Jump to content

The new news 24 thread


Father Ted

Recommended Posts

5 hours ago, egg said:

Ages ago, I remember @Joey spudsaying a set of low level caravan ramps can be useful for certain jobs. So, I got myself a set for Xmas.

Because I work* in the road, I think they are more comfortable to use than a jack and stands because they don't pose much of a risk to anyone else. There's a few jobs that can be made easier from rust proofing and cleaning to minor bodywork and mechanical tasks. I know one is slightly overbalanced here, so I need to work on positioning.

1352128906_IMG_20201218_1523162.thumb.jpg.08b6a97f825b2c4ef9bb0dc6553ce928.jpg72987829_IMG_20201218_1523392.thumb.jpg.eed03fa2aac5786ba53c42f071bf9758.jpg

You can get a couple of different sizes of these plastic ramps. Those are the low ones, there's a bigger version that are surprisingly strong as I use them with my motorhome which is just under 3.5 tons (plated at 4.3 tonnes) and are dead useful for oil changes etc as well as the design use of leveling the van.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And home.

DSC_1421.thumb.JPG.bf40109fb5817cbe4707d86c2309862c.JPG

That was indeed a long ass drive.   Kent is a bloody long way from NE Norfolk when you're in a 75bhp 3.5-tonne Iveco.  It drove OK though for what it is - temp gauge sat steady, no warning lights were on and it hummed along happily at 56 with the lorries, although it did slow down a bit on some of the steeper hills.

It does need a bit of loving though.  It has a few electrical gremlins (stop sniggering up there in Chester) - main beam doesn't work, I think it's the switch as the flash function works, and the indicators flash a couple of times and then stay on - I think that's an issue with the trailer electrics, and will easily be fixed by fitting an electronic flasher unit.  It also has a blow in the exhaust, so it gets a bit noisy when one floors it (which one does quite often in one of these)

Other than that it's not bad for what in the current climate is a pretty cheap van.  And it has over 10 months' test left so should last me a while.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

Bit of a surprise as I was leaving work today - no pics as it was dark, but there were two silver birch Aston Martin DB5s on a transporter with the same number plate. BMT614L. Film props? They weren’t replicas I’m sure.

That’ll be a £6,600,000 load, then,

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/aston-martin-db5-goldfinger-continuation-makes-public-debut

AEA6BFC3-4826-4E2B-96D1-60C4677EFF3C.thumb.jpeg.298ec5fee147649473e0c53020f5e961.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, stuboy said:

??

And I Claim My Five Pounds.

It stems from a very old newspaper competition  where a mystery man would go to a seaside town with a copy of the paper in his pocket and if you identified him you won a fiver.

You had to say You are Lobby Ludd ( I think) and I claim my five pounds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, egg said:

Ages ago, I remember @Joey spudsaying a set of low level caravan ramps can be useful for certain jobs. So, I got myself a set for Xmas.

Because I work* in the road, I think they are more comfortable to use than a jack and stands because they don't pose much of a risk to anyone else. There's a few jobs that can be made easier from rust proofing and cleaning to minor bodywork and mechanical tasks. I know one is slightly overbalanced here, so I need to work on positioning.

1352128906_IMG_20201218_1523162.thumb.jpg.08b6a97f825b2c4ef9bb0dc6553ce928.jpg72987829_IMG_20201218_1523392.thumb.jpg.eed03fa2aac5786ba53c42f071bf9758.jpg

That's a bloody good idea...I am totally getting a pair of them.

Getting to the oil filter on the Jag currently requires me to faff about jacking it up, getting axle stands in (which is a chore in itself) etc...With these I reckon I might just about be able to squeeze in the gap to reach it...Still a pain in the proverbial as it's almost directly above the left hand exhaust downpipe...but that's always the way with these things.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

That's a bloody good idea...I am totally getting a pair of them.

Getting to the oil filter on the Jag currently requires me to faff about jacking it up, getting axle stands in (which is a chore in itself) etc...With these I reckon I might just about be able to squeeze in the gap to reach it...Still a pain in the proverbial as it's almost directly above the left hand exhaust downpipe...but that's always the way with these things.

I'd be a bit worried about how much weight those ramps can support. Also I'm not sure they're really designed to be fail safe enough design have someone under them. Alright for the extra height to get a jack under though. 

I personally like to jack a car up and put my metal ramps underneath. A lot less hassle than axle stands plus a car is (usually) pretty stable on its wheels. Jacking it up and putting on stands, rather than driving up is a lot less risky. No chance of them slipping out when driving up and no chance of driving off the end. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A minor Tipo update. After its recent £916 welding/MOT indulgence it has had the good grace to continue to be reliable and pleasant to drive. I splashed out a further £23 for a pair of tailgate struts last week because my swearing when my skull was attacked by the hatch catch was upsetting the neighbours. Last week in a fit of man logic regarding what the hell to do with 50 or so cassettes cluttering up my hi-fi, the answer became clear. Replace the Tipo's aftermarket Radio/CD player with a radio/cassette player. This would enable me to play my way through the cassettes to see which were worth keeping, a task far too tedious to do while sitting next to the hi-fi in the house. The Tipo now has a NOS Sony XR-5800R obtained for an extremely reasonable £40. So far I've listened to one tape, a compilation of late Beatles stuff that I recorded yonks ago and last played when I owned a Renault 20. The tape is ok - it did not jam - but someone, probably my kids when they were younger, had randomly added tracks of their favourite rubbish music and also had had finger trouble with the settings.  It's not  a particularly high quality cassette tape and I can re-record the material from CDs if I get desperate, so that's the first one for the bin. At the current rate I'll have finished checking the tapes by 2022. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, SiC said:

I'd be a bit worried about how much weight those ramps can support. Also I'm not sure they're really designed to be fail safe enough design have someone under them. Alright for the extra height to get a jack under though. 

I personally like to jack a car up and put my metal ramps underneath. A lot less hassle than axle stands plus a car is (usually) pretty stable on its wheels. Jacking it up and putting on stands, rather than driving up is a lot less risky. No chance of them slipping out when driving up and no chance of driving off the end. 

Yeah, I'd definitely make sure they weren't the only thing supporting the car.  Though I'd think they're pretty sturdy, the axle loading on a camper fully laden in camping mode isn't exactly small.

Getting the Jag onto the full size ramps is a major pain because it's so low, has that damned splitter on the front and a huge front overhang.  None of my jacks go high enough to get the wheels onto them without doing highly dodgy feeling two stage nonsense...and even then it feels precarious as the tyres are about an inch wider than the ramps.  You also become very, very aware of how heavy the drivetrain is when jacking the front end up!

The quoted kerb weight is somewhere around 1700kg as I recall, and 450 of that is just engine and gearbox!

As you say though, I'd be making very sure that there was a secondary and tertiary backup on hand.  Just would be nice to reduce the setup for changing the oil filter to 10-15 minutes rather than "about an hour" if I can.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@SiC - good points, and things I considered. There is another style of these ramps called leisurewize sold by Argos and others that had reviews about collapsing even though they are rated for 5 tonnes (as are the ones I have).

But in the end, the rating doesn't matter if they squash you. The ones I bought have a square structure underneath which looks resilient, but I wouldn't be crawling in and out for hours with them. I chose them as easy to drive on and inconspicuous to use in the street compared to the higher metal ones.

They will provide easier access to the i10 oil filter and when I eventually change the front bumper and wing due to the accident, will make the process a bit more comfortable. As the i10 is about a tonne (kerb weight) I think it will be ok. Mondeo is 1.3 tonnes, so I think I'll will use them with it too.

Will update if I have any issues with them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How much do they cost? They look more structural than the random wood I usually use to get the xsara nose up over the ramp bottom (usually I don't care and scrape the fuck out of the bottom of the bumper but the xsara is so blobby I fear it'll rip off) 

Said wood usually only lasts 2 goes before it snaps with a crack that makes all the birds in a 1/4 mile radius fly away... Could be an easy to store set of ramp extenders

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use them sometimes just to get a bit of height so I can get the trolley jack under easier.  They are always in the back of the camper, have used them to get underer the camper before too when I had a problem with the camper and I was away from home

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

That looks right, I misremembered the plates obv.

Also at work this morning, something that looked like a batmobile but was a Lamborghini veneno. Not heard of it but many millions of £!

A2B13E6B-DEAA-4E94-9A8F-F855BE20A10F.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

Also at work this morning, something that looked like a batmobile but was a Lamborghini veneno. Not heard of it but many millions of £!

A2B13E6B-DEAA-4E94-9A8F-F855BE20A10F.jpeg

Ha, to me that looks like one of those OMG replicas of a Lamborghini made from an MR2 and loads of isopon and plywood.

Money truly does not buy taste

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, richardmorris said:

That looks right, I misremembered the plates obv.

No, they all come with the James Bond number and childish bits, possibly not even road legal like the DB4GT Continuations they did  last year. Presumably if you’re that rich you’ve already got Astons you can drive on the road .

Such is the James Bond obsession of even wealthy adults, see also the Mercury Cougar from OHMSS going for £300k + at auction this week. You’ll probably see that through the window soon!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Stanky said:

Ha, to me that looks like one of those OMG replicas of a Lamborghini made from an MR2 and loads of isopon and plywood.

Money truly does not buy taste

It wasn’t pretty. And a truly tasteless one was £7million!https://uk.motor1.com/news/373869/most-expensive-lamborghini-auctioned-veneno/

 

 

D3097ACE-EFE0-4D4C-A67B-554734C4BE55.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After a wee break from tinkering I've just picked up an 05 Honda Jazz auto, quick look over and it's a decent wee car, idle surge issue which I think I have sussed out. I need a project over the xmas time as I seem to get very depressed every year. I haven't driven an auto for years so did the left foot on the brake error and near went through the bloody screen :) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, wesacosa said:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MotorMugs?fbclid=IwAR06qVvIgXfwziWUZSGoT3juQj5Cbuc35Kp2nUK5Bb4rxEkR5TAzLw9t1wA

Just seen these when browsing. No idea if they any good or not but look quite cool

 

That's a good selection of random crap cars. I wonder if they'll expand the range? I mean Capri and Sierra will appeal to a large market but the Renault 25 and Toyota are truly niche. Were they just picked at random? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...