Buying "Plant", what does one need to look out for

[Rick Dipper]

Its time to take the leep, I am off to the local plant hire / slaes outfit on Firday, looking at machines. DIY takes a leep forward. Block paving the drive, for example would take over 60000 block, no way I am moving all those by hand .........

I am pretty much decided on a 2nd user bobcat, and have set a budget. Yep I can get a JCB for less, but a JCB is too big for my site. Yep I can get a dumper, but I have to manually load it, even if it carries more. I can get a tractor, which may be an option, but I can have short loans on a tractor. A digger is cheeper to hire than buy, at 15 quid an hour including driver. The damage you can doo if you pust the bucket insted of pull is too much to deal with ......

The plan is to treat the purchase the same wasy as I would by a car, with a car you get various forms of paperwork, what should I look for with a bobcat/small tractor etc ...........

A test drive is a must of cource, which will come with a driving lesson. I have done my research on what modeal at what age are worth what money.

Hints and tips from people who have "been ther done that" would be great.

Thanks Rick

[Mary Fisher]

No idea - but can I have a go when you get it, please?

Mary

[Harry Bloomfield]

Rick Dipper wrote on Wednesday (04/02/2004) :

I've can't help with your questions, but those Bobcats are really great fun to drive. I once borrowed one to clear my drive of snow and ended up clearing the whole garden of snow it was that much fun :D

[Monosulfone]

Fuck off, Harry. Better still, grow up. Running to teacher doesn't endear you to your classmates.

[Michael McNeil]

The first thing to look for is a more appropriate site. This is a DIY board.

You'd be best off asking a driver at a plant hire firm or visit a local building site where they are using whatever it is you fancy.

You couldn't possibly expect most of us to give you advice on what to look out for with the hydraulics of machine A or the manouvreability of machine B, on here. Give us a break!

[Rick Dipper]

Come on down ......... to thw=e wilds of North Wales.

Rick

[Dave Plowman]

Heh heh. In my experience, someone who reads this group *will* have the answer.

[Mary Fisher]

Yes, and he wants to do a job himself, he's just asking about the equipment. There's a lot of that hereabouts and why not?

Mary

[Rick Dipper]

IMHO there is normally someone on this group who knows a hell of a lot about whate ever the Q is. Maybe its plumber looking for some help with the electrices, or an expert in Internet Security, wanting some help with buying a machine to dig a huge hole in his garden.

Maybe next time you ask a Q I should be as polite as you have been ? Maybe I should simply hack your hotmail account, not exactly hard.

Thanks Rick

[Mary Fisher]

about whate ever the Q is.

in Internet Security,

No, Rick, don't threaten. Just ignore the poster's threads - or kf at the worst.

You've made your point, so have I. Silence is the best put-down now.

Mary

[Pete C]

Are you suuuure you want all that block paving?

cheers, Pete.

[Owain]

"Rick Dipper" wrote | Its time to take the leep, I am off to the local plant hire / slaes outfit

Which I read as "plant hire and slaves outfit"

Why have decking and a water feecher when you can have a pyramid.

Owain

[Rick Dipper]

I'll probably use slate chippings, which are a lot cheeper, but i'll need about 100 tonnes, which is still too much to shift in a wheelbarrow.

[Bob Eager]

!!!

Three places; Kent, Devon and Durham AFAIR. Been ro the Kent one.

(this was after I bought SWMBO a day's JCB racing a couple of Christmases ago)..great fun!

[Tim Mitchell]

In article , Bob Eager writes

it's diggerland.com actually, the above URL goes into an endless loop.

Getting totally OT now, I see from their website they have an outdoor snow park with real snow

how do they do that???

They even do take away snow, you can have 20m3 of snow tipped in your garden if you want.

[Bob Eager]

So it is...not so much a loop as a non-responding host. I'm sure it used to work buf the name points somewhere different...

A very big snow making machine, apparently. I've seen the snow from a distance, but not been nearer. They do snowboarding and stuff...!

Didn't know that!

[James Hart]

Snowmaking machine, commonly found in lower height ski resorts to top the snow up. Here's one for home use

or for something a bit bigger 'm thinking much fun could be had by snowing someone's car in one August day.

[PoP]

Actually you could make a fortune if the August was like last year when temperatures in the UK got to the 30's!

Turn up with a couple of large umbrellas, tables, chairs and some cold drinks and you are onto a small fortune!

PoP

Sending email to my published email address isn't guaranteed to reach me.

[Tim Mitchell]

Those machines both require freezing air temperatures to operate, but the website says they have snow December-Easter. How do they stop it melting? Especially on a day like we've had recently with air temps of

15 degrees C?

[Owain]

"PoP" wrote | "James Hart" wrote: | >I'm thinking much fun could be had by snowing someone's car in | >one August day. | Actually you could make a fortune if the August was like last | year when temperatures in the UK got to the 30's! | Turn up with a couple of large umbrellas, tables, chairs and | some cold drinks and you are onto a small fortune!

Oooh yes, what I wouldn't have given for a naked roll in some snow last August.

(Alone and in private.)

At least Tescos have had a refit with those wardrobe-sized full-height freezer cabinets now, so I can stand in front of those for an occasional cool-off next summer.

Owain