What's made you not grumpy but not smile either today?

[bugsymike]

Put bicarbonate of soda on your bait food, rodents can’t fart so they explode
I’m honestly not advocating that, I saw it on a YouTube video where the redneck was discussing how rodents soon learn how to defeat traps

I like the joke where the mice got too clever eating the cheese in the trap, so a saw blade was put there instead, the mouse puts it's head in the hole and "Shakes it's head and says "Wot no cheese" and saws it's own head off"

 

[portland_bill]

The traps I've used for years are a plastic box, with a lid that drops shut once the critter is inside. Not much for them to chew on once inside, except the door hold mechanism, which might render it reusable, but won't let them out.
Mice aren't particularly drawn to cheese. I use some bird seed, as I have plenty. Advantage is that it can sit for ages unused, and still be fine. The mice are mostly looking for a safe refuge, and the food is a bonus.
Male cats kill their prey. If they bring it in, it is to 'feed the family', which is why they drop it on the floor and sit back expecting praise.
Female cats mostly bring the mice in alive. Their instinct is to teach their kittens to hunt, killing the prey later. That is why they bring it in, drop it, and watch it run away, expecting other family members to chase and catch it. I'm getting better at it than she is.

Pest-Stop Trip-Trap Mouse Trap

Safe and humane solution for dealing with unwanted mice. Stores mice safely inside without harming them. Very easy to bait and set, and simple to release the mouse. Clear plastic for easy monitoring, with ventilation holes. British design.

www.toolstation.com

 

[portland_bill]

Having spent a few years swapping summer and winter tyres on the Panda (spare set of wheels), I decided to end the silliness and move to all-season. When I originally got the winters, all-season were not available in the tiny 155/80 13 of the Panda.
The downside of swapping the tyres twice a year, is that they take a long time to wear out. Initially that seems good, but they still age. Last year I collected a puncture in one of the winters, and it was silly to add a new one to the others that were 8 years old, nad getting noticeably less flexible.
I put the summers on, and they took a few weeks to become flexible after their vacation in the garage. I put the previous front ones on the back, to even out the wear, hoping to get them all to wear out together, as it hurts to have to scrap a couple of part-worn ones.
I've been watching them gently head towards the wear indicators. The rear ones are almost on the 2mm mark, but the front ones refuse to wear noticeably. So sometime very soon, I have to replace all four. Shame.

I can fit my own tyres to the wheels, so have looked at prices fitted, or just supplied. Whilst supplied are cheaper, I then have to add valves, get them balanced, and pay the local tip for disposal. Total jsut £5 less than getting them via Black Circles. Worth the extra fiver for someone else to do the physical work.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Having spent a few years swapping summer and winter tyres on the Panda (spare set of wheels), I decided to end the silliness and move to all-season. When I originally got the winters, all-season were not available in the tiny 155/80 13 of the Panda.
The downside of swapping the tyres twice a year, is that they take a long time to wear out. Initially that seems good, but they still age. Last year I collected a puncture in one of the winters, and it was silly to add a new one to the others that were 8 years old, nad getting noticeably less flexible.
I put the summers on, and they took a few weeks to become flexible after their vacation in the garage. I put the previous front ones on the back, to even out the wear, hoping to get them all to wear out together, as it hurts to have to scrap a couple of part-worn ones.
I've been watching them gently head towards the wear indicators. The rear ones are almost on the 2mm mark, but the front ones refuse to wear noticeably. So sometime very soon, I have to replace all four. Shame.

I can fit my own tyres to the wheels, so have looked at prices fitted, or just supplied. Whilst supplied are cheaper, I then have to add valves, get them balanced, and pay the local tip for disposal. Total jsut £5 less than getting them via Black Circles. Worth the extra fiver for someone else to do the physical work.

Fitting tyres is a young mans game. These days kneeling bending stooping and arm strength are off. Breathings nearly off. In fact the only thing on, is boozing.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Fitting tyres is a young mans game. These days kneeling bending stooping and arm strength are off. Breathings nearly off. In fact the only thing on, is boozing.

I have alliys fotr summer and the cars steels for winter but I will also go for all seasons next as well , I think. Then I can get some off roading tyres and go offroad.
Maybe not he might get dirty!

 

[portland_bill]

Fitting tyres is a young mans game. These days kneeling bending stooping and arm strength are off. Breathings nearly off. In fact the only thing on, is boozing.

I have one of these:

Tyre Changer Manual Operation | TC960 | Sealey

1 Year Guarantee - Steel construction with manual bead breaker. Suitable for use on most open centred wheels. Wheel Depth Minimum/Maximum: 0/300mm.

www.sealey.co.uk

Picked it up off eBay a few years ago, quite cheap.
First used one like it when I was 14, and in all my years in the trade, never got to use a powered tyre changing machine. The Panda narrow wheels are easy.

 

[bugsymike]

First used one like it when I was 14, and in all my years in the trade, never got to use a powered tyre changing machine. The Panda narrow wheels are easy.

As an apprentice in the 1960s all we had was the manual Harvey Frost tyre changer, didn't even have an air bead breaker.
We used tyre levers and a slide hammer bead breaker for tractor and trailer stuff, if they were not the split rim type.
Modern wheel changers are essential for alloys really.

 

[portland_bill]

I'm currently sitting upstairs, with the house shuddering and shaking occasionally, as the carer gets my partner out of bed, washed and dressed. This girl is tall, but slightly built, but moves around like an elephant. Every door and drawer is slammed, everything is thumped down onto surfaces. Makes me cringe. Then everything that gets moved/used, gets put back in a slightly different place. Sadly, there appears to be a large gaping hole between her ears.

She arrives in a 2009 Mazda 2. Looks tidy, but always struggles to start, despite having been stood for only 40 minutes. I doubt its ever had a service, or the bonnet even opened. One day she will fail to arrive somewhere, and next time arrive in a different (disposable) car.
When leaving, despite there being a junction 50 yards up the road, she will perform (if that's the right word) a 5-point turn in the road. Such a lot of hard work, when the alternatve is so close.

There are two carers that turn around before the visit. Well done.

 

[porta]

I'm currently sitting upstairs, with the house shuddering and shaking occasionally, as the carer gets my partner out of bed, washed and dressed. This girl is tall, but slightly built, but moves around like an elephant. Every door and drawer is slammed, everything is thumped down onto surfaces. Makes me cringe. Then everything that gets moved/used, gets put back in a slightly different place. Sadly, there appears to be a large gaping hole between her ears.

She arrives in a 2009 Mazda 2. Looks tidy, but always struggles to start, despite having been stood for only 40 minutes. I doubt its ever had a service, or the bonnet even opened. One day she will fail to arrive somewhere, and next time arrive in a different (disposable) car.
When leaving, despite there being a junction 50 yards up the road, she will perform (if that's the right word) a 5-point turn in the road. Such a lot of hard work, when the alternatve is so close.

There are two carers that turn around before the visit. Well done.

I know someone that would rather do a three point turn than take a right at a junction, she hated pulling across traffic, she was on the news in the early 90s for trying to drive up the M6 the wrong way just past Kirby Lonsdale…she didn’t get very far luckily!

 

[bugsymike]

The other day I noticed a van stopped in the road, on looking out the Eastern European driver was hammering on my neighbours front, on approaching him he said "metals?" , I emphatically said "NO!" , he went away, shortly after I saw him in down in the town in a side road pull up and take some metal from the rear of a property, no one at the property was there so I assume he just decided to help him self.
Today I saw same van outside my neighbours house, who happened to be in and gave the same answer as me.
It is fortunate that my neighbour had parked his van at an angle making access to the rear of property impossible.
Another time I took the Reg. No. of a van doing the same thing and checked on Gov website as it was seriously overloaded and had bald tyres and yes no MOT either.
A few years ago I saw another van with two occupants looking down all the drives to the houses etc. for scrap metal, I told the driver no, as any metal we would weigh in ourselves, his passenger whom I assume had issues then leaned out of the van and threatened to f**king kill me, to which I replied I would call the Police which I did and as usual heard no more!
What I would like to know is why the law abiding, tax paying, home owners are the only ones not protected, if you are at the bottom of the ladder it's not worth the authority's pursuing and if you are at the top of the ladder any legal pursuit is left so many years they escape punishment?

 

[The Panda Nut]

I feel for you. Its so difficult when you want to go knock some sense into them, but still need them to attend.

The 5 point turn brings me to mind teaching the kids to drive.

1 I had a little road where I would say "do a three point turn". It was possible if you got ittotally perfectly right to get round in 5. The girls used to complain like hell. Any normal husing estate road poses few issues.
2 Hill starting. We have 1 hill in Norfolk, Gas Hill in Norwich it's about 1:5 to a little bit of 1 : 3 at the top where you have to stop at a very narrow junction.
I made allthree do the hill start on the shallow bit.... which is horrid. More veherment complaints. Then I said OK, carry on, and they got to the really nasty bit where often you have to stop. One of the girls has said many times since "Hill starts are easy after gas hill all other hill starts are a cinch" Its places like that where the hill holder is rather nice, though often I forget to use it.

You wonder who taught some of these people and even more how on earth they passed a test

 

[bugsymike]

When I taught my ex wives and children to drive I use to find a really steep hill, just like you and once they could do it forwards , I made them do it in reverse also. Another thing I liked to do is find a nice quiet car park in Winter covered in snow for them to understand skidding etc.
One of my daughters had a problem with petrol cars pulling away and to this day prefers diesel for "grunt".
When she looked at a VW Golf TDI, it was only after I got her to pull away up a steep hill with her foot off the accelerator that she realised if clutch control was good many medium size diesels will compensate the revs as the load goes on so in effect they are pulling away on tickover no matter how steep the hill.
Having said that my Fiat Doblo 1.6 multijet doesn't and comes up with "insufficient engine" on the dashhboard, though my same size engined and hp Citroen C3 Picasso has no problem doing it at 223K miles.

 

[The Panda Nut]

When I taught my ex wives and children to drive I use to find a really steep hill, just like you and once they could do it forwards , I made them do it in reverse also. Another thing I liked to do is find a nice quiet car park in Winter covered in snow for them to understand skidding etc.
One of my daughters had a problem with petrol cars pulling away and to this day prefers diesel for "grunt".
When she looked at a VW Golf TDI, it was only after I got her to pull away up a steep hill with her foot off the accelerator that she realised if clutch control was good many medium size diesels will compensate the revs as the load goes on so in effect they are pulling away on tickover no matter how steep the hill.
Having said that my Fiat Doblo 1.6 multijet doesn't and comes up with "insufficient engine" on the dashhboard, though my same size engined and hp Citroen C3 Picasso has no problem doing it at 223K miles.

Odd you say that about the Doblo the Bravo 1.6D used to stall sometimes too. Odd when it would pull a caravan up steep hills with no fuss.
Daughters both refused pointblank to play in the snow, in spite of my recommending them to do so. There is no doubt this should be a compulsory exercise before being passed to drive. I feel like getting them all to to take me out under a false pretext and doing hte reverse hill start on them. He he....
Panda 4x4 will do hill starts no throttle too the anti stall and low 1st gear make it unstoppable. PANDAS ONATOP!

 

[The Panda Nut]

The other day I noticed a van stopped in the road, on looking out the Eastern European driver was hammering on my neighbours front, on approaching him he said "metals?" , I emphatically said "NO!" , he went away, shortly after I saw him in down in the town in a side road pull up and take some metal from the rear of a property, no one at the property was there so I assume he just decided to help him self.
Today I saw same van outside my neighbours house, who happened to be in and gave the same answer as me.
It is fortunate that my neighbour had parked his van at an angle making access to the rear of property impossible.
Another time I took the Reg. No. of a van doing the same thing and checked on Gov website as it was seriously overloaded and had bald tyres and yes no MOT either.
A few years ago I saw another van with two occupants looking down all the drives to the houses etc. for scrap metal, I told the driver no, as any metal we would weigh in ourselves, his passenger whom I assume had issues then leaned out of the van and threatened to f**king kill me, to which I replied I would call the Police which I did and as usual heard no more!
What I would like to know is why the law abiding, tax paying, home owners are the only ones not protected, if you are at the bottom of the ladder it's not worth the authority's pursuing and if you are at the top of the ladder any legal pursuit is left so many years they escape punishment?

I have had the police attend thrice in 66 years so you do get something, and once it was vital and they did the business. There is however no point whatsoever trying to help them in any way as they dont listen, dont seem to care and certainly dont value this. I reckon I would have better value for the money paid for thepolice service had I kept the money paid and use it to call a privte security firm when required! Its a sad endightment and possibly down to buget cuts, but hey, we need to pay less taxes, then we could have no police, no NHS and no other services exceptfor the 600 gas bags in Westminster (morons mostly) getting paid a hell of a lot, for not a lot, in a lot of cases. If they are too busy why in Gods name dont we fund them adequately. Ditto NHS.

 

[portland_bill]

When I changed the rear axle of the Panda, getting the old one to the tip was a challenge, as it was heavy, and awkward. A bit big for the Panda, and also for the Fabia. The man with the scrap metals truck was pleased to take it away. Easy for me. I agree, they should not take anything unless given permission, but anything of value, like metal, will be turned in, not fly-tipped. If they have to tax, insure and MOT their vehicles, it takes all the profit away.
A short while ago, my brother's washing machine gave up. My father's machine was sat in a garage in Bristol, so I met brother there, loaded it into the Doblo, and delivered it to Wales. Installed it, and dragged the old one into the street.
I was about 10 minutes away when he texted to say man had taken it away. Sometimes a welcome service.

Hill starts are still part of every test, although some areas don't have much of a hill to use. Chippenham has a feeble gentle slop close to the test centre, which is often used. Most of us would not notice it being a hill. In Swindon we have quite a few nice hills. (And a few roundabouts)

There's a car park outside the football ground in Swindon, which unusually has large spaces without kerbs, posts, or any other hazards. Whenever we've had snow, I've encouraged all my pupils to play on it. All have been reluctant, then didn't want to stop.

 

[bugsymike]

The same scrap van I mentioned, I have just seen a couple of hours ago parked beside a companies large skip and the guy was "dumpster diving" in it.
I don't think English was his first language as it is a plastic double glazing company .
Re leaving the the washing machine, one of my sisters lives in Tottenham and her neighbour paid for a skip, he went to use it a few hours later and found it half full already courtesy of the locals!

 

[Cheest]

What I wanted to avoid doing when we bought the travel trailer, we're going to have to do anyway and that is to get a different truck with a more powerful engine. The Chevy its' 4.8L gas engine met its' match with the travel trailer. 8 to 9 mpg with constant shifting between 2nd and 3rd. There's also a 4th and 5th gear in the transmission, but those were rarely used.

I was going to go with a new Dodge Ram 1500 with a 5.7L 4wd. Until I saw the price. Even with my Chrysler Employee Family Discount, it was north of $60K US. Choke, cough, weez. I can afford it, but I also like to eat and don't want to count pennies during my retirement. Then my Dad, who is the retired Chrysler employee, said that he couldn't really recommend the new Rams. So we're looking at used trucks. No rush, but I have my eye on a couple of Chevy 1500s with the 5.3L, a couple of GMC 2500s with the 6.7L Duramax Diesel, a couple late model Rams with the 5.7L Hemi, and one older Ford F350 with the 6.0L Powerstroke Diesel.

I am, after all, in North America, Land of the Behemoth Pick Up Truck.

 

[The Panda Nut]

What I wanted to avoid doing when we bought the travel trailer, we're going to have to do anyway and that is to get a different truck with a more powerful engine. The Chevy its' 4.8L gas engine met its' match with the travel trailer. 8 to 9 mpg with constant shifting between 2nd and 3rd. There's also a 4th and 5th gear in the transmission, but those were rarely used.

I was going to go with a new Dodge Ram 1500 with a 5.7L 4wd. Until I saw the price. Even with my Chrysler Employee Family Discount, it was north of $60K US. Choke, cough, weez. I can afford it, but I also like to eat and don't want to count pennies during my retirement. Then my Dad, who is the retired Chrysler employee, said that he couldn't really recommend the new Rams. So we're looking at used trucks. No rush, but I have my eye on a couple of Chevy 1500s with the 5.3L, a couple of GMC 2500s with the 6.7L Duramax Diesel, a couple late model Rams with the 5.7L Hemi, and one older Ford F350 with the 6.0L Powerstroke Diesel.

I am, after all, in North America, Land of the Behemoth Pick Up Truck.

How heavy is this trailer... Must weigh at least 25 tons! Its supposed to be a camper, but YOU.... must have a 5* hotel on wheels.
My caravan, OK a smallish european job at 1.3 tons could be pulled by my Bravo 1.6 D (105hp) quite easily at 70mph up hill and down dale, and it would average 33mpg while it was at it. I think you owe us a photo of this trailer so we can all envy the opulence it MUST have!! Anyway, admit it the trailer was just a convenient way to sneak a new truck past " ' er indoors" Whats the output figires from these behemoth diesels. I think you should just put wheels on the old homestead and be done with it.

 

[Cheest]

It’s what ‘er indoors’ wanted. I wanted smaller

Loaded, it’s about 5000 lbs, or 2.5 tons. About 24’ from hitch to spare tire on the rear bumper. Cook top, microwave, fridge, shower, toilet, sink, water heater, air conditioner, furnace, black and grey waste water tanks, two king beds. Off grid solar, too. To me, it’s just another hotel room, but I gotta clean it.

The Chevy will haul it 70 mph all day. But the slightest incline will cause a downshift from 4th to 3rd to 2nd and that little v8 will be spinning at 4K until we crest the hill. Towing our pop up, the truck didn’t care. Hell, it barely acknowledged that I was towing a double axle car hauler with the DeSoto on it. The weight was comparable, but the DeSoto sat equal to the roof of the pick up. I’m pretty sure that the rear axle ratio in the Chevy is in the neighborhood of 3.05-3.21. No load at 70 in 5th equals about 1800 rpm. I know my Wrangler is a lot lower because it turns 2200 at 70 in 6th.

I came right out and said at the trailer dealership that I felt we’d need to replace the truck if we bought the larger trailer. I was told by both my wife and the dealer that it’ll be fine. My other half has already admitted that I was right but she’s dragging her feet when it comes to looking. Kind of how I am when she wants to look for furniture.

Horsepower on the diesels is from 325 to 400. Comparable to a 5.3L to 6.4L gas v8. Where they shine is the torque. The smaller Powerstroke is 570 ft-lbs. The Duramax is a whopping 765 ft-lbs. Almost double the GM gas v8.

I’d be happy with a slightly larger engine and a lower rear axle ratio, though.

 

[varesecrazy]

What I wanted to avoid doing when we bought the travel trailer, we're going to have to do anyway and that is to get a different truck with a more powerful engine. The Chevy its' 4.8L gas engine met its' match with the travel trailer. 8 to 9 mpg with constant shifting between 2nd and 3rd. There's also a 4th and 5th gear in the transmission, but those were rarely used.

What is the weight difference of the old camper vs new?

I am wondering if Aerodynamics are playing a part..? We had a 1980's Square bodied Caravan.. An aerofoil on the roof made quite a difference..

All truck rigs in the UK have a Spoiler on top of the cab.. To duct air over the Square leading edge of the trailer


My only experience on your side of the planet was an RV Ford Econoline
With a 7.2 V10 quite nippy for such a big vehicle.. But did 5 mpg


In UK terms that is bad..
A friend years ago.. went on holiday in Cornwall UK In a Bentley convertible (originally Elton John purchased)
That did 6 Mpg

Although my 125 Cagiva only got 7 when it was worked hard