waterbuoy

I have a late D3 (2009) that I've done 150k in over the past 3.4 years, mostly fully loaded and a lot of off road, with a lot of towing too. Frankly, it is the best vehicle I have ever owned (and that includes 3 Range Rovers, D1 and D2 etc) It carries more than the 110 I had as my last vehicle, and the huge difference is that after a long journey you don't feel totally knac**red EGR valves can be easily fixed (usually by blanking off), the 'big' service is not at 130k miles but earlier and/or at 7 years, Electric park brake has not been a problem for me at all. I'd suggest you avoid the HSE as their sunroofs can cause issues.... Plenty of good indy garages now have the skills to do the work on the D3 without having to pay main dealer prices, which can keep servicing costs down. My 150k service was £465 including front pads and discs and brake fluid change Take a look at Disco3.co.uk and do your research - there are a lot of duffers out there, but that forum is well worth spending a couple of nights using for research before you make up your mind.

Only just found this thread, but the following may/may not be of interest: I had need to park my old 110 and a 20' Ifor trailer overnight in central London about 6 yrs ago. Amazingly I managed to find two legit spaces on a side street off the Edgware Road, and even managed to reverse the trailer in to the space without hitting any other vehicles or re-sarranging any of the street furniture. Left trailer overnight locked to the 110, but put a ticket in the windscreen of the LR for both the LR and another for the trailer. I also placed a note on the trailer explaining what I had done. Came out in the morning to find a parking ticket stuck to the trailer. Took legal advise as I was severely pi55ed off, and was told to pay up as they (ie solicitor) felt that I had failed to display a valid ticket on the trailer itself. Other than confirming that Westminster City Council are a bunch of money grabbing sh*ts, it also confirmed that the trailer is regarded as a separate vehicle in its own right.

Can't help but think that it is the contractors and/or their insurers who should be paying for this!

It is one of the few things that they have got right here in Scotland - thus far, no fines. We speak with the school before any planned absences, and the teaching staff are usually very supportive and understanding. They have often said that time spent with the family is far more educational than a week at school, but I appreciate it depends on circumstances (and age of the children). For those of us whose income is related to tourism we have no option other than to try and get away outwith term time

Take a look at Anchor Pumps, based in Warrington. We use them for our 110v pumps that we use all year round for pumping river water - some come with a very good warranty too. Heat Pump ? Shower Pumps ? Grundfos ? Lowara - Anchor Pumps

Argyll Agricultural Engineers in Oban made up some pipes for an oil cooler on one of our boats last year - may be worth a try (up past the police station then turn left at the top before you drop down to turn right for the Calmac terminal)

Agree with James - the top one is cleaner and more versatile

Common theme here:- Deeside - building a shed around a wood processor Lanarkshire - building shed around log processor Argyll (me!) - building a shed around my chipper and splitter Must be something to do with our wonderful climate north of the south!

I've had seven different stoves in my last three houses. Most of themwere cast iron (usually from Vermont Castings) - the stoves were OK but innards tended to distort after a while. The steel ones tend to deform least (all Clearview) when using the same fuel etc. Just to throw a spanner in the works, my favourite was actually a Dutch stove which had a cast iron outer frame but in which the main panels were actually made of soapstone, about 20-25mm think. Whilst it may have taken a good while to warm up it gave out a very steady and uniform heat,often running for more than 24 hours between fills. Sadly I cannot remember the manufacturer.

I have a Brownchurch one that might suit the bill for you It was custom made for my 300Tdi Discovery (ie Disco 1) - has full side rails but a clear front and back so I could use it for ladders etc. A 50mm (I think) welded mesh base, and a full width roller at the rear for putting on ladders, pipes etc. Less helpful - I'm working in Ireland this week, but will be back on the 'mainland' on Sunday and can take some 'photos if you are interested? From memory, it was about 8ft long - at least I remember I was able to transport over 20 sheets of 18mm ply on it, which made cornering an 'interesting' experience! Don't let my location put you off - I work all over the UK - eg I have some work to do in south Cheshire next month. PS It is galvanised

I don't know about Opepe but in the case of both Iroko and (I think) Cedar you might be best not to try and paint them but leave lightly oiled with (say) Danish oil. The natural oils in the wood makes it very difficult for most paints to effectively bond,but is the reason they have such longevity.

What type of powered winch do you have in mind?

6mm galvanised (7 by 19 with a steel core) (ie not fibre) when new has a SWL of c. 500kg and a MBL of 2.5 tonnes; for stainless it is a little less than this. This gives a FoS against the quoted 30kg of significantly more than the 5 which is required by the various regs (ie LOLER and, in some cases, PUWER) The 6mm is more than man enough for the job in hand. The only downside over using this instead of (say) 10mm is that whilst it will sit higher when not under load, it will stretch more when loaded. In this instance this should not pose a problem.

I'm based just south of Oban, but travel all over the UK - Northern Ireland via Glasgow and Coatbridge this week. If you have any contacts in these parts I can leave some cable with them for you to try. Sadly I chucked away some 150m lengths of 6mm a couple of weeks ago, but have a 65m length of 6mm sitting outside that I removed last week, and probably more if I rummage around. The fuel costs are likely to be more than the cable is actually worth so it makes sense to try and collect from a mutually convenient mid point - I have to head up to Fort Bill in a few weeks time for example. As others have advised, the sag will increase proportionally with span. However, my previous comments and calcs were based on a level cableway. If you are running your '30 kg' timber down a steepish slope then the sag will be less as there will not be a static load, which is what we use for our load tests when setting the cables.

We install and load test cableways over rivers for flow measurement purposes. I'd suggest that you don't need to use a 'full size' steel cable for the majority of your span - 6mm (7 x 19 will be flexible enough) should be more than sufficient. Make up an eye in each end so it can be shackled at each end - one to a fixed strop around a tree etc, and the other to a strop which can then be used to tension through the tirfor or similar device. That way you can easily carry the coil of 6mm by hand rather than having to lug around a large coil of 9/10/11 mm cable. Tension wise, we set all our cables to sit with a sag of 2% of total span with a working weight of 50kg, ie a 1m sag over a 50m span. We can set the cables to this tension using a simple 750kg chain hoist. Unfortunately I am some way south of you on the west coast as I have literally miles of scrap cable here which would be suitable for your purposes!

I think you'll find it is a drill bit from the Rotabroach mag drill which is in the same shot - the 'nail' is the centre bit which slides inside the cutting bit to activate the lubricant