The grumpy thread

[mitsisigma01]

But giving the impression that it's easy to make a profit as long as you have a free mechanic and workshop ....

[puddlethumper]

My trusty van has become untrustworthy by blowing the head gasket. The bottom hose from rad to engine is in 3 parts. From rad it starts off as rubber then goes into a metal pipe which then goes back to rubber on the engine. That's Xud's for you. Anyway, the end of the metal bit had rusted away in the join to the rad hose and dropped off and immediately dumped all the coolant, very quickly. I keep an eye on the temp gauge, as you tend to do with an old vehicle, but I didn't see the rise until too late. This morning ,cold engine, add water, start, fountain from the expansion tank. That's a bit fucked then.

It's a pain in the butt but I suppose it's not too bad for an engine that came out of a 94 Xantia  in 2010. Between services I've only ever added about a litre of oil since I got it. I'm going to see my favourite van surgeon and see what a new head gasket will set me back. I'm really out of touch with what it might cost so if anyone could give me a rough idea. A mate suggested getting another engine but I don't think getting a reasonable Xud is that likely although I know there are Xud fans on here so, again, if anyone knows of one I could be interested depending on what Mister Spanner says.

Great timing as well as it's twitchy bum next month with Mot stuff. 

I've been looking at what I could get for my budget if I decide to get rid but what I would get for mine would be next to nothing as it's Lhd and I can't imagine many people wanting it. Also I could end up getting something that was as much of a heap as my van, or possibly worse, within my budget, prices being what they are.  I iz woe.

[artdjones]

47 minutes ago, puddlethumper said:

My trusty van has become untrustworthy by blowing the head gasket. The bottom hose from rad to engine is in 3 parts. From rad it starts off as rubber then goes into a metal pipe which then goes back to rubber on the engine. That's Xud's for you. Anyway, the end of the metal bit had rusted away in the join to the rad hose and dropped off and immediately dumped all the coolant, very quickly. I keep an eye on the temp gauge, as you tend to do with an old vehicle, but I didn't see the rise until too late. This morning ,cold engine, add water, start, fountain from the expansion tank. That's a bit fucked then.

It's a pain in the butt but I suppose it's not too bad for an engine that came out of a 94 Xantia  in 2010. Between services I've only ever added about a litre of oil since I got it. I'm going to see my favourite van surgeon and see what a new head gasket will set me back. I'm really out of touch with what it might cost so if anyone could give me a rough idea. A mate suggested getting another engine but I don't think getting a reasonable Xud is that likely although I know there are Xud fans on here so, again, if anyone knows of one I could be interested depending on what Mister Spanner says.

Great timing as well as it's twitchy bum next month with Mot stuff. 

I've been looking at what I could get for my budget if I decide to get rid but what I would get for mine would be next to nothing as it's Lhd and I can't imagine many people wanting it. Also I could end up getting something that was as much of a heap as my van, or possibly worse, within my budget, prices being what they are.  I iz woe.

I don't know what the body is like, but 305 vans aren't worth pennies any more, so a reasonably substantial amount might be worth spending. After they stopped making them the estate shaped van seemed to die a death apart from the Astra, so there's not much available to replace it, as an Astra isn't half as nice to drive as a 305.

Like you say, cheap vans are a minefield.

+1 vote for resurrection.

[RoverFolkUs]

59 minutes ago, puddlethumper said:

My trusty van has become untrustworthy by blowing the head gasket. The bottom hose from rad to engine is in 3 parts. From rad it starts off as rubber then goes into a metal pipe which then goes back to rubber on the engine. That's Xud's for you. Anyway, the end of the metal bit had rusted away in the join to the rad hose and dropped off and immediately dumped all the coolant, very quickly. I keep an eye on the temp gauge, as you tend to do with an old vehicle, but I didn't see the rise until too late. This morning ,cold engine, add water, start, fountain from the expansion tank. That's a bit fucked then.

It's a pain in the butt but I suppose it's not too bad for an engine that came out of a 94 Xantia  in 2010. Between services I've only ever added about a litre of oil since I got it. I'm going to see my favourite van surgeon and see what a new head gasket will set me back. I'm really out of touch with what it might cost so if anyone could give me a rough idea. A mate suggested getting another engine but I don't think getting a reasonable Xud is that likely although I know there are Xud fans on here so, again, if anyone knows of one I could be interested depending on what Mister Spanner says.

Great timing as well as it's twitchy bum next month with Mot stuff. 

I've been looking at what I could get for my budget if I decide to get rid but what I would get for mine would be next to nothing as it's Lhd and I can't imagine many people wanting it. Also I could end up getting something that was as much of a heap as my van, or possibly worse, within my budget, prices being what they are.  I iz woe.

XUDs aren't rocket science to put right, change from £500-600 ball park figure sounds about right to me, assuming no head damage

[Paul-l]

9 hours ago, puddlethumper said:

My trusty van has become untrustworthy by blowing the head gasket. The bottom hose from rad to engine is in 3 parts. From rad it starts off as rubber then goes into a metal pipe which then goes back to rubber on the engine. That's Xud's for you. Anyway, the end of the metal bit had rusted away in the join to the rad hose and dropped off and immediately dumped all the coolant, very quickly. I keep an eye on the temp gauge, as you tend to do with an old vehicle, but I didn't see the rise until too late. This morning ,cold engine, add water, start, fountain from the expansion tank. That's a bit fucked then.

It's a pain in the butt but I suppose it's not too bad for an engine that came out of a 94 Xantia  in 2010. Between services I've only ever added about a litre of oil since I got it. I'm going to see my favourite van surgeon and see what a new head gasket will set me back. I'm really out of touch with what it might cost so if anyone could give me a rough idea. A mate suggested getting another engine but I don't think getting a reasonable Xud is that likely although I know there are Xud fans on here so, again, if anyone knows of one I could be interested depending on what Mister Spanner says.

Great timing as well as it's twitchy bum next month with Mot stuff. 

I've been looking at what I could get for my budget if I decide to get rid but what I would get for mine would be next to nothing as it's Lhd and I can't imagine many people wanting it. Also I could end up getting something that was as much of a heap as my van, or possibly worse, within my budget, prices being what they are.  I iz woe.

Having cooked an XUD several times, each time it needed a head skim and the cam shaft bearings line bored because the heads warp, new gasket and belt and it was fixed. That was about £400 several ( probably 20ish) years ago

i have a spare head with camshaft kicking around as well as some other 305 parts like lights if you’re interested.

[puddlethumper]

1 hour ago, Paul-l said:

Having cooked an XUD several times, each time it needed a head skim and the cam shaft bearings line bored because the heads warp, new gasket and belt and it was fixed. That was about £400 several ( probably 20ish) years ago

i have a spare head with camshaft kicking around as well as some other 305 parts like lights if you’re interested.

I could be interested in the head if it comes to it. Will be in touch if it's needed. Thanks.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Idiots down the road have bought an electric car despite having no access to outside charging on their house.  Instead, they've decided to drill a hole in their back fence and are using one of the designated 'visitor' spaces to regularly park their car.  I have a visitor, so moved my car to that space last night so our guest could park on our drive.

They knocked this morning to ask if I could move my car.  I did point out that we have a guest and that is a visitor space.  Told me they had nowhere else to charge their car and asked if I could move to a (now free) adjacent space.  I made the point quite firmly that I have a visitor and they are visitor spaces.  They have two spaces designated but don't use them because they're not right outside their house.

I didn't quite turn around and say 'well, if you don't have anywhere to charge it, then don't buy one you absolute clusterfuck' but seeing as I live here and they know where I live, it's not worth it.  I wouldn't mind so much but this is the third time they've taken liberties with the space around their house.  They illegally extended their garden a couple of years back and stole land from a communal area, then they decided to leave their bin store in the same communal area and digging up all the plants that were planted there as a result.

Selfish fucking idiots. If you can't charge an electric car, don't fucking buy one.  Or work out a system that doesn't involve pissing off all of your neighbours.

[J W Pepper]

5 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

Idiots down the road have bought an electric car despite having no access to outside charging on their house.  Instead, they've decided to drill a hole in their back fence and are using one of the designated 'visitor' spaces to regularly park their car.  I have a visitor, so moved my car to that space last night so our guest could park on our drive.

They knocked this morning to ask if I could move my car.  I did point out that we have a guest and that is a visitor space.  Told me they had nowhere else to charge their car and asked if I could move to a (now free) adjacent space.  I made the point quite firmly that I have a visitor and they are visitor spaces.  They have two spaces designated but don't use them because they're not right outside their house.

I didn't quite turn around and say 'well, if you don't have anywhere to charge it, then don't buy one you absolute clusterfuck' but seeing as I live here and they know where I live, it's not worth it.  I wouldn't mind so much but this is the third time they've taken liberties with the space around their house.  They illegally extended their garden a couple of years back and stole land from a communal area, then they decided to leave their bin store in the same communal area and digging up all the plants that were planted there as a result.

Selfish fucking idiots. If you can't charge an electric car, don't fucking buy one.  Or work out a system that doesn't involve pissing off all of your neighbours.

And that is the reason that electric cars will never work, imagine terraced houses, how are they supposed to charge? Either plug into the house and have the cable across the pavement and everyone falls over it or charging points outside and everyone fights for a space.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

29 minutes ago, J W Pepper said:

And that is the reason that electric cars will never work, imagine terraced houses, how are they supposed to charge? Either plug into the house and have the cable across the pavement and everyone falls over it or charging points outside and everyone fights for a space.

I don't have an issue with electric cars per se and I think that there has to be an improvement in the viability (and reliability) of public charging spaces to make it work.  After all, if the range is 250/300 miles you don't need to plug it in every single day - just as you don't visit the petrol station every time you use your car.  Just go to a public station, plug the car in and charge.  Doesn't take all that long in real terms - especially if it's in the supermarket car park and you're popping in to do your shopping - but for that to work, charging points have to be almost ubiquitous.

What I do have an issue with are selfish cunts and over the last four years I've lived here, this couple have always been selfish cunts.  I must admit, I did deliberately park in that specific space to make the point that it doesn't actually belong to them just because they've made a stupid purchase and drilled a hole in their fence.  And I think I made my point to some extent this morning...

[artdjones]

It wouldn't work very well in a street of terraced houses. My childhood home was only 13'6" wide, and some are even narrower.

[RoverFolkUs]

1 hour ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

Idiots down the road have bought an electric car despite having no access to outside charging on their house.  Instead, they've decided to drill a hole in their back fence and are using one of the designated 'visitor' spaces to regularly park their car.  I have a visitor, so moved my car to that space last night so our guest could park on our drive.

They knocked this morning to ask if I could move my car.  I did point out that we have a guest and that is a visitor space.  Told me they had nowhere else to charge their car and asked if I could move to a (now free) adjacent space.  I made the point quite firmly that I have a visitor and they are visitor spaces.  They have two spaces designated but don't use them because they're not right outside their house.

I didn't quite turn around and say 'well, if you don't have anywhere to charge it, then don't buy one you absolute clusterfuck' but seeing as I live here and they know where I live, it's not worth it.  I wouldn't mind so much but this is the third time they've taken liberties with the space around their house.  They illegally extended their garden a couple of years back and stole land from a communal area, then they decided to leave their bin store in the same communal area and digging up all the plants that were planted there as a result.

Selfish fucking idiots. If you can't charge an electric car, don't fucking buy one.  Or work out a system that doesn't involve pissing off all of your neighbours.

Exactly the same seems to have happened with a row of terraced/townhouses opposite me. They've bought a godawful VW ID3 thing and I have no idea how they're charging it but I can already guess its going to end in tears. 

To give an idea of their next door neighbor, they put up CCTV cameras last year to find out who's cat was shitting in their front and back garden. So I'm sure they will be delighted* when "their" parking space gets taken...

Fortunately whatever they do doesn't interfere with me or my parking spaces, but I feel sorry for their neighbours who's cars are shunted out the way as this hideous id3 takes their space to reach the charger 

[GrumpiusMaximus]

What really boils my piss is that the parking spaces here are designated.  I have two (I can get a third on my drive) and every house has at least one.  They have two parking spaces.  Other spaces are 'Visitor' spaces and are specifically designated as such and it's agreed as a covenant to not park on them (and to use your parking spaces).  It's bloody irritating and like I say, not the first time that this particular lot have taken the piss.

So why then did the fire engine have to spend five minutes doing a three million point turn to get out of the development during a call out a few weeks ago?  Oh right, that's because half the residents still park in the road despite the fact that this isn't permitted and we've had letters through the door telling them not to.

It's only when a fire engine has to get to something sharpish and all the cars get moved out of the way forcibly that they might learn.

[RoverFolkUs]

52 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

What really boils my piss is that the parking spaces here are designated.  I have two (I can get a third on my drive) and every house has at least one.  They have two parking spaces.  Other spaces are 'Visitor' spaces and are specifically designated as such and it's agreed as a covenant to not park on them (and to use your parking spaces).  It's bloody irritating and like I say, not the first time that this particular lot have taken the piss.

So why then did the fire engine have to spend five minutes doing a three million point turn to get out of the development during a call out a few weeks ago?  Oh right, that's because half the residents still park in the road despite the fact that this isn't permitted and we've had letters through the door telling them not to.

It's only when a fire engine has to get to something sharpish and all the cars get moved out of the way forcibly that they might learn.

If they're hogging the visitor space and presumably are leaving their own allocated space unused, couldn't your visitors use their allocated space? 

If they quiz you on it, tell them to please do a swap and that will be fine, but your visitor had no choice as the visitor bay was occupied?

[RoverFolkUs]

Royal mail prices

I went to the post office to post something today 1st class signed for. It weighed less than 100g and was tiny, but still a small parcel.

£5.55 😳

It was £4.85 a couple of weeks ago!

Second class £4.45, used to be £3.85

I know it's only 60p but how can they justify such a hike on the signed for service, when it's not even signed for anymore "due to Covid"?

They used to increase it by 5p or so a year but 60p!?

I only went with signed for to get the necessary compensation and signature because it was an eBay sale

Fuck sake

[myglaren]

I an the same with regard to electric cars.  There are parking spaces, none of which are designated except in the minds of one or two of the residents.

I would have to have a fifty metre cable to charge one at my closest point and it would have to trail over my neighbours exit path at the rear of their house.

Even further at the front and the cable would have to cross the road into our parking spaces at the rear of the house and over a public footpath.

I opened my curtains this morning to see this:

 

 

Every time she drives in she hits the kerb with those two tyres.

I went and told her, she said she knew about it.  Half an hour later she comes out and drives off.

Her husband is home and has an electric pump.  I know this as I blew his flat up with mine last year and he went out and bought one.

Probably in his van that is parked just out of shot there.

He may well be in bed, he usually comes home after work at 05:00~06:00 at weekends but the keys would be there and her son was probably there too.  But she could have asked me to reinflate her tyres if she didn't know how.

 

[GrumpiusMaximus]

1 hour ago, RoverFolkUs said:

If they're hogging the visitor space and presumably are leaving their own allocated space unused, couldn't your visitors use their allocated space? 

If they quiz you on it, tell them to please do a swap and that will be fine, but your visitor had no choice as the visitor bay was occupied?

These are the same people that bought an electric car without the capacity to charge it and then expect it to be my problem.  I don't think they're the brains of Britain or particularly amenable to such an arrangement...

[New POD]

20 hours ago, mitsisigma01 said:

Did he even make allowances for all Ed China's labour ....🤔

I'm trying to do a payback justification for a new machine at work. 

I've got the. Maintenance records for the last 2 years for the old one, and and it's had 1000 hours of maintenance time.  

I asked finance for an hourly rate. 

Free.

Apparently, maintenance and part of the general overhead and costed into the job based of a direct labour hour rate.

So if you had a fully automated machine, with no operators, and loads of manitenance and manufacturing engineers visiting in an hourly basis, and £200k a year depreciation, and a single assembly bench with one operator, anything made on the fully automated machine would cost £zero.

And anything made by the one operator would cost £500 an hour. 

I told finance is use £70 per hour as that's the minimum they'd be charged out to an external company. 

Finance manager seems confused why an engineer is telling him what he probably knows but can't be arsed to worry about. 

[chadders]

30 minutes ago, New POD said:

I'm trying to do a payback justification for a new machine at work. 

I've got the. Maintenance records for the last 2 years for the old one, and and it's had 1000 hours of maintenance time.  

I asked finance for an hourly rate. 

Free.

Apparently, maintenance and part of the general overhead and costed into the job based of a direct labour hour rate.

So if you had a fully automated machine, with no operators, and loads of manitenance and manufacturing engineers visiting in an hourly basis, and £200k a year depreciation, and a single assembly bench with one operator, anything made on the fully automated machine would cost £zero.

And anything made by the one operator would cost £500 an hour. 

I told finance is use £70 per hour as that's the minimum they'd be charged out to an external company. 

Finance manager seems confused why an engineer is telling him what he probably knows but can't be arsed to worry about. 

Do you have one of these then?

If not I can see why the Finance Manager is wondering WTF you are on about. I'd read up about the different sorts of Costing before speaking to him again.

[Quintus]

3 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

😳I know it's only 60p but how can they justify such a hike on the signed for service, when it's not even signed for anymore "due to Covid"?

In my office, we were told about three weeks ago that customers must sign for items, so the postie at the other end should be getting a proper signature unless the customer refuses due to covid. If they refuse to sign for an item, but still accept it, we're supposed to put 'MAR' on the screen for Marked As Received.

[RoverFolkUs]

3 hours ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

These are the same people that bought an electric car without the capacity to charge it and then expect it to be my problem.  I don't think they're the brains of Britain or particularly amenable to such an arrangement...

Just do it anyway, they haven't asked for anyone else's agreement to hog the visitor spaces so use their space

[RoverFolkUs]

49 minutes ago, Quintus said:

In my office, we were told about three weeks ago that customers must sign for items, so the postie at the other end should be getting a proper signature unless the customer refuses due to covid. If they refuse to sign for an item, but still accept it, we're supposed to put 'MAR' on the screen for Marked As Received.

That's interesting to know, I've sent and received a few signed for items in the last month or so and the signature has still just been logged as "cv19" 

I think the posties in my area have got very used to not waiting around (I don't blame them) so will see how long it takes for things to revert to normal. 

Even still, I don't see how a service they used to offer anyway can be justified by a further 60p hike. 

Yes fuel is expensive, but have their running costs really increased by 20% overnight!?

[GrumpiusMaximus]

5 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Just do it anyway, they haven't asked for anyone else's agreement to hog the visitor spaces so use their space

 

They know who owns the dirty, battered and somewhat knackered Golf.  And I'm far too big to pretend I'm not in when they knock...

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Plot twist.  Just checked.  There's now another visitor car in that space that has nothing to do with me.

Let's hope it stays for the whole Bank Holiday and they get stranded on the Isle of Sheppey and have to go into a 'local pub' for shelter.

[myglaren]

4 hours ago, myglaren said:

Every time she drives in she hits the kerb with those two tyre

I went and told her, she said she knew about it.  Half an hour later she comes out and drives off.

Her husband is home and has an electric pump.  I know this as I blew his flat up with mine last year and he went out and bought one.

Probably in his van that is parked just out of shot there.

He may well be in bed, he usually comes home after work at 05:00~06:00 at weekends but the keys would be there and her son was probably there too.  But she could have asked me to reinflate her tyres if she didn't know how.

And she is back with the tyres as flat as when she went out

[New POD]

1 hour ago, chadders said:

Do you have one of these then?

If not I can see why the Finance Manager is wondering WTF you are on about. I'd read up about the different sorts of Costing before speaking to him again.

Yes.  We have quite a bit of automation.  Probably £6 million in the last 5 years, and we are currently in the middle of 3 projects totalling £3 million. 

Depreciation tends to be over 10 years where I am now.  Which seems a little long to me. 

There's also lots of manual assembly, with 100s of operators, but when you allocate the costs to product on the basis of direct operator hours, this ends up being £85 an hour.  

I can hold my own when it comes to costing. Spent the first 5 years after graduating, running a Design for Whole Life Cost research project with universities and industry. Had my name as joint author on papers published  by Professors for what it's worth (not a lot) 

And have been heavily involved in activity based costing, and something Lucas Industrial called "Product Group profitability analysis". 

What I'm struggling to do is work out a cost of a key machine being down, which disrupts production.  How do you work out the cost of lost production? 

 

[chadders]

I suggest that you really need to speak to your Cost Accountants. My impression is that you think that you know a lot more than you actually do.

Regarding the cost of lost production it's a piece of string job depending on your accounting policies. For example if you quote customers on a cost plus basis and are using absorption costing then the results will be different from if you use marginal costing.

This is all before Opportunity Costs raises its ugly head but I suspect those might not apply depending on how you deal with the production disruption.

[richardmorris]

6 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Royal mail prices

I went to the post office to post something today 1st class signed for. It weighed less than 100g and was tiny, but still a small parcel.

£5.55 😳

It was £4.85 a couple of weeks ago!

Second class £4.45, used to be £3.85

I know it's only 60p but how can they justify such a hike on the signed for service, when it's not even signed for anymore "due to Covid"?

They used to increase it by 5p or so a year but 60p!?

I only went with signed for to get the necessary compensation and signature because it was an eBay sale

Fuck sake

 

Really, don’t bother with signed for- we’ve not signed for any of these at work For two years.

[sheffcortinacentre]

2 hours ago, myglaren said:

And she is back with the tyres as flat as when she went out

It's ok it drove perfectly fine & it's not her job to sort this sort of thing hubby or the garage see to it.

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

That's interesting to know, I've sent and received a few signed for items in the last month or so and the signature has still just been logged as "cv19" 

I think the posties in my area have got very used to not waiting around (I don't blame them) so will see how long it takes for things to revert to normal. 

Even still, I don't see how a service they used to offer anyway can be justified by a further 60p hike. 

Yes fuel is expensive, but have their running costs really increased by 20% overnight!?

How much has fuel alone gone up since their last increase, never mind wages?

[AnnoyingPentium]

3 hours ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

They know who owns the dirty, battered and somewhat knackered Golf.  And I'm far too big to pretend I'm not in when they knock...

I'll come down and leave the Fabia there if you like, they won't know who I am anyway. If it gets me out of the tea tomorrow then even better.