britainswomble

East Sussex. Hot and sunny all day and quite humid. Loads of those irritating little "Thunder bugs". This evening it clouded over (Sorry, yesterday evening) and thundered with sheet lightning which was quite spectacular. It rained quite hard for about an hour, just enough to settle the dust and water the plants.

Our visit from V.O.S.A. went very well. All the boxes had ticks against them. They sent out two inspectors and surprisingly they were both very pleasant people, who didn't seem to be particularly devious and looking to make our life difficult. We wont get a visit from them now for two years, but I still wonder whether any of their other investigators may pay us a visit. We've all been running around like headless chicken trying to get everything in order for the last few days,getting everything as it should be and attending to all the items that were out of date etc. Our drivers have seen what the possibilities could be if we fail to keep everything in order and hopefully we will come out of this much more concientious and efficient with regard to record keeping. A lot of what we did was of little interest to them; but it may be to other parts of their organization. All my service records are now up to date, all the tank tests bar one have been done, all my yearly planner is up to date and everything cross references. Today we are all happy with the result and V.O.S,A. left us stating that we were 100% compliant and only advised us on gas bottle storage. Great eh.

I suddenly remembered something about the bagger.......well two things really. The seat on the bagging platform folds in for traveling on the road,................and the bagger was good in another way, in as much that the first bag from the rear on the chutes collected all the broken grains and small seeds from weeds etc which farmers used to feed Pheasants etc. I remember seeing them in the field with a pile of sacks hanging over the seat and all the ready cut sisal ties for the bags. ...............memories. :'(

I think the picture of the combine chassis is of an earlier model than the 1957 leaflet shown. If you look under the operators platform you will see what looks like a starter motor, which was for the electric table lift. It appears to have a Meadows petrol TVO engine and the fuel tank appears to be under the drivers seat as opposed to all the ones I've seen where the fuel tank was on the nearside rear. It also doesn't have the speed variator pulley control lever on the handrail by the steering wheel. Whether that would have been located elsewhere on the earlier models; I don't know. I've only ever seen one with the electric table lift. My uncle's bagger had two levers on the right of the steering wheel, one for the hydraulic table lift and the other for the speed variator. Anyone got any pictures of a 780 with the fuel tank under the seat? It does have variable speed pulleys on it, but I don't see any evidence of a hand lever for it, so it's either been taken off or was fitted elsewhere.

Alot of harm has been done with all the current regulations. We are at considerable risk of prosecution if the rules are misinterpreted; and although I've never used a digital tacho, I would imagine it would be even easier to fall foul of the law with them as your details can be analyzed much easier than the old disc tachos could. At least if you make a mistake on the old discs, you can correct it by writing a note on the back. The regulations as they stand have created a lot of pressure on drivers in general, ie trying to get the job done as fast as possible, getting caught in traffic jams is very stressful if you've allowed time to get to a safe place for a rest, only to get stuck on a motorway or somewhere you can't stop. How many drivers have pushed the limits so they can start at a specific time the next day, bearing in mind that you are now only allowed three reduced breaks in any two weeks, and have to have a total of ninety hours break in any two weeks or pay it back with an increased break by the end of the third week. It really is a sod to keep track of all the breaks, times, lengths, weeks etc especially as it is calculated over a rolling period. I have a brain to do my job with, and it doesn't have the abilities of a computer.

I normally have a fifteen minute break followed by a thirty minute one before the six hours are up. It is illegal to do it the other way round. You can't have a thirty minute break followed by a fifteen minute break. The safest way is to have a forty five minute break in one hit and then you can normally drive for the rest of the day without more breaks; again unless your driving time total is going to exceed the four and a half hours in the second period. V.O.S.A. say the rules are simple to comply with.........oh yeah. On paper maybe?

I normally have a fifteen minute break followed by a thirty minute one before the six hours are up. It is illegal to do it the other way round. You can't have a thirty minute break followed by a fifteen minute break. The safest way is to have a forty five minute break in one hit and then you can normally drive for the rest of the day without more breaks; again unless your driving time total is going to exceed the four and a half hours in the second period. V.O.S.A. say the rules are simple to comply with.........oh yeah. On paper maybe?

I'm not too sure about smaller commercial vehicles and breaks, but you must fall under the "Working Time Directive" regulations where you are required to have a break of at least half an hour after you've worked six hours, and are required to have a break of forty five minutes if you work more than nine hours. You are also now not allowed to average more than forty eight hours a week total working time under the W.T.D. The rules are fairly complex and relate to most workers now as I understand it, so you must have breaks during the day. Our tanker drivers work for up to six hours and then have a 45 minute break regardless of how busy we are as they would be breaking the law if they didn't. Also on bigger trucks; you have to have a forty five minute break if your driving total for the day exceeds four and a half hours. If they total four and a half hours during the second period; then they must have another forty five minutes break. Rules..........

That's a pretty little thing, isn't it? At last a number we can relate to.........65 hp maybe, ?

East Sussex................Hot as the Sahara Desert here today, very humid too. Went onto Tesco's in daylight, came out a quarter of an hour later, almost pitch black outside, raining and starting to thunder. The rain hasn't cooled anything, just made it more humid.

So where did they come from then?.......................did the fairies bring them. What ya got then? Haven't got a Claas Jaguar SF 80 self propelled forager one (Mid to late seventies).........have you??? I need one desperately as my dream is to scratch build one. My uncle and another local contractor had the first or only two in Sussex.

The end of my knob kept falling off................... Gearchange knob in the truck............

My tanker trailer passing its MOT test first go. Eeeeee I'm reet chuffed........as they don't say down here in East Sussex.

Been welding the chassis of my tanker trailer, one of the spring anchor bracket welds, had a hairline crack in it. The other side went last year, but when you see how the tyres scrub on a fully loaded tri axle trailer, its hardly surprising that they give up eventually. I pressure washed the underside of this trailer too. We don't have a washing ramp so I do it lying or sitting under it. I came out absolutely soaked and totally black. I reckon all the dirt that came off of it was stuck on me instead. Tomorrow is MOT day, 8.30 at Hastings. I just hope it passes as I didn't have time to take it for a brake test. Only time will tell.

Jus what I was finkin'. The spreader looks just like a Kidd 155 feeder, apart from the drawbar.

This month I have Mot's on two trucks and a trailer, we've had tank tests on two and are having another one done on Monday. We are having to get everything done as we are being honoured (Sarcasm) with a visit from V.O.S.A. next month and want to get everything up to date so they don't have an excuse to be on our backs for the next three years. They work on a zero tolerance of errors with your operation and will prosecute and fine you very heavily if any mistakes show up. There is no defence for any errors and a visit from them is like a visit by the Gestapo. They don't advise or accept any mistakes or oversights. MOT failures are recorded and a points system determines whether you are to become a target for their investigation team. Even small failure items are black marks against you, ie blown bulbs. I do all my work out in the open as we have no workshop and there is a lot of work involved in MOT preparation as well as for tank tests. I have been extremely busy this month; three Mot's in a month is enough to do without all the tank tests too. One of our trailers failed the test because a bolt was missing from one of the brake camshaft bearings, regardless of the fact that there were three more fully tightened ones holding it in place. Easy to miss when you inspect vehicles on the ground and don't have access to an inspection pit. Another black mark! I also have to get all the vehicle service records up to date before the sixth of August. The work has been done and it's all recorded in my diary,but it all has to be typed out on work sheets and filed in each vehicles folder. Again they check the continuity of the defects and repair dates to make sure repairs are being carried out and the dates are consecutive, ie we aren't fiddling the records. Just to make things worse, one of our tanker drivers is on holiday next week and another on a course so along with all the other things I have to do; I will probably be back on night collections again next week. Our job is a nightmare really we are being watched by V.O.S.A. for the truck maintenance, European hours regulations, and the working time directive, we have Trading Standards, The Environment Agency, Customs and Excise and H.S.E. all watching us and waiting for us to make a mistake. We are just a small firm trying to earn a living and keep ourselves in a job. Earning a living from selling fuel is hard enough as it is without all the government vultures waiting to swoop down on you to make a contribution to the upkeep of officialdom. As they say............"Such is life"

Actually getting a truck through the MOT test without any problems.............well apart from the front side lights deciding not to work at the test centre. Both bulbs are faulty. Tap them and they come on, the tester told me to sort them out when I get back to the yard. It's been a long time since I've had a tester say something as helpful as that. Usually they fail the truck and you have to put new bulbs in there and then to get a pass.

A John Deere T550 ? combine on the road with the header being pulled by another JD tractor. The header gave the impression that it had only done a few hours work. Aaaaaaaaand a brand new Claas Tucano on the back of a transporter. A white Scania, something or other Long was the name on the front. Not bad for Sussex.

I'll tell you what faffin' annoyed me today , chuffin trucks........thats what. You get the bu**ers ready for MOT test and everything's ok. You take it for a Pre MOT brake test the day before and it passes that ok, so you think, "Great. it should sail through the test tomorrow". You walk round the so**ing thing .............and.............pssssssssssssssss, its got yet another bl**dy air leak. So far it's had a new handbrake valve, a new suspension valve, and now the handbrake relay valve has decided to do a snake impersonation. Of course, all the airline connections are old, the pipes are so*s to get out, and often refuse to stay together when the air pressure builds up. Then you find out that Foden's used imperial size pipework instead of the very common metric stuff, so you can only get them from Foden parts suppliers. Dont it make ya spit. I wonder what the hell I do the job for sometimes. All I ever wanted to be was a............................gynaecologist, , now look at me. Some of these trucks are ****s to work on. ( ****s = Ladies front Bottom) That's as near as I'll ever get to my dream job.

Sunny and chilly down here in East Sussex. Must be global warming............

An orange Renault Ares, haven't seen that one round here before, and that bl**dy JCB Fastrac that must have an 80 kph beergox, cos it flies when it goes by our yard. A Case think it could have been an MX 135 or something like it with a six rotor Kuhn tedder au derriere. One of our customers came in yesterday with an R reg 7600 Q cab which he is using as much as possible because he says it's very good on fuel, and cheaper to run than his large tractors. He was filling it up on the pumps at around 90p a litre. It amazes me the number of tractors that come on our forecourt during the day. Some just come in to buy sandwiches and others to fill up with fuel. Not a cheap way to run a tractor.

Spot on there, most days are manic, thats the trouble with being a driver, mechanic and transport manager. Then to top it all one of our tankers got stopped a couple of weeks ago and was found to have lost some tread from a trailer tyre even though I'd checked the tyres two days before and the driver checked them the day before he was stopped. Now of course we are getting a visit from V.O.S.A next month to look at our "Dangerous Goods" operation. The inspector coming pointed out that he was a vehicle inspector too and if I wanted to discuss any issues we may have with drivers hours records; then he'd be happy to discuss them with me. Sneaky b**tards, we'll have them on our backs for months now. This is a sneaky visit to see if they can "Get" us for anything else. I told him we have no issues with drivers records, as we don't so he wont get very far on that one. I spose we'll find them looking over the bank at the back of our yard and watching from down the road to find out what we are up to soon. All they want is to catch us out to score Brownie points and fine us large sums of money to justify their "Gestapo" existance. I hate government officials..............Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Another manic day, ordering parts for trucks, trying to find a leak on a tanker, dismantling and cleaning out a jammed delivery meter on another one, carrying out final repairs for a tanker going for an SLP (Safe loading pass). Dealing with an inspector from the Freight Transport Association, arranging loads and drivers to try and cope with next weeks work, moving fuel around to make room for tomorrows delivery, arranging tank tests and work with outside repairers, ordering parts to be sent up with the truck. Realizing that our Foden was booked for MOT on Tuesday and not Wednesday and wondering how I'm going to get the ERF brakes done now I have a day less to do it in. Arranging for a load for the MOT on the Foden as it has to be loaded for the test. If you come in our yard and want to find me........look up the far corner of the yard. I'll be the one sitting on the ground with my eyes shut and my hands over my ears, swaying backwards and forwards.

On Lodge Farm at Stanstead park near Westbourne in West Sussex, there was a field called Bustard Hanger, so called because of the Bustards (Hunting Birds) that were seen there. They became extinct in about 1830. The field you knew of may have had the same connection and had the name changed slightly over the years when its association with the bird was forgotten. Nearby Sindles farm has a field called "Clappers" which is a medieval word for land with rabbit burrows. There's another called "Little Hams" Hamm being an old word for a meadow. The Brooks. A Brook is an old Sussex word for a water meadow. Another is called "Netser", thought to be an old word for a cattle fold, possibly from the "Iron Age" Another of their fields is called "Pickledean" Pickle is again another word for an enclosure and "Dean" is a valley. so the name is self explanatory. This information was taken from a book written by a John Veltom who owned Sindles Farm at a place called Westbourne on the Sussex / Hampshire border. I lived there until I was about five and a half years old. I wrote to John Veltom recently hoping to reminisce about the good old days, and possibly visit the farm; but sadly his son replied telling me that John had fallen victim to a series of strokes and could no longer understand or remember very little of his past. Isn't life in old age cruel; that he should be robbed of a lifetimes memories and experiences in his twilight years. Fortunately he finished the book before all this happened, so his memories and experiences will live on for future generations to read about.

I really like the Ford force version of this tractor. That is exactly as I remember them coming in at Sussex Tractors. Some were ordered like that to have lift off Alexander Duncan cabs fitted. Duncan cabs with the sloping backs were as I remember, were only fitted to round wing tractors. It would be great to see what one of our clever converters could do in the way of making up an early two door Duncan cab for this gorgeous tractor. Maybe they could even mass produce then as an after market accessory. Wacha fink.