The new news 24 thread

[Tenmil Socket]

On 1/2/2021 at 6:12 PM, Stanky said:

If anyone find these bag things please either point me in their general direction or buy me 5 and I'll willingly pay good money for them!

I buy about half a dozen of them whenever I see them, typically in Home Bargains, Poundstretcher and the likes. They work a treat in my MX5. Normally they fill up over the duration of a month during the wetter seasons. I need some more actually so if I find them I'll pick some up for you. 

[Cord Fourteener]

Locked in, snowed in, skint, going sledging with the kids today then!

Hyperbole edit: going to have to go to a shop at some point later.

[andy18s]

12 hours ago, Cavcraft said:

 

Stand to be corrected here, but wasn't the old Vivaro based on a Renault, rather than the other way round? It would explain the shift to a re-badged PSA van as maybe Vauxhall's new owners didn't want to be in bed with Renault.  

Also sold as the Nissan Primastar

[Split_Pin]

A pass on the Audi today.

Brakes will be from it sitting during lockdown.

Exhaust has had a slight blow since I won it 2 years ago. 

Nearside CV clicks a bit when turning out of junctions, done that since I won it 2 years ago.

Wheel bearing has been an advisory for a few years now, should probably address that but I haven't heard anything from it.

Overall it looks as though there's still plenty of life in it and the advisories don't have that end-of-life look.

 

 

[Eyersey1234]

1 hour ago, Tenmil Socket said:

Although I'm not a huge fan of decorating, it does get easier with practice.

I quite like painting to be honest, not so keen on papering though I found this pattern a bastard to line up properly 

[wuvvum]

14 hours ago, Yoss said:

So it's hire van time again. I've not had a hire van since before Christmas. But first let me explain why I have it. My normal van, a 12 reg Pug Partner has said on the display 'risk of filter clogging' for a couple of weeks. I'd ignored it for a while but mentioned it to the bloke in charge of our vans yesterday. I know you can somehow clear the PDF filters by going for a blast down the motorway but that's never going to happen on my duty. To get to a motorway, go for a blast and come back is going to take best part of an hour. So he says, and I quote, these three words in this exact order, just rag it! The man in charge of our vans says Just Rag It. I want that on a T shirt. So I thought why not and as I pulled out into Shirley Rd I left it in second gear up to 30mph and stayed there til I caught something up. When I backed off the dashboard sign changed to 'Engine Fault' and it went into limp mode so I could rag it no more. More worrying (being in limp mode isn't really a problem, I only do six miles a day which is why we have problems with the DPF filters in the first place) was that when I got to my first drop the cooling fan stayed on in full hovercraft mode. This was worrying because I thought it might flatten the battery and I was right at the start of my delivery. Turns out it would turn off after about ten minutes but if you only moved it a hundred yards it would come on and stay on again. So I used it less than normal, parking it in the middle where I would normally park it twice and just walk a bit further. 

 

Anyway, I made it back and chucked in a defect form and this morning I was given this. 

Which claims to be a Vauxhaull Vivaro but it's not is it, its obviously some sort of PSA device with a Vauxhaull badge on. We also have a Citroën flavour one on hire, it's obviously the same thing. 

This is obviously part of the PSA takeover but first impressions are not good. It's not as good as the previous Vivaro in any way except possibly the turning circle but even then it's nearly four turns lock to lock which is completely unnecessary for anything with power steering. 

Then there's the seats. 

They have pleather edging but the fabric bit was also slippery. They were flat hard and slippery with very little support. And the brakes are standard PSA which is either on or off with nothing in between. Which basically means trying not  to use them and just coasting and using the gears. You can't approach junctions with any confidence as 1mm extra pressure on the pedal results in in your neatly* stacked piles of packets all ending up against the front bulkhead in one big pile. 

 

The steering wheel was a horrible hard plastic, even harder than my Favorit which at least has the excuse of being from a 1980s communist country. Coupled with the fact my hands were freezing and had also gone hard and and shiny (the temperature peaked at 1° around lunch before dropping back to zero by 2 o'clock ) made it quite hard to grip. Coupled with the very low gearing made for an unpleasant drive. And it was barely faster than my Partner was in limp mode. 

And there was an old shower cap round the gear lever. 

Don't know why and I left it well alone. 

It made me wonder why they couldn't have kept the previous Vivaro and put PSA badges on that but then it occurred to me that that is also the Renault Trafic. I know there is slot of badge engineering in vans but to have Renault and Peugeot versions of the same thing might be a step too far. Which got me wondering what's going on at Luton these days? Genuine question, does anyone know. The 18 reg Vivaro I had last year had a Made in Britain badge on the back so I assume that was Luton. So did they also make the Renault and Nissan versions of the same thing? I assume the van I had today was made in France as it really is just a Pug and it certainly didn't have a Made in Britain badge. I'm sure if Luton had shut I would have seen it somewhere but what are they making? 

 

And finally, this amused me. 

It was diesel but the power bit was lacking. I'd not heard this before but it did sound like all their other stuff. 

 

What's the button on the side of the gear knob?

[artdjones]

4 hours ago, Jazoli said:

Going for a 'blast' down the motorway does nothing to help a regen, the cooling fans constantly running would have meant the van was trying to regen, and you turned it off mid cycle, and ragging it in gear does nothing to help, I don't know why people are not told this stuff, they will regen quite happily around town but on multi-drop vehicles end up getting turned off mid-cycle, if only the manufacturers would fit a big red warning light on the dash saying 'do not turn engine off, regen occuring' a lot of these problems would go away.

My Doblo used to ping the light up for dpf stage 1 blocking, but I learned to recognise the signs that it was regenerating (fan on, slightly higher idle, smell) and would never turn it off until things went back to normal, even driving past my front door and round the block for 3 or 4 miles. After that, no problems, but that's not very practical in the middle of a delivery round. It's surprising the Mail haven't tried out lpg vans.

[somewhatfoolish]

Turbo Boost obvs?

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

What's the button on the side of the gear knob?

[Cavcraft]

6 hours ago, catsinthewelder said:

I'm fairly sure that the disappointing van you drove was made at Luton. 

All the Renault Traffics, Nissan NV200s and Fiat Talentos are presumably now made at whichever french factory made the hightop versions (which wouldn't fit through Luton).

The new Vivaro and it's French and Toyota brothers doesn't have a hightop version so solves one problem.

We used to have Vivaros at work but switched to Renault Traffics as the new one looked a bit small.  Sounds like we dodged a bullet.

 

The NV is a nice little van.

[Yoss]

8 hours ago, catsinthewelder said:

I'm fairly sure that the disappointing van you drove was made at Luton. 

All the Renault Traffics, Nissan NV200s and Fiat Talentos are presumably now made at whichever french factory made the hightop versions (which wouldn't fit through Luton).

The new Vivaro and it's French and Toyota brothers doesn't have a hightop version so solves one problem.

We used to have Vivaros at work but switched to Renault Traffics as the new one looked a bit small.  Sounds like we dodged a bullet.

Thanks, that was what I was wondering. It's just the old ones have this nice badge on. 

And the new ones don't. Maybe they are ashamed of the new ones. To give it more credit than I did yesterday I had it again today and had to go and put some diesel in it. This involves a short  40mph section which is where I noticed the cruise control was set to 31mph! I dialled it up to 45 and it felt much perkier even at lower speeds. I'm not used to these modern* toys. 

5 hours ago, wuvvum said:

What's the button on the side of the gear knob?

It is not a button at all. It looks  like one, it looks like a release knob on an auto doesn't it? I saw it and tried it but it's merely cosmetic. Just a moulding in the gear knob. I was as disappointed as you are. 

[Yoss]

9 hours ago, Jazoli said:

Going for a 'blast' down the motorway does nothing to help a regen, the cooling fans constantly running would have meant the van was trying to regen, and you turned it off mid cycle, and ragging it in gear does nothing to help, I don't know why people are not told this stuff, they will regen quite happily around town but on multi-drop vehicles end up getting turned off mid-cycle, if only the manufacturers would fit a big red warning light on the dash saying 'do not turn engine off, regen occuring' a lot of these problems would go away.

See, I didn't know that and I don't get told that. I suspect our fitters don't know that either. It explains what it was doing. Either way diesel is really not suited to what we do. It's about a mile to the start of my delivery then I never do more than a couple of hundred of yards at a time, usually less, then a mile back again. Total of 6 - 7miles a day. The newer vans are petrol for this reason but electric would be perfect for this work. These vans replaced bicycles. 

[Ghosty]

9 hours ago, catsinthewelder said:

whichever french factory made the hightop versions (which wouldn't fit through Luton)

I think that's Sandouville (Renault Trucks). Went there with Junkman in his R16 in 2019 (Sandouville was built originally to make R16s) to ask for a look around while we were holidaying in the area.  They wouldn't let us in as there was something new in development that was under embargo (that'd be the now-current Trafic?). 

[bunglebus]

https://www.motorsportauctions.com/category/329/Historic-Rally-Cars/listings/44743/BRAND-NEW-MST-2020-MK2-on-70-plate.html

[Split_Pin]

9 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

https://www.motorsportauctions.com/category/329/Historic-Rally-Cars/listings/44743/BRAND-NEW-MST-2020-MK2-on-70-plate.html

WOULD (given half a chance)

[SiC]

3 hours ago, Yoss said:

See, I didn't know that and I don't get told that. I suspect our fitters don't know that either. It explains what it was doing. Either way diesel is really not suited to what we do. It's about a mile to the start of my delivery then I never do more than a couple of hundred of yards at a time, usually less, then a mile back again. Total of 6 - 7miles a day. The newer vans are petrol for this reason but electric would be perfect for this work. These vans replaced bicycles. 

According to the label on the windscreen of our A4, if the DPF warning light comes on, it says to keep the revs between 2k and 3k while driving. 

Can you sense when the DPF is regening? On our A4 I can tell when it is as stop/start is disabled, engine bay fans on full, incredibly hot when getting out of the car and I can hear a ever so slight roar when driving. 

[somewhatfoolish]

3 hours ago, Yoss said:

See, I didn't know that and I don't get told that. I suspect our fitters don't know that either. It explains what it was doing. Either way diesel is really not suited to what we do. It's about a mile to the start of my delivery then I never do more than a couple of hundred of yards at a time, usually less, then a mile back again. Total of 6 - 7miles a day. The newer vans are petrol for this reason but electric would be perfect for this work. These vans replaced bicycles. 

Why did they ever get rid of the bikes? I liked my bike, whizzing down hill when I finished, at risk of the marginal drum brakes not stopping me and becoming a bonnet mascot on the Council bin motor or whatever lumbering pantechnicon wheezed into my careening path. Green too, something people make a fuss about these days.

[Yoss]

5 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Why did they ever get rid of the bikes? 

You're gonna need a bigger bike, to paraphrase a well known film. This is an exaggeration as it was taken a week before Lockdown Christmas Armageddon but the job has changed and is much more packet based. 

[somewhatfoolish]

Need one of those butcher's bikes or a trike even!

[brownnova]

9000 now has a years ticket as of today.

Took it to the Saab specialist and asked him to give it the once over whilst he was Mot-ing it... he commented that for the age and mileage it was in very good shape.

Now the 9000 is sorted time to move the 900 on, oh wait there’s a lockdown... bugger. 

[Cord Fourteener]

10 hours ago, brownnova said:

9000 now has a years ticket as of today.

Took it to the Saab specialist and asked him to give it the once over whilst he was Mot-ing it... he commented that for the age and mileage it was in very good shape.

Now the 9000 is sorted time to move the 900 on, oh wait there’s a lockdown... bugger. 

We'll get there...

[Cord Fourteener]

Boy plans his future Autoshite garage

 

[Amishtat]

12 hours ago, Yoss said:

You're gonna need a bigger bike, to paraphrase a well known film. This is an exaggeration as it was taken a week before Lockdown Christmas Armageddon but the job has changed and is much more packet based. 

I worked for Parcelfarce until three months ago and we would have been crucified if anyone saw parcels in the cab. Still, as your pictures demonstrate, sometimes there's nowhere else to put them. 

[artdjones]

12 hours ago, Yoss said:

You're gonna need a bigger bike, to paraphrase a well known film. This is an exaggeration as it was taken a week before Lockdown Christmas Armageddon but the job has changed and is much more packet based. 

Even 30 years ago it was difficult most days to use a bike, as they aren't very stable with two bags of letters on. Many were just going out to their walk in their cars, leaving the second bag in the boot while they delivered the first bag. Even though it was against the rules.

[stuboy]

Who was looking for hanging dehumidifiers?? Ok there not poundland but box of 6 for 8 quid aint bad..

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07HXV8NWW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_dyx-FbHXFQDBJ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

[Angrydicky]

24 minutes ago, Amishtat said:

I worked for Parcelfarce until three months ago and we would have been crucified if anyone saw parcels in the cab. Still, as your pictures demonstrate, sometimes there's nowhere else to put them. 

Our local Parcelfarce man (top bloke btw) drives a LWB Sprinter, so much more capacity than a RM Partner.  It's unliveried, do PF drivers have to buy/lease their own vehicles or do PF not bother signwriting them anymore? He drives like a loon so I'm guessing he's not paying for it.

[Yoss]

24 minutes ago, Amishtat said:

I worked for Parcelfarce until three months ago and we would have been crucified if anyone saw parcels in the cab. Still, as your pictures demonstrate, sometimes there's nowhere else to put them. 

Indeed it is not allowed and I am perhaps foolish for posting that picture on an international highly influential social media platform.

I think my story is I only put them there whilst I rearranged all the packets in the back to make a bit more room for them! In reality the ones in the front are the ones I'm doing first so I'll get rid of them as quickly as possible. It's not ideal but I'm doing my best. I think they should thank me for going above and beyond. Actually our line manager is really good and does regularly thank me for what I do. I really don't envy their job as they get shit from both ends. Pressure from above to make us do more and pressure from us when we don't. If we have a problem we take it to them and it's not our problem any more. They start the week with a duty sheet which even by Tuesday is covered in tippex as they have to rearrange things due to sickness or accidentally putting the wrong day off down for someone. 

Obviously that was an exceptional day but it's still far heavier than it was this time last year. Our workload does go up and down directly in line with the lockdowns. I had quite a nice summer when the shops reopened but generally its been like Christmas every day since last March except for Christmas when it was like double Christmas. There was a time about 18 months back when I would only have about ten overweights (packets too big to go in the bags), and often less than that. I don't think it will ever go back to that now even if life does get back to some sort of normal. People will have got too used to sitting at home on their phones. I can't complain really, at least I know I have a secure job and I do generally still enjoy it except on the really stupid days. 

[Cavcraft]

New sticker arrived and was fitted within 5 minutes of getting home:

 

[Amishtat]

2 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

Our local Parcelfarce man (top bloke btw) drives a LWB Sprinter, so much more capacity than a RM Partner.  It's unliveried, do PF drivers have to buy/lease their own vehicles or do PF not bother signwriting them anymore? He drives like a loon so I'm guessing he's not paying for it.

If it's a white one it's probably a hire van, some drivers own their vehicles however. 

[Angrydicky]

1 minute ago, Amishtat said:

If it's a white one it's probably a hire van, some drivers own their vehicles however. 

Yeah, white 68 reg. He's had this particular one at least a year. At least the last six months with a big bollard-shaped dent in the nearside front corner of the (plastic) bumper.

[Amishtat]

1 hour ago, Yoss said:

Indeed it is not allowed and I am perhaps foolish for posting that picture on an international highly influential social media platform.

I think my story is I only put them there whilst I rearranged all the packets in the back to make a bit more room for them! In reality the ones in the front are the ones I'm doing first so I'll get rid of them as quickly as possible. It's not ideal but I'm doing my best. I think they should thank me for going above and beyond. Actually our line manager is really good and does regularly thank me for what I do. I really don't envy their job as they get shit from both ends. Pressure from above to make us do more and pressure from us when we don't. If we have a problem we take it to them and it's not our problem any more. They start the week with a duty sheet which even by Tuesday is covered in tippex as they have to rearrange things due to sickness or accidentally putting the wrong day off down for someone. 

Obviously that was an exceptional day but it's still far heavier than it was this time last year. Our workload does go up and down directly in line with the lockdowns. I had quite a nice summer when the shops reopened but generally its been like Christmas every day since last March except for Christmas when it was like double Christmas. There was a time about 18 months back when I would only have about ten overweights (packets too big to go in the bags), and often less than that. I don't think it will ever go back to that now even if life does get back to some sort of normal. People will have got too used to sitting at home on their phones. I can't complain really, at least I know I have a secure job and I do generally still enjoy it except on the really stupid days. 

No criticism intended, Royal Mail are a good company to work for in my experience and I've no doubt that your customers are grateful for your efforts. I miss my job.