Furniss
Well-known member
They are going to have to learn new skills.Problem I find is getting there attention back as you end up doing most of it by machine they tend to wander
JerryRtilt
Well-known member
Its worked out well for me as the old boy that works for me was starting to struggle, no chance of finding a decent replacement, so i can often get him doing something he can manage, or he just has it a bit easier, only trouble is when he feels he needs to do a bit and just gets in the bloody wayIm not suprised at all, its saving lots of time and making life easy (just as well as as im walking wounded with a broken rib 2 days ago)
An interesting side effect I hadnt considered is the banksman roll (unless watching for something) is a bit redundant, suppose it will take a month or so for things to settle down into a rhythm again and and people knowing where to be and what to be doing when,it puts pressure on the banksman/woman (labourer) to be productive in other ways, leaning on the shovel is over
.Without the tilty i would be struggling now.
doobin
Well-known member
Nightmare journey to Hull yesterday to collect this from the docks. Truck started dying around Lincolnshire, luckily I was on the A15 behind tractors! Limped into Scunthorpe with a hunch that it was the fuel filter. Stroke of luck- RAC bloke outside EuroParts. Bunged him Ā£20 to read the code- yup, large fuel leak. That nearly always means blocked filter on these Mazda based rangers. Euro parts had the filter- but no spanners. Off I go to Halfords (heavy traffic, towing an 18 foot tri axle) and am relieved of Ā£87 for a full set of ratchet spanners (might as well make it worth the trip). Parked across eight bays- from looking around at other customers you need three for a Honda Civic with bodykit so fair enough I thought.
The CCTV footage from Morrisons would be worth a laugh. I pulled in blocking four pumps with the trailer and truck to give room to get out again. Popped my card into the pump, jammed the nozzle in the filler and held it on with my keys. Popped the bonnet, did the worlds fastest filter removal (nearly s**t myself when at first I couldnāt get the water drain out, realising I had no large grips) and then primed the new filter from the pump. Stuck it back in, started her up and then held it at 3k until I dared let off lest it all need bleeding leaving me stuck there!
Set off to the docks through snails pace traffic. She was better but still threw an error and switched off if you put your foot down more than a smidge. By now I was determined to at least pick the machine up, reasoning that if I had to be recovered I should at least have a full trailer and get my moneyās worth/save doing the whole trip again). Got to the docks, had to beg to be let in as had no ID- Iād asked Finnlines directly if I needed any and they said no! Then sat in the wrong lorry queue for ten minutes until a friendly driver pointed out my error. Very friendly people up North, I must say. I liked it. Nobody here down South would have let me out of the industrial estate, waiting will there was space to fit the trailer too. They were all a bit pasty/unhealthy looking though, but that might just be Hull.
I was dreading the drive back with a poorly truck, driving on 1/4 throttle. The tuning chip gives me impressive torque at low throttle however, so I was able to get moving. It seemed to start to improve on the journey- I wasnāt daring to give it too much but she was happily motoring along at 55/60. As I got close to home I gave it even more throttle and she seemed OK- got to clear to codes and test properly (with mates recovery on standby!) but hopefully sheās OK now.
The damn thing would not strap properly! Despite using 8 straps, pulling fore and aft on both āhalvesā of the machine, they constantly came loose and I couldnāt work out why. Yet another friendly Hull boy racer shouted across that they were loose whilst at the Humber tollbooth. Ten miles on, loose again. Frequent stops in motorway HGV parks ensued, and on one stop I decided to check the Bluetooth trailer lights. I was aware that Iād be running close to the battery life, so had brought a charger cable. Iāve got two sets from the same company- one is bluetooth trailer lights, the other battery magnetic warning flashers. Both very very handy. Sure enough, the lights were dead. I had a few hours of daylight, so I figured Iād charge them for a couple of hours and then reattach. My rosy optimism as instantly replaced by calculations of how far I could get before dark when I realised thatā¦ the chargers are different! One mini USB, the other round jackleg. Guess which I had? f**k!
Midway to the next services, I had a brainwave. Pulled over, used my side cutters to cut into the dodgy trailer wiring and connected the jump pack to the brown/black and earth to white. Result! Full ring of lighting. No indicators but thatāll do!
Rest of the journey was smooth (well it felt smooth, I was nearly asleep) except when I got to the A34/272 junction and all the M3 traffic had been diverted onto the same roundabout. Absolutely chocka. Cost me anther twenty minutes. The truck is rattling like Iāve never heard before, but im pretty sure itās just the side steps. Left at 5am, got back at 10PM. I really donāt want to do that again in a hurry.
This morning I had a play on the Log Bullet. Was congratulating myself on how intuitively I was operating it. Tucked the grapple in, set off across the field to try it on the timber stack only to find out that it had slipped sideways due to not stowing it properly (should have read the manual first) and knocked both grab pipes offā¦.
The CCTV footage from Morrisons would be worth a laugh. I pulled in blocking four pumps with the trailer and truck to give room to get out again. Popped my card into the pump, jammed the nozzle in the filler and held it on with my keys. Popped the bonnet, did the worlds fastest filter removal (nearly s**t myself when at first I couldnāt get the water drain out, realising I had no large grips) and then primed the new filter from the pump. Stuck it back in, started her up and then held it at 3k until I dared let off lest it all need bleeding leaving me stuck there!
Set off to the docks through snails pace traffic. She was better but still threw an error and switched off if you put your foot down more than a smidge. By now I was determined to at least pick the machine up, reasoning that if I had to be recovered I should at least have a full trailer and get my moneyās worth/save doing the whole trip again). Got to the docks, had to beg to be let in as had no ID- Iād asked Finnlines directly if I needed any and they said no! Then sat in the wrong lorry queue for ten minutes until a friendly driver pointed out my error. Very friendly people up North, I must say. I liked it. Nobody here down South would have let me out of the industrial estate, waiting will there was space to fit the trailer too. They were all a bit pasty/unhealthy looking though, but that might just be Hull.
I was dreading the drive back with a poorly truck, driving on 1/4 throttle. The tuning chip gives me impressive torque at low throttle however, so I was able to get moving. It seemed to start to improve on the journey- I wasnāt daring to give it too much but she was happily motoring along at 55/60. As I got close to home I gave it even more throttle and she seemed OK- got to clear to codes and test properly (with mates recovery on standby!) but hopefully sheās OK now.
The damn thing would not strap properly! Despite using 8 straps, pulling fore and aft on both āhalvesā of the machine, they constantly came loose and I couldnāt work out why. Yet another friendly Hull boy racer shouted across that they were loose whilst at the Humber tollbooth. Ten miles on, loose again. Frequent stops in motorway HGV parks ensued, and on one stop I decided to check the Bluetooth trailer lights. I was aware that Iād be running close to the battery life, so had brought a charger cable. Iāve got two sets from the same company- one is bluetooth trailer lights, the other battery magnetic warning flashers. Both very very handy. Sure enough, the lights were dead. I had a few hours of daylight, so I figured Iād charge them for a couple of hours and then reattach. My rosy optimism as instantly replaced by calculations of how far I could get before dark when I realised thatā¦ the chargers are different! One mini USB, the other round jackleg. Guess which I had? f**k!
Midway to the next services, I had a brainwave. Pulled over, used my side cutters to cut into the dodgy trailer wiring and connected the jump pack to the brown/black and earth to white. Result! Full ring of lighting. No indicators but thatāll do!
Rest of the journey was smooth (well it felt smooth, I was nearly asleep) except when I got to the A34/272 junction and all the M3 traffic had been diverted onto the same roundabout. Absolutely chocka. Cost me anther twenty minutes. The truck is rattling like Iāve never heard before, but im pretty sure itās just the side steps. Left at 5am, got back at 10PM. I really donāt want to do that again in a hurry.
This morning I had a play on the Log Bullet. Was congratulating myself on how intuitively I was operating it. Tucked the grapple in, set off across the field to try it on the timber stack only to find out that it had slipped sideways due to not stowing it properly (should have read the manual first) and knocked both grab pipes offā¦.
Furniss
Well-known member
Sounds like a proper c@#t of a day !!
Might just be worth it though by the look of that
Might just be worth it though by the look of that
doobin
Well-known member
That song was indeed running through my mind!Sounds like a proper c@#t of a day !!
Might just be worth it though by the look of that
William127
Well-known member
Bloody hell sounds like one of my days! Still, what a machine to end up with after it all
S
Smiffy
Well-known member
How come you went for a dedicated forwarder and not a timber trailer for the alpine ??
JD450A
Feral as Fk š¾
Because who wouldn't want the little Tykes forwarder.
V8Druid
do it as well as you can,but learn to do it better
so was the clutch a wire?@V8Druid - shamed me into a morning fettling... sorted, even a bit of fabbin to make your eyes hurt
View attachment 51207
View attachment 51206
Furniss
Well-known member
no it was spinning but the deck lifting mechanism had collapsed underneath so belt wasnt touching pulley 
Long hot week !
Last edited:
S
Stroppymonkey
Well-known member
Went to grab my plant trailer from farm in the Dmax and realised hitchlock keys were 12 miles away in the Transit, was on a tight schedule so 60 seconds with a claw hammer and I was in, disappointed with how s**t this lock is! If I'd had a decent prybar and a practice I think 15 seconds would be enough to remove. Any suggestions for a worthwhile hitch lock? I have to use them for fleet traiker insurance.. but I'd quite like one that works!
Attachments
pettsy
Well-known member
I use a āstrongholdā one like this on my Ifor, not sure if they fit others.
S
Stroppymonkey
Well-known member
Iāll try one. My crane trailer is hard to pinch as I always drop the legs down when stored .. but my plant trailer with micro and muck truck and buckets and whacker and pecker and Auger represents nearly Ā£30K + vat and Iād quite like to make it a little bit more secure ā¦
S
Smiffy
Well-known member
Best way is fabricate your own setup. Then they can't practice before hand
Lancs Lad
Well-known member
I've always used bulldog...certainly looks a lot heavier guage than that thing
V8Druid
do it as well as you can,but learn to do it better
trouble with all of this style of lock is it only take two bolts to remove the hitch head from the tube and replace with whatever yer brung
doobin
Well-known member
Because the FETF grant was 3k for a trailer or 25k for a mini forwarder
plus an alpine and trailer is hard work anywhere but on the flat.
Lancs Lad
Well-known member
Well doob I can't argue with that...except to say you got out of Hull alive so that's a bonus
Jealous of the logbullet
looking forward to seeing it in action 
M
Monkeybusiness
Well-known member
Ā£25k of free dosh towards that?!!!!Because the FETF grant was 3k for a trailer or 25k for a mini forwarder
Wowsers, thatās some mega paperwork boxticking effort, total no brainer, what a great result!
(Iād never heard of that grant, thatās insane!).
Footer block 1