britainswomble

Chuffin idiots on motor bikes. I wanted to reverse into our yard at lunchtime today from the main road. About a quarter of a mile up the road I could see traffic approaching with a motor bike in front. They all had plenty of time to see my reversing lights so I started reversing in leaving about three feet between the front of the tanker (Artic) and the grass verge. I was just about to swing the front out to reverse the trailer into our yard, when I noticed at the last minute that this (Tango Whiskey Alpha Tango) twit wasn't going to wait and squeezed through the gap at about thirty miles an hour. Had I not looked in my nearside mirror at the last moment, he would no doubt be sitting in hospital wondering what happened to his right leg and hand. I just can't believe the stupidity of some people. What makes it worse too, is that I don't think he was a young rider judging by the bike and the way he was dressed. I'll tell you one thing though............he did learn how effective a Daf Jericho horn is. Daf's have a horn like a diesel train.

I'd just like to say how sorry I am that your day was spoiled by a small minded ar**hole like the one you met. I can understand how you must have felt when you've been out doing something you really enjoy and get a totally unprovoked and extremely unpleasant reaction from someone with the number of brain cells that can be counted on one hand. It's a combination of having your day ruined, being totally humiliated, and suffering the shock of an unexpected reaction to your harmless past time. I really don't understand how anyone could be so nasty without reason. I could be curious in his position, as to who was photographing me, and why; but I would be polite about it, and even if you had trespassed on private property; there is no need to do anything more than point out your error politely. I would probably have been as upset as you, as I was always brought up to treat others as you would have them treat you. Words fail me as to what sort of person he is. Lets hope he hasn't had the chance to breed.

Firefox is brilliant. Been using it for about a year or so now and it works really well. I can do lots of things that I couldn't with good old Tiscali.

Being told that I don't have to start work at 1 am tomorrow. Great..........7.30 start.

Sparex.com have page of pictures of the tines available. Look up www.sparex.com, then cultivators, Kongskilde, points, and the first four types of tine are for the Triple K, the remainder are Vibroflex. Sparex parts are available all over the country at many agricultural dealers.

These tines are similar to the Kongskilde ones, but I think they are describing the Bomford Superflow type of tines. The Triple K standard tine looked different from the first picture and the machine wasn't intended to do what the description says. The Triple K was a light cultivation machine and would have been used to break down ploughed ground for a seed bed or 'Tickling the surface' of stubble to provide a tilth for germination of weeds and dropped grains. No more than 2" deep. Kongskilde also made a much heavier spring tine cultivator, called a "Vibro Flex" which had a two piece tine with spring section about 150mm across. This was intended for much heavier use. http://www.kongskilde.com/NR/rdonlyres/DA895A70-108B-45D9-B046-DE5E5915F32E/3490/KongskildeVibroFlex2012.gif These have been around for many years now in one form or another, but the tines have never altered. Even Bomford's used them on their machines.

The plate on the cultivator is most probably the importer as it says on it. The machine is actually made by a company called Kongskilde, (Sweden) and it was as the tines say the Triple K. Therefore it's a Kongskilde Triple K. The design remained unchanged for years and I believe they were sold under other banners as well. Maybe MF and Ransomes. Their tines were legendary and fitted to most of the spring tine cultivators. Most were fitted with a narrow reversible point about two inches wide and about eight inches long, but there was an alternative wider point about four inches wide so the machine could do more work. These points weren't reversible. Their most common use was stubble breaking, ie turning up a tilth behind the combines and baler to get weeds and dropped grain to germinate before it was ploughed in, but they were also used in clean soil for seed bed preparation. It wasn't a good idea to use it where a lot of trash had been buried, as it had a tendency to bring it back to the surface again. The linkage pins should be easy to replace as they are a stepped pin with a flat lever on the end forming an 'L' shape. They are category 1 and 2 steps and are inserted from one side or the other of the brackets, depending on the tractor. Your 35 will almost certainly be cat 1. This is a picture of a later one with folding extensions and the following harrow. http://img.agriaffaires.com/vibrocultor/g64596_2008032881346_2/kongskilde-triple-k.jpg You should be able to order any spares from your local agricultural dealer.

I've loaded loads of different ones on to low loaders, but only ever worked with a few. They are in order I've worked with them:- A Massey 780 bagger A Massey 500 (The original model) and a New Holland TX34 All of them only for a short while, but did do half a day on the TX 34 on demo.

House bunnies...........don't you just love them. I thought you would have learned by now that you don't have any wires, wallpaper, magazines, wooden legged furniture below a line, two feet off the floor. Don't ever sit in a chair and go to sleep with one in the room! I once awoke to find mine had chewed a hole in my 'T' shirt while I was asleep. He 'Removed' the corners of the curtains in our lounge, got into a cupboard and 'Snipped the wires to our headphones (Several times) and another of our little darlings stripped a large area of wallpaper behind the settee and chomped the wires to our telly. (Mains) Wife said there was a loud bang, the telly went off and the rabbit came out from the corner acting really weird. We later found she had magnificent whiskers on one side of her face, and the other side wasn't so smart. She had a bald patch on the side of her mouth and whiskers resembling small springs. They had coiled slightly when they were burnt. Beware, they will steal the food off your plate too, should you leave it unattended. Great fun though if you don't mind them wrecking your house.

Back to work for a rest next week then. 22nd you go back, isn't it.

I'm not familiar with the ISO term for horsepower, but Ford's used to quote an S.A.E. and DIN figure. The S.A.E. is the Society of Automotive Engineers rating and is for a bare engine tested to maximum load. The DIN rating is, I think, a European standard for an engine fitted with all the items which may drain power when installed. PTO power is a useful figure to estimate how effectively it will power an implement, and will always be lower than either figure due to mechanical friction losses through the transmission. One of the worst losses was found on the Muir Hill range of tractors. As PTO drive went through a "Dropper" box; nearly 20 HP was lost on its way out the back. You will also notice that PTO horsepower at 1000 rpm will be higher than at 540 rpm for the same reason.

I've never been a fan of bolt on turbo chargers. Thinking back to my days with a Ford truck dealership; the turbo 360 engine was identical in appearance to the 330, 360 non turbo, the 380 and 385 engine, but that was where the similarity ended. Take a look at the parts book and you would find that the internals were almost all different from the normally aspirated engine. Different valves and valve timing, different head gasket and bolts, different pistons with a different compression ratio and rings. Stronger con rods, crankshaft and main bearing caps, and most important of all; an uprated oil pump to keep the engine and turbo well oiled. The fuel injection pump was calibrated differently, and the injectors were set at different pressures from the standard engines. When I had my own workshop; a customer of mine asked me to fit a turbo kit to his 2.5 DI Transit. I fitted it, upped the fuel output, fitted a Shogun intercooler with an electric fan to assist charge cooling. It really did get up and go........well......for about six months. One day he brought it back with the engine knocking when it was pulling. I dropped the sump, and couldn't see any problems at first so I decided to drop the crank bearings. Still nothing wrong until I dropped the rear main bearing cap. Oh sh1t, it came off in two halves. End of engine. Some engines will put up with an aftermarket turbo without problems, some respond better than others regarding power output, some sound better but often the only real benefit is a shiny stainless steel straight through exhaust that sounds like it has a piece of scaffold pole for an exhaust. I still think it is better to go and buy for example a Ford 6810 than blow a 6610. As they say, " You pays yer money, and takes your choice".

Lets have some more piccies of yer chipolata. (Offspring of a sausage dog ) Cute little bu**ers aint they.

Right..........that's it..............now I'm really angry. What absolute crap. It's just another government scam to introduce yet another tax hike. Their main income comes from fuel, and lacking sincerity as they do, they are worried that if everyone jumps on the bandwagon and says fossil fuels are becoming horrendously expensive and we should use more bio fuels; they are worried about a backlash from the general public wanting tax cuts. They know bl**dy well that fossil fuels will run out if we don't conserve stocks, so we should be using as much bio fuel as possible. We are doing our bit by using it to protect the environment. It's said that the cause of global warming (Bull**it) is carbon dioxide emissions. Oil seed rape is a good source of good quality bio fuels as is sugar beet (Ethanol). So far the EU has decided to restrict the production of both, regardless of the fact that OSR is carbon neutral, ie it absorbs more CO2 when it's growing than it produces when used in an engine. OSR is a leguminous crop and naturally fertilizes the ground in which it is grown, by producing nitrogen. There are hundreds of thousands of hectares of land on setaside which could be used to grow plants for fuel production; so for them to say that over growth of bio fuel plants will cause a food shortage is crap. How much food do we grow here; very little I would imagine, looking at the shelves in Tesco's etc. They are just worried that high volume production of bio fuels will cause them to lose tax revenue and a public uprising against the taxes they are already proposing to introduce. The only fact that isn't made too public about bio diesel is that the Nitrus Oxide gas emissions are slightly higher than normal diesel. NO2 is generally known as "Laughing gas". Now that can't be too bad; can it. I don't see what harm nitrus oxide does anyway. It is one atom of nitrogen and two atoms of oxygen. Bear in mind that 79% of the earth's atmosphere is nitrogen, 20% oxygen and 1% other inert gases. Bio diesel doesn't produce soot particles, and engine noise is reduced slightly. Producing bio diesel is a cold process with no harmful emissions during production, and the main by-product of production is glycerin in an unrefined state. What we need more than anything is some real independant and honest "Experts" advising the general public, rather than the government "Puppets" who are paid to manipulate the truth for the sake of government incomes. The only concern of our government is finding more ways to squeeze the last few pennies out of the public with their "Dual layer" taxation systems, environmental charges, and fines for anything they can think of, and many things they are paying their "Spin doctors" to dream up.

Staying in bed with Mrs Will, and not having to get up at 1:30 in the morning. I just love to see a woman smiling and happy. * * :D P.S. we've been discussing renewing our wedding vows again next year. Sixteen years this year, and I love her more than ever. My wife, and best (Er.....only) friend.

Falling backwards off a chuffin workmate bench; landing on my back (Hard) on top of an electric drill. Caught me just on the lower edge of my rib cage and rattled one of my kidneys. It's bl**dy painful, and I keep getting spasms in the muscles now. Sorry folks, but I don't think I'll die just yet.

Sorry to hear about your dog and grandfather. Hopefully fido will be ok, and in a strange sort of way; a family bereavement would have been worse still, had you been away at work. At least this way you can share the grief with other family members and attend his funeral without the added stress of having to get back to work again. Either way it's not good.

Average speed cameras (Cash opportunity cameras) confuse most motorists. If the speed limit is fifty; they drive in the middle lane at 40, and then wonder why trucks undertake them. We don't have time to sit behind them and aren't allowed to use the centre lane. I think some motorists still think there is a slow , medium and fast lane on the motorways. Grrrrrrrrrrr. > *Cash opportunity cameras* are erected on the roadside before roadworks commence. Lanes are narrowed and often "Dog legged" as an excuse to reduce the speed limit. Several weeks later, roadworks may commence, taking place between 7:30 am and 4:30 pm. (M25, M4 for example) The cameras are usually left for a week or two until they have earned the greedy grabbing government some extra income before they are removed. Lane repositioning is carried out even when the work is taking place behind the crash barrier, and usually requires about a mile of traffic cones on the approach. Nuf to make ya spit, innit \

Er............was it empty? I would have thought it was about as much as it could pull when it was empty. No disrespect to a 390T, but in hilly terrain, a six to eight ton trailer loaded would be about its limit; I would have thought? Wacha reckon?

Been recovering our Foden, which slid off the road this morning on a snowy farm drive. Had the help of a Claas Challenger belonging to Ellis's at Littlington, near Eastbourne. It wasn't badly stuck, but it just wouldn't steer back on to the concrete drive and was bulldozing the soil. I got it out by getting the driver to transfer the load to the back, raising the rear lift axle so all the weight was on the drive axle and it was light on the front. The Claas Challenger pulled it at an angle on a short chain and got the front back on the concrete. Job done. Lucky it didn't happen another hundred yards down the road. The bank by the road is higher and it would have rolled if it had gone off there.

It has been snowing here at Uckfield in East Sussex since 9am. Not heavy snow, but enough to settle on trees rooftops and the grass. We have reports of snow at Lewes and Heathfield, so it seems that a large part of East Sussex is getting a covering.

It makes you wonder what makes people tick sometimes. If the farm was vastly overstocked; they must have spent money buying it in, or had stock for sale, so why didn't they do what was necessary to feed them. They must be really callous, uncaring, ignorant or plain stupid to allow animals to live in such conditions. How can anyone stand by watching animals starve to death or live in conditions so bad that they can't even lie down somewhere dry. Having financial problems may not make looking after them any easier, but there are things that can be done to make their lives more comfortable. Maybe this is something the Governments should take a long hard look at, if it's an economy related problem. They should look at the causes of this situation and try to eradicate this scenario, either by recruiting more animal welfare officers or making sure that all farms are registered with a Vet and have visits at least four times a year. Maybe some farmers can't afford regular treatment from Vets but something should be done to monitor the welfare of all animals on farms. This cannot be allowed to happen. :(

Thanks, Mandy for the compliment for Disney. Sadly the picture doesn't do her justice. She is prettier than what you see in the picture. It was taken in poor light with a new camera that isn't compatible with my steam computer, printed on a pict bridge printer that doesn't interpret the information too well, scanned on a shi**y cheap printer, stored on the hard drive, transferred to Photobucket, reuced in size, and regurgitated through my phone line to FTF. It's a miracle it survived all that squishin' an' squashin' an' blowin' up innit. :D

We got our lost cat back today. Disney is seven months old, and was found in a garden about a hundred yards from home. A man had seen her in his garden several times and had been feeding her. He rang my wife this afternoon as he had seen her again, and was wise enough to take a photo of her. She was soon found nearby and after a bit of coaxing managed to get her out of the bushes. My wife rang me to say that she had got her, and Disney was so pleased to see her; she was howling the place down. Disney looks like the cat that got the cream now. She was a little thin looking, had some scabs on the back of her neck where she had been bitten, and a nasty great tick on her neck, which was immediately removed, but other than that she was fine. We put up a fifty pound reward for her return, but the man who found her wouldn't accept it. Kinda restores your faith in human nature, doesn't it. :) For the cat lovers of you; Disney's dad, Oscar, is a Snow Bengal crossed with a Rag Doll Siamese, and mum, Tia, is a Chocolate Point Siamese, crossed with a black cat from down the road. She looks like a pure Siamese in build, but is totally black.

I thought you were coming home for a rest. Still, as they say, "A change is as good as a rest", and you sound as though you are really enjoying it. The countryside at home is somewhat better than the bleak "Moonscape" you've left behind. What an unwelcoming place that is. Have a great break.