Posts

@RD4590
Yeah man, 10 tons tare (contents only), also that incident at the hotel happened in warm, dry weather. Once I collected a 10yd skip that weighed 12 tons, we found out later the customer had used a wacker plate/compactor to squeeze more in, cheeky bastard.

It’s pretty impressive if they’re using a regular “Dennis” style tri-axle bin lorry around those areas, usually only one axle has propultion, you’d think they’d struggle for traction.

When I visited Cornwall I noticed they use tiny “Asian style” bin lorries, biilt on the Mitsubishi Fuso.

@𝕭𝖆𝖉𝖍𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖙
Haha, he seems like a sound bloke.

@RD4590
Some State Capitol Buildings are built on hills, some are not.

I know for certain that the Utah Capitol Building in Salt Lake City is on a hill. As far as I know, Colorado’s Capitol in Denver and Idaho’s Capitol in Boise are not on a hill.

@ᎶㄖҜㄩ 乃ㄥ卂匚Ҝ
Are all capitol buildings built on a mountain in America?

@midob
Heck I didn’t expect a skip to be this heavy. 10 tons.
I see why HGVs still have manual box. That sounds terrifying indeed. Normally an automatic car only shifts down in manual mode. No idea why DAF works like that.
Also not only your skip lorry, how do they drive those 3-axle bin lorries down these streets, or through those mountain roads? I even saw one on the A57 (Snake Road, Derbyshire) in summer, uphill doing 40mph. 😂

Boy that is very steep too.
All the houses have driveways so parking shouldn’t be a problem. But if you really have to park on a slope, you need to steer to the kerb, so the kerb can catch the vehicle if it slides. And if it’s too steep you may need to park sideways. Then in winter you may need to chain the car to a lamp post or telegraph pole.
This is Vale Street in Bristol, UK, steepest urban street in Europe.

@kleptomage
Some of our roads are extremely steep, especially in Scotland.

@RD4590
Wow, didn’t expect the UK to have the world steepest street, always assumed it’d be some southeast asian country.

A previous job I had involved driving skip lorries (pictured below), we had a job at a hotel with an extremely steep access road. I dropped the skip there no problem. After a week they rang us for a collection, when I got there it had been filled with earth (extremely heavy, roughly 10,000kg), lifted it onto the lorry, as a pulled off selected crawler mode on the gearbox.

I went up this hill, the lorry was struggling but making progress, suddenly the lorry decided (despite being in manual crawler mode) to shift up a gear, well the lorry rolled back immediately, I pressed the brakes, all four wheels locked up, the lorry kept rolling backwards, it was fucking terrifying, behind me were homes built on a sweeping corner along a cliff edge. Luckily after releasing the brakes and gradually re applying them I regained traction.

This could have ended in disaster, I always hated driving automatic transmission skip wagons and this futher fueled my hate toward them, DAF AT’s are utter wank.

There are some fairly steep streets in Salt Lake City. Mostly around the Utah State Capitol Building and east of downtown.

@RD4590
I’ve never been to San Francisco, only San Diego in California and the roads were not especially steep. I remember though, vacationing in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and there was a town called Hancock that had the steepest streets I’ve ever seen. Finn and Scott street in Hancock were so steep I wondered what the residents did in winter. You can look them up on Google maps.

Speaking of that, I have driven down the steepest street in the world (Ffordd pen Llech, Harlech, Gwynedd, Wales, UK) in an ordinary hatchback and it was terrifying.

even down the streets of San Francisco? :P

@midob
The thing is, trailer ratings are for towing anywhere in the US. If the manual says the vehicle will tow 1,500 pounds, it means it will tow 1,500 pounds over the steepest mountain roads.

@kleptomage
Heh, I’d always assumed American towing laws would allow more than that. it’s 750KG max for a unbraked trailer in England.

@midob
I’m not going to use the trailer enough for aluminum to be worth the expense. I’m just be hauling mulch, large materials, and the rare piece of furniture. Lumber I can get delivered for free.

The Kia can only haul about 1,500 pounds without brakes on the trailer, but that should be enough for my use.

@RD4590
If you can trust a software controlling button. I’d only trust a switch that actually cuts power to the cameras.

@kleptomage
Aluminium is a fantastic material, hardly corrodes at all unlike steel. Trouble is it tends to crack, it’s difficult to weld for a DIYer with a MIG or stick welder.

You’ll likely have a much better payload and fuel economy with ali though. Is it worth the extra; probably not unless you’re gonna get a lot of use out of it.

The new box on my lorry is ali+GRP and it’s given me a massive 3000kg payload, the previous box (steel+plywood) only had a 1850kg payload and that’s without a tail lift.

I got a hitch and wiring installed on the Kia. I was thinking about getting an aluminum trailer but they’re about twice the cost of steel trailers. I’ll probably get a 5 x 8 steel trailer and just maintain the paint so it doesn’t rust.

@midob
Yeah all this big-screen trend is getting unbearable.
I don’t care if they steal my data anymore. They can always find a way anyway. I just don’t want all of my data to be stolen by one company (so I use different brand for different things).
Xiaomi SU7 has a camera-off button that theoretically shuts down all the onboard cameras. At least they’re pretending they value our privacy.
In terms of design, I can agree.

@RD4590
Xiaomi phones are underappreciated IMO, the handsets I’ve had over the years have been brilliant once you get rid of the shitty MI UI.

I didn’t know they made a car, bloody good looking too, yeah the interior sucks but Tesla interiors do too, kinda like they got lazy and couldn’t be arsed to make a visually appealing design, so they just took a boring design and called it minimalist.

And yeah pretty weird to have a car made by the same people who make your robot vacuum, air purifier, smart bulbs ect. It’ll no doubt have data collection built in to the extreme.

I mean Ford kinda has Austin Martin esque styling with their 2015-on Mondeo, still a beautiful car IMO, especially the Vignale spec.

@midob
Apple was so ahead of its time. I think you can find traces of it from all the tech companies nowadays. But still Xiaomi put a roadworthy car into production ahead of Apple.
Xiaomi is more focused on home decor. Their new phones are barely recognised. But they have a whole range of smart furnitures and they are all connected. For example you can start your robot vacuum cleaner by voice command while driving. They made an unimaginable life unimaginably cheap.
The SU7 has its quirks and features (i.e. umbrella storage space, backseat screens, on a £‎30k car). And if they can get away from the “fake Porsche” image, it would be good. But I don’t want to buy a car made by a smart tech company. That center console makes the whole car look like a tablet, and I don’t appreciate it.
Ironically I still think Xiaomi SU7 looks more like a car than many so-callesd cars on the market these days, and Xiaomi has put more effort in making a likeable car than some so-called manufacturers.

Kind like how Xiaomi is Apple esque, not original or unique in design. I do love Xiaomi stuff though, more than Apple stuff ironically.

Basically they never spend time developing their own unique design language, somethimg instantly recognizable and related to the brand (i.e. double kidney grille on a BMW). And some do have their signature designs but they’re fuck ugly.

@kleptomage
Honda is impeccable of course, but 20 years ago most people in China couldn’t even afford a Honda. That’s why the knock-offs became popular at the first place. Same story went into cars. And sadly even though most Chinese people can afford more expensive cars and bikes these days, the copycat mentality has already rooted in the design philosophy of our carmakers.

@midob
I can understand that, but it’s cheaper for a reason.

My Dad had a Honda motorcycle back in the 70’s that he’s always spoken highly of.

I never got into motorcycles, but admired some from afar. I could buy a nice motorcycle if I wanted to. It’s just that I’d probably maim myself riding it.

@midob
I know absolutely nothing about motorcycles. 😂
And I don’t really know how our vehicle inspection works, but it’s definitely not in par with UK. I think it’s once every two years, depending on age.

Sacrilege I know, at the time I was 13/14 years old and didn’t have the pennies for a Honda. A 2nd hand Honda would’ve cost ~700 quid where as the Chinese stuff cost around 100, better suited for tearing up the local fields (and didn’t really matter if it was confiscated).

I still have my first motorcycle which has been passed down my family, it’s a 1979 Honda 50cc, still starts with the first kick, fully original except I upgraded the electrical system from 6v to 12v (the headlight was as about as bright as a fag nub end).

Nothing beats a Honda, the best, most refined motorcycles by far in my opinion. Despite that I’ll be on the lookout for a Honda monkeybike clone soon, I’d love a Honda DAX but they’re fetching silly money now days, and I only want it to keep in the garage of my motorhome as a run about.