long term owners, gearbox oil change done despite meant to be a lifetime sealed box. Look for something without a tow bar, most have the factory fit frame and harness and you can just add the hitch and socket straight into plug in wiring harness. Check the mot history, some I looked at had been clocked...one of them twice! Radio faults..everything electrical is connected via central computer modules and radio faults usually signify corrosion in the system. bits not to be worried about..suspension, air bags and height sensors are cheap and easy fit, brakes as above, leak in the boot..the seal goes but again cheap and easy to sort.

It’ll pull anything in high box on any slope I’ve come across, one hill farm I work with a digger or other machinery of similar weight on regularly the Isuzu could get up in low just, the 90 struggled without spinning the wheels low box diff locked and eventually killed the clutch. The range just drives up in high box and even changes up as it’s going despite having 6t plus pulling back down the hill. i use the low box to keep the speed down otherwise before you know it your doing 30mph round the fields. hill starts are a piece of p**s with the auto box too, it’ll hold the full weight then just tickle the throttle and off it burbles. Its why I keep banging on about them, they really are incredible and I can’t believe people are put off because they’re ‘so expensive/thirsty/complicated’ when they’re not if you look at depreciation and real cost of ownership.

12-15 mpg clocking the mileage properly between fill ups, computer can be a bit generous . I’d imagine probably similar usage to you I.e. leave it running on yard whilst loading/before towing, no motor away miles, up and down dale, bit of low box work in the fields. Does 25mpg on a motorway run quite happy but I rarely use it like that.

L322 vogue, don’t bother with lpg as it’s just another headache. Few pics below, not bling at all and no one ever says oh flash, charging too much etc it’s spent most of the time towing stuff like that, and the boot capacity.

Not sure how much standard obd reads, I’ve got a Hawkeye which is a good set up for resetting most things. Happy to help if I can.

What’s the problem with it? Have you had it plugged in for diagnosis? If you were near I could lend you my reader but opposite end of the country. A lot of the time it’s a simple sensor and plug and play replacements normally cheap.

4.4 bmw is the one I’ve got and really like but some like the jag engines.

Petrol v8 Range Rover with a good roof rack would be perfect for you Matthew. Cheap as chips to buy and keep on the road, even if you kill it’s engine or gearbox you can sell what’s left and not lose more than a grand. I’ve had mine coming up two years and it’s the cheapest actual cost motor I’ve ever run for work and I’ve had new Isuzu and Nissan pick ups, new and old defenders, discovery, traffic, primastar vans etc

Hi Alan Are you you looking for specific species? Do you want green or seasoned? Whereabouts are you?