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The lonely transport post thread.

Sasaferrato

Super Refuser!
A BMW concept, based on the M1.

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Is the shitty Citroen crossover in that picture for scale or something?

Why is there a concept car, an old Porsche and a Citroen family car in the same picture? What motor show is this?

Is that another old Porsche in the background as well?
 
Is the shitty Citroen crossover in that picture for scale or something?

Why is there a concept car, an old Porsche and a Citroen family car in the same picture? What motor show is this?

Is that another old Porsche in the background as well?

No idea, the pic was labelled 'BMW concept car'.
 
Drove past a car on fire this morning, it had pulled over onto the verge and the driver was standing about 30 metres away. Saw a fire appliance and a police car heading in that direction.

It was a slightly incongruous sight due to the incredibly heavy rain at the time (had rained nonstop for 12 hours with a lot of flooding locally although not where this happened) and naturally everyone stopping to have a look almost caused a pileup.

Oddly the car structure seemed to be fine, and no other vehicles involved. Some sort of electrical fault I guess :confused:
 
I see, as I’m sure every other motorway driver does, army trucks that look a bit like this on the motorways, sometimes two or three together.

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Always wondered what is in the back of these trucks? Obviously it could be equipment, but sometimes is it military personnel being transported?

Are there optional rows of seating - I imagine them being perpendicular to the cab seats? As the truck covering looks to be canvas, I imagine it would be cold, noisy, smelly and uncomfortable - probably boring too?

Seem to recall once or twice at a service station I’ve seen a load soldiers in uniform, doing what everyone else does at a service station (a shit and a ginsters). Perhaps they travel by coach but it doesn’t seem likely
 
I see, as I’m sure every other motorway driver does, army trucks that look a bit like this on the motorways, sometimes two or three together.

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Always wondered what is in the back of these trucks? Obviously it could be equipment, but sometimes is it military personnel being transported?

Are there optional rows of seating - I imagine them being perpendicular to the cab seats? As the truck covering looks to be canvas, I imagine it would be cold, noisy, smelly and uncomfortable - probably boring too?

Seem to recall once or twice at a service station I’ve seen a load soldiers in uniform, doing what everyone else does at a service station (a shit and a ginsters). Perhaps they travel by coach but it doesn’t seem likely
What do they look like from the back? Closed container type, I guess? I am sure they would have an open end at the back with a canvas cover if they are meant to ferry troops around in non-hostile conditions.
 
What do they look like from the back? Closed container type, I guess? I am sure they would have an open end at the back with a canvas cover if they are meant to ferry troops around in non-hostile conditions.

Pretty certain at the rear its canvas can’t find a picture though
 
I don't know enough about life in the services to know if they still expect them to travel in the back of lorries in normal circumstances / for any sort of distance.

There are coaches that are used by the services - they got out of the habit of them being too obvious (navy blue, khaki or air force blue, and having military number plates) a good few years ago to reduce the risk of them being terrorist targets, and i think most are now operated by private sector contractors but they are still fairly obvious (to anyone who works in the bus / coach sector at least)
 
Pretty certain at the rear its canvas can’t find a picture though
In that case it's almost certainly for troop transport.

Travelled in quite a few of those during my national service back in the 90s, only with the lorries far more mundane than that Robocop-style lot you saw. Getting to seat right by the open end of the truck and watching the world go by, and people in the car right behind you wave at you, was a right treat.
 
Just watched a video of how to change a headlight bulb for my car, as it went today. I watched the video intending to learn how to do it myself but having seen how the garage YouTube fella struggled I’ve decided to pay Halfords to do it. Although Halfords claim they have no bulbs that fit my car but that may because my car takes H7 499 bulbs and googling suggests they are now called H7 477 bulbs. Hopefully it will be resolved tomorrow anyway.

So annoying that Mercedes make their bulbs so inaccessible.
 
Just watched a video of how to change a headlight bulb for my car, as it went today. I watched the video intending to learn how to do it myself but having seen how the garage YouTube fella struggled I’ve decided to pay Halfords to do it. Although Halfords claim they have no bulbs that fit my car but that may because my car takes H7 499 bulbs and googling suggests they are now called H7 477 bulbs. Hopefully it will be resolved tomorrow anyway.

So annoying that Mercedes make their bulbs so inaccessible.

:mad:

when i was shopping for a car 6 or so years ago, i was put off one car i'd seen when i read the reviews and saw that changing a headlight bulb was almost a main dealer job
 
Today I saw some bellend try to rush the level crossing as the barriers were coming down. Managed to knock the barrier off and then drive over it, and ended up stopping with his car on the train line. The crossing is right by a major station and there's a train every 5-10 minutes. God knows how much havok that ended up causing for the roads and trains, luckily I was on foot and got across the tracks 30 seconds before all this kicked off or it could have been a half-hour detour to get home.
 
:mad:

when i was shopping for a car 6 or so years ago, i was put off one car i'd seen when i read the reviews and saw that changing a headlight bulb was almost a main dealer job

Changing the bulbs on my car is a five minute job if that. Front headlights, they just slot in from behind so you can do it from the footwell. And it's a really common model so youtube videos abound.

What car was the one you didn't get, out of interest? I've heard Audis are shit for both user-accessible parts and availability of generic spares.
 
To do mine the video said you need to slide a small mirror (which I don’t have) under the bonnet to give you the visibility to see what you’re doing. Even the bloke from the video was struggling to do it. I will struggle as I’m a bit clumsy in this situation.

The rear ones I don’t mind as they’re a lot more accessible, but the front ones, no chance!
 
To do mine the video said you need to slide a small mirror (which I don’t have) under the bonnet to give you the visibility to see what you’re doing. Even the bloke from the video was struggling to do it. I will struggle as I’m a bit clumsy in this situation.

with my recently departed car (citroen c3) i did have to invest in a mirror on a stick to assist in doing the front headlight bulbs, and a nut spinner to get at the bulbs in the rear light clusters.

this has reminded me that i haven't got round to checking that i have a full set of the right spare bulbs for the new(er) car or how to change bulbs in it yet. i suppose i ought to before i need to...
 
Maybe I’ll get a mirror on a stick for the future. I’ve got to get it done by Wednesday when I’ll next use my car in the dark.
 
:mad:

when i was shopping for a car 6 or so years ago, i was put off one car i'd seen when i read the reviews and saw that changing a headlight bulb was almost a main dealer job
That’s why you go to Halfords and have them fit it for a fiver or whatever fixed amount they charge. Did that in the old Avensis a few years back because the internet told me it was an absolute ballache to fit, and enjoyed watching someone spend 45 minutes struggling to do it!
 
Sinsheim Tecknic museum. Something for most people…IMG_0896.jpegIMG_0867.jpegIMG_0846.jpegIMG_0834.jpegIMG_0801.jpegIMG_0728.jpegIMG_0716.jpegIMG_0622.jpeg
 

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I decided to revisit my Peugeot three-wheeler bike’s manual yesterday out of boredom, and realised the dealer must have forgotten to remove the speed limiter on mine, because apparently it is surprisingly fast…

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Is there an issue letting my MOT lapse by a few days (or a bit longer?) providing I don’t drive it except of course for the one mile to the test centre when it’s due to be tested.

Mot is due 26th September, but I don’t get paid till 27th September so could do with getting it done the next week. I don’t park it on the public highway if that makes a difference. The car will be taxed the entire time
 
Is there an issue letting my MOT lapse by a few days (or a bit longer?) providing I don’t drive it except of course for the one mile to the test centre when it’s due to be tested.

Mot is due 26th September, but I don’t get paid till 27th September so could do with getting it done the next week. I don’t park it on the public highway if that makes a difference. The car will be taxed the entire time

not entirely sure

this suggests they only want people to report it to the police if a vehicle without MOT is being 'used on a road' so you may be OK. i think you're OK to drive a car that's out of test to a pre-booked test , but possibly not to bring it home again if it fails. more here.

if it's going to be off the road for any length of time, you should put it on SORN, but you pay for any part month either before going on SORN or when you tax it again.

it might just upset your insurance company if it's out of MOT, and when you say it's not parked on the public highway, do you mean it's your own private driveway, or what? my car is in a communal car park for a couple of council blocks, and something in the lease says any vehicle parked there must be in current tax and MOT.

you know you can get an MOT done up to a month early and effectively get an MOT that's valid 13 months, don't you? i prefer not to leave it until the last possible day in case there's things that need repairs. or is the august pay packet already spoken for?
 
not entirely sure

this suggests they only want people to report it to the police if a vehicle without MOT is being 'used on a road' so you may be OK. i think you're OK to drive a car that's out of test to a pre-booked test , but possibly not to bring it home again if it fails. more here.
Hmm, so the problem is I can’t and won’t risk the bit in bold should it fail. So it will need to be done a few days before. Garage would probably let it wait for a few days they’re quite nice.
if it's going to be off the road for any length of time, you should put it on SORN, but you pay for any part month either before going on SORN or when you tax it again.
Tax renews in October, on a direct debit paid monthly. Couldn’t cope with cost of tax and MOT / service all falling in the same month.
it might just upset your insurance company if it's out of MOT, and when you say it's not parked on the public highway, do you mean it's your own private driveway, or what? my car is in a communal car park for a couple of council blocks, and something in the lease says any vehicle parked there must be in current tax and MOT.
It’s parked on my parking space which is in front of my garage which is in a block. Garage and space are owned by me (freehold).
you know you can get an MOT done up to a month early and effectively get an MOT that's valid 13 months, don't you? i prefer not to leave it until the last possible day in case there's things that need repairs. or is the august pay packet already spoken for?
I didn’t know that but not sure after August pay day is an option. The way things are at the moment I’m running out of money by the 10th or so and don’t get paid till the 28th. This is likely to be the case for some time unfortunately and probably only get worse.

Anyway, helpful to work through things. So I think I need to look into (yet another!) credit card that’s interest free on purchases for a while and then stick the MOT etc on that.
 
Is there an issue letting my MOT lapse by a few days (or a bit longer?) providing I don’t drive it except of course for the one mile to the test centre when it’s due to be tested.

Mot is due 26th September, but I don’t get paid till 27th September so could do with getting it done the next week. I don’t park it on the public highway if that makes a difference. The car will be taxed the entire time
I unknowingly rode my motorcycle every day for a full month out of MOT and only found out when I took it for its annual service and MOT. I must go past some APRCs in my daily commute as well as regularly cross paths with police cars on the road, but was not fined or stopped, so either I was very lucky or The Man is not scanning plates for vehicles out of MOT.

In any event, I could be wrong about this but I believe I’m right in saying if you have booked an appointment with the garage, you are given dispensation to drive to it that day even if out of MOT.
 
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My mum had a Volvo DAF. Yellow with a black stripe along the side. Automatic. I had just passed my test and took it out for a play. Went to the garage to put some petrol in for the first time. Exciting!

Except there was no petrol cap. I walked around and around. Nowhere to put petrol! I was most perplexed. I went into the shop and said to the guy, sorry, this is my first time. I can't find the petrol cap. He came out, presumably rolling his eyes. I can't remember. This was 1988. Anyway, he couldn't find it either. I went home, defeated, and asked mum.

I have a shiny sixpence for the clever fellow, or fellette, who can tell me where it was.
 
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