New Grump of the Day

[plasticpigeon]

I run Michelin Latitude Cross on my Series III Lightweight. But they're road-biased so perhaps not ideal for mud.
Never yet been unable to get going with 4WD, provided of course I remember to lock the freewheeling hubs.

Seventeen years since I first bought a Series Landy. Mine is currently in Cheltenham being expensively fettled, having been rescued from a chap who was supposed to be fettling it but didn't. That was 6 months of potential use lost :evil: Amazing how it cramps one's building activities, not being able to shove stuff on the roof of the car.

Ivor

Can't you put a roof rack on the Roller? :lol:

 

[a twig]

I run Michelin Latitude Cross on my Series III Lightweight. But they're road-biased so perhaps not ideal for mud.
Never yet been unable to get going with 4WD, provided of course I remember to lock the freewheeling hubs.

Ha, always a good one, having made that mistake too many times in the past, I no longer have freewheeling hubs on mine! The slight decrease in mpg was worth it to save the embarrassment of seeing a Vauxhall Astra drive past me on a grassy field.

I've never got on with the Latitude Cross to be honest, maybe it's my driving style! :twisted: I think the off-road ability of my Series is also hindered slightly by having RR diffs fitted, great on the road when combined with the Tdi lump I have fitted, but it makes all the gearing a bit higher, so steep descents in low 1st are a bit hairy at times!

To be honest I will have to trade it for something a bit more sensible in the next couple of years once the house is finished, as we are hoping to be starting a family soon, and Series Land Rovers aren't exactly child seat friendly... Perhaps a second hand Discovery 4 now that prices are starting to drop!

 

[Penners]

To be honest I think the end of the Defender is a good thing.

Yes it's iconic, blah blah, but actually as a working vehicle it's a bit rubbish, unreliable and overpriced compared to whats out there now.

You're right, of course. My son has worked in humanitarian aid for many years, in some pretty hostile places around the globe. He says that NGOs would always favour a Toyota Land Cruiser over a Land Rover for reliability, load carrying, the ability to tackle the harshest terrain and sheer unbreakableness.

 

[MikeG]

....... My son has worked in humanitarian aid for many years, in some pretty hostile places around the globe. He says that NGOs would always favour a Toyota Land Cruiser over a Land Rover for reliability, load carrying, the ability to tackle the harshest terrain and sheer unbreakableness.

In 94/ 95 my brother and I drove the length of Africa, from London to Cape Town. I had a wonderful 60 series Landcruiser. He had a series 2a Landrover, of virtually the same age. In 6 months in some of the hardest conditions in the world my vehicle needed a new radiator cap, and a replacement spring. The Landrover had the engine rebuilt, the gearbox rebuilt, every element of all of the suspension replaced at least once. The starter motor packed up (we used a crank for weeks), the windows fell out, the steering box failed, the handbrake never worked at all*, it consumed almost as much oil as petrol, required the timing to be reset every few days, could barely manage 45mph (not that many of the roads allowed us to go that speed anyway), it had a permanent lean, the cab was virtually impossible to get cool (try vinyl seats in the Sahara!), half-shafts broke, wheel bearings died all the time.........and on and on. Put it this way, I would glance at my fluid levels every few days...........my brother spent most evenings re-building something. Still, we got the bloody thing all the way to Cape Town, which was a hell of an achievement.

Despite all that, I am desolate about the demise of the Defender. I should be the best off-roader in the world.

*We came to the conclusion that the handbrake-on-the-propshaft was a wonderful piece of British humour. That, and the hand-throttle situated in the passenger footwell led us to think that the guys at Cowley had some of the best senses of humour in the world.

 

[a twig]

There's always the story about when BMW bought Land Rover.

The BMW engineers had a test where they would put a stray cat in a new BMW, close all the vents, shut all the doors and windows and leave it overnight. If they came back in the morning and the cat was dead, they knew that the panel fit was good (air tight).

The BMW engineers tried the same thing with a Land Rover Defender when they bought the company - all vents closed, doors and windows closed and locked, cat put inside. Eager to see the results they returned the next morning, and found that the cat had escaped...

 

[MikeG]

Try sleeping in a Landrover and keeping the mosquitos and tsetse flies out! Here's a tip: have plenty of socks to hand, and stuff them in every opening you can find. You'll still get bitten.

 

[Penners]

The Landrover had the engine rebuilt, the gearbox rebuilt, every element of all of the suspension replaced at least once. The starter motor packed up (we used a crank for weeks), the windows fell out, the steering box failed, the handbrake never worked at all*, it consumed almost as much oil as petrol, required the timing to be reset every few days, could barely manage 45mph (not that many of the roads allowed us to go that speed anyway), it had a permanent lean, the cab was virtually impossible to get cool (try vinyl seats in the Sahara!), half-shafts broke, wheel bearings died all the time

It's a bit like my Grandad's wonderful old spade. It's had five new handles and three new blades, but it's still going strong. :wink:

 

[Pennyviz]

Plasterers!
Me: "do you plaster in with lime? I have a downstairs toilet which needs a skim and some remedial work due to historic damp along bottom two feet of wall.
Plasterer: Yeah sure, no problem
Plasterer visits, we go over the lime thing again and he sends in quote including: materials - Thistle multi finish
Me: Can you quote on lime as we discussed?
Plasterer requotes: Materials: Limelite renovating plaster
Me (after he texts wanting to know if his quote was OK): sorry I've found someone else, Limelite is cement based.
Plasterer: Lime will absorb the damp.

Has anyone else had this conversation or am I not being clear somehow?

 

[Penners]

am I not being clear somehow?

You're being crystal clear to anyone who speaks fluent 'period'. Unfortunately it's a dying language among the building trade.

 

[atticman]

It's like when I asked a builder about repointing some of a sandstone exterior wall - "I'll just put a bit of cement in the mix, you know - for hardness. Otherwise it will all just fall out", as he looked at the 185 year old wall, that still had some of the original pointing in place!!

Needless to say, he didn't get the job.

 

[MatthewC]

am I not being clear somehow?

You're being crystal clear to anyone who speaks fluent 'period'. Unfortunately it's a dying language among the building trade.

Absolutely! I reckon that 80% of tradesmen either have no idea about lime or else say "you don't believe that do you?" Of the remaining 20%, 19% think that by adding a bit of hydrated lime to a cement mix then they are complying with your request, leaving just 1% who actually understand and will do as you ask.

Last month I had a week in France, and I was amazed that large organisations such as their equivalent of Historic England are still doing repairs to old buildings using cement. I hardly saw any new lime there at all.

 

[88v8]

It's a struggle getting anyone to do anything other than in the current mainstream fashion. And as has been said, even basic communication is difficult. Our dining room floor was laid five years ago by a 'conservation builder' with hydrated and cement. 'This is what we always use!'

Had a drystone waller here a couple of years ago, he also does what he called 'masonry' which seemed to be sticking his stones together with cement.
We had the Lime conversation - he recalled at college years ago -he is probably in his 40s - a day spent learning about lime, they knocked down a lime wall and built it again. "It's rubbish, no strength, you can just knock it down".

I got him a pointing job at a cottage up the lane. He matched the colour and texture well, but I didn't look too closely at what mix he was using.

Had a wall lime plastered here. The plaster came from Ty Mawr so I knew it was 'right'. The builder brought a plasterer, who came from 100 miles away in deepest Wales. He couldn't do a bagged finish, so the builder's mason had to come a 60 mile round trip and finish it the next day. I guess this palaver is why so many of us (reluctantly) end up doing the job ourselves.

Ivor

 

[Penners]

this palaver is why so many of us (reluctantly) end up doing the job ourselves.

"Reluctantly" Ivor?! Surely doing it* yourself is the ultimate satisfaction of conservation/restoration, isn't it?

* "It" meaning absolutely anything - masonry, timber work, plumbing, plastering... etc., etc., and so forth!

 

[88v8]

Surely doing it* yourself is the ultimate satisfaction of conservation/restoration, isn't it?

Generally, depending on outcome. But as the years go by one begins to question how one wishes to spend one's finite time.......

Ivor

 

[TheRoost]

The worst thing is when they lie to you about it, telling you they work with lime, then assume they can just get away with using whatever they like because customers don't usually check. Or they are miseducated about lime and think they are doing you a favour by using cement on the sly.

I found a couple of pointing specialists near that claimed on their websites to use lime mortar on old houses where appropriate, but the only finishes they offered were 'weatherstruck' and 'bucket handle' and the photos showed awful overly wet trowel smoothed mortar joints smeared overlapping the bricks, a right mess, no mention of compacting the joints, finishing with a piece of wood and churn brush etc. One of the companies claimed to be approved by one of the major lime suppliers too.

 

[TheRoost]

Double post.

 

[noj]

I hate it whenever you need a bit of linseed putty you have to buy a new pot since it's hardened - so I had the genius idea of wrapping my remaining lump (about fist sized) in cling film before putting it back in the tub a couple of months ago - wondered why this isn't always done.

Fast forward - I now know linseed oil dissolves cling film, turning it into lots of crispy flakes welded to the putty, and it still hardens just as much

 

[MatthewC]

I hate it whenever you need a bit of linseed putty you have to buy a new pot since it's hardened - so I had the genius idea of wrapping my remaining lump (about fist sized) in cling film before putting it back in the tub a couple of months ago - wondered why this isn't always done.

Fast forward - I now know linseed oil dissolves cling film, turning it into lots of crispy flakes welded to the putty, and it still hardens just as much

:lol: :lol: :lol:
Perhaps you should patent the process and sell the crispy flakes for breakfast?

NB I just buy a brand new tub each time as it works so much more easily

 

[Zebra]

This sounds like the time I tried to see whether white spirit would dissolve beeswax, by putting both together in a yoghurt pot. What I discovered was that white spirit dissolves yoghurt pots.

 

[88v8]

Linseed oil revives old putty, if it's warmed.

And if you put a little puddle of linseed in the pot when you finish, it hardens less.

Ivor