Dry robe, I have one, I got it for open water swimming, I have since replaced it with a Robie robe (branded towel robe)

Advantages: Dry robes are warm and because of the length keep you legs warm too, easy to throw on, this being a big advantage over a coat in that you don’t have to wrestle your wet arms up clammy sleeves, one big chunky zip or just cover over like a dressing gown, useful when fingers are too numb to mess about with buttons/small zips, easy to get changed in and also because of that easy to move about in when packing gear away.

disadvantages: not great at actually drying you, the fleece lining isn’t that absorbent, a normal towel is usually still required to dry yourself especially hair. If a dry robe gets dirty or just needs a wash it’s a pain, I washed mine and it took three days to dry out, also they are quite bulky, the last two reasons being why I replaced it with a simple towel robe, it doesn’t warm me, but a towel robe will dry you faster and when it gets dirty, throw it into the washing machine and dry it like a towel, easy and takes up a lot less space (basically a normal towel with a hood and sleeves).

as for the brand, people always get snobby about especially expensive brands, see also Orange bikes, Waitrose, VW campers.. to name a few, choose a product that does what you need it to do well, sometimes brands get big because they make a good product…

Got my job offer today, apprehensive in a way of the new place, but things have got so bad where I am a lot of long term staff are leaving, so the new place will have to try very hard to be worse. I’ve only been there since spring 2022. I knew it wasn’t the best place but thought I could bring in a fresh attitude to the place, but it’s apathy has swallowed me whole. Also when I started compared to now management has changed and things have got worse.

Yeah it is Feathers diesels

There is a lot of focus on cars but it’s an oversaturated market, plus vehicle lifespan tends to average 10 years.

I work on buses which tend to have lifespans of 20 years plus. Same goes for rail industry and generator engines too with things typically being refurbished as opposed to replaced.

Take for example an Allison 2000 automatic gearbox (I’ve stripped its older brother the AT545 and it was relatively straight forward for an auto box) could do a job rebuilding them a lot of small independent operators have vehicles that use them.

For example my employer is a large national bus company and we use a small firm in Elland Halifax to refurb our fuel injectors and pumps.

Ponsanooth sounds like a rough estate on the outskirts of Glasgow affectionately known as ‘Ponzy’

Not a village in Cornwall between Falmouth and Redruth

I haven’t, not even touched a surf board, shameful I know

Yeah people aren’t bothered about work much and just want to be out of the door enjoying the sunshine, it did annoy me until I found myself being the exact same haha

So I posted this thread a while back and in the end I decided to move, the advice of people who posted on here was greatly appreciated.

I have been living in Cornwall for the last 5 months and love it, yes it can be quiet and not have that big city vibe, but in turn the countryside is just stunning I’ve done so much sea swimming and any excuse to be outside as there are so many places to go. The locals I’ve found to be very friendly and I feel I’ve been well received out and about and at work.

So a great example of the positive contribution the people of STW can offer, thank you all again.

I’m not looking for a ‘nice life’ I have that in Cornwall just affordability is rapidly becoming a problem due to current political choices. So I’m wondering if other countries offer better value for money for the working week

I am delighted with the news and I’m going to treat myself to take away pizza tonight to celebrate.

To those who say yes but it’s still tories in power… I understand it’s still not ideal but Johnson was unique, the tories were seen as the party of bankers and managers by the working class (in modern terms the ‘red wall’) Boris’s one ability was to change that, he forged a personality cult around himself starting when he was mayor of London; this lovable rogue, a tory that actually wasn’t a tory, he wasn’t slick and official and professional like tories are typically perceived to be, his incompetence therefore made him only more appealing “oh he’s just like me, saying/doing the wrong thing sometimes” all this was like a spell over the British public, no matter what Boris did, how he shafted the nation the reply from the public was ‘oh Boris nevermind’

so today, today I am happy because the spell is broken, any one who will replace him will not have the same effect and will be looked at with suspicion and othering, once again the tories will be the nasty party and not the jolly japes party, the tories have always known this, why do you think they were so reluctant to let him go and saw him as a ‘winner’

She needs a safe space to be away from what’s stressing her (and in fairness you have offered for her to stay with you) I’d perhaps offer some counselling sessions (range from £30 – £60 an hour) the goal being so she can get away from the problem and then start to work through her feelings as they seem to be overwhelming her at the moment and so she just wants out.

However she is an adult woman and is ultimately responsible for her own life, if she keeps declining offers of help but threatens your son that simply isn’t fair and a form of emotional manipulation on her part, you son is not responsible for her life and I imagine it is very tough for him being in this situation, I’m sure he feels afraid, I know I did when I was in a similar situation. If all offers of help are declined and she refuses to recognise her own behaviour then the best way is to end all contact as she will take your son down with her.

finephilly – that’s already the case, the infrastructure is nationalised, it’s owned by and maintained by Network rail which is a government owned company.

You can run trains under a franchise or purely commercially in some way I forget the name of it, but search up Lumo trains

Hey ernie ‘lynch’, not going to have an Old Ben and Obi Wan moment here are we..

Turns out Mick Lynch is an avid mtber and a long time forumite

It was frustrating to watch as some of the points raised by the audience weren’t shut down by Mick, but rightly so in the setting of the show, telling idiot ignorant members of the public they are idiots won’t go down well and would only be used by the Tory press to fuel the culture war, Mick had to be there otherwise it would have looked like cowardice, but being there everything he said would be used against him, the agenda is the create an us and them divide between rail workers/unions and the public/Torys.

I loved the comments from the guy on about how it’s archaic that Kings Cross staff can’t work at Euston and drew comparisons with his own job, the stupidity was spectacular, I have a job so all other jobs must work the same as mine does. The west coast and east coast main lines were built by different companies will have different equipment, features and risks, let alone have different train operating companies running out of them, just because something is close doesn’t make it the same.

When you talk to joe public they have zero understanding or experience of infrastructure and national scale industry, they think repairing a set of points at Euston is like calling out a plumber, the Torys use this dumbing down oversimplification to make out staff are being awkward and hiding behind Elf and Safety, just use some good Ole Common Sense.

Tie the strikes to labour (which they always are in people’s minds because of the 70s) call an election, people are that ignorant/selfish they’ll vote Tory so that their train shows up, stopping strikes will be another boris promise ‘getting the job done’ mark my words

Create a problem then if you want a solution vote for it

I work in public transport and I do my upmost to make sure people get to their destinations daily, people travel for a variety of reasons that are intrinsic to their lives, so to disrupt that is not something I would take pleasure in nor would many of the people I work with, it’s the last thing we want to do.

However it is the only thing you can do when you aren’t valued and have your own life infringed on, because without the people who work in public transport there would be no service at all. The impact of the disruption needs to levelled at the companies and the government for treating their workforce with such contempt that they are left with no choice but to stop work.

Edit: There is this view that private companies always have people’s best interests at heart. They do not, I speak from experience that priority is money, if putting peoples health and well being at risk will save them money they will, it is often the power of law and threat of litigation that ensures that is the not case; if that wasn’t true then we wouldn’t need the DVSA and MoTs for commercial vehicles as an example.

How dare they go on strike and inconvenience me, don’t they know how important I am.

Also I’ve not had a pay rise because I’m not in a union and never bothered to be join one but I now begrudge others getting a pay rise though

Move on now, leveling up, getting on with the job: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-61717478

I work in bus, for us it’s because if it’s a technical fault the people who are customer facing (drivers, traffic controllers) have limited technical understanding so to them it’s a light has come on (not always as straightforward as that also) so until a mechanic arrives they can’t give further detail, when the mechanic does look at the fault it will take extra time for the mechanic to explain the fault in layman’s terms to the customer facing staff, who then have to avoid a case of Chinese whispers to explain to the customers (cue questions from customers, that they can’t answer) all this when the focus is on just sorting the fault so delayed is chosen, also sometimes it is difficult to give accurate time estimates, you think you can fix it in 5 minutes then it’s actually worse then you thought, having to break off and update adds more time and pressure.

So after all this, all we can do is tut.

Great.

Next election in 2 years the public don’t remember last week never mind what happened years ago.

I wrote to my MP Stuart Andrew and was simply ignored.

We can complain all we like but we are utterly powerless.

I’m just here waiting for Boris, Hancock, Cummings and Sunak to form a Judas Priest tribute band… 🤞🤟

So an update, thank you to everyone who replied your advice was very useful. I’m moving to Cornwall, I’ve got myself a job in Camborne (yeah it’s a rough area, but lovely compared to Castleford), I’ll be honest I’m one of those stw people that doesn’t actually ride anymore, instead I’m all about swimming and want to learn to surf, having so much beauty on your door step is really something, I don’t really have that in Leeds, obviously I don’t know how I’ll take to the area, culture and people’s attitude, time will tell.

Thanks again and to think this isn’t the first time stw has been a part of big decisions I’ve made in life 👌

I would buy another van which you can sell in a few months, you’ll probably sell for what you buy it for so won’t lose money, that way you aren’t under time pressure to sort out your current van.

I don’t buy that the engine has seized due to corrosion after 5 months (5 years maybe). I work as a bus mechanic, we had a bus catch fire and it burned a hole in the plastic rocker cover, the fire crew put the bus out and so filled the engine full of water through the hole, it stood for months the water was drained out of the sump, new oil and filters and it’s still running to this day, even I didn’t believe it at the time.

As others have said the engine could be seized due to coolant filling one of the cylinders due to a failed head gasket or cracked head (so a new head gasket and sending the head away to test for cracks won’t be mega money maybe £1k all in) another reason for seizure could be a leaking diesel injector, which has stripped the cylinder of lubrication and so caused it to seize, if this is the case, scoring of the cylinder would be visible with an endoscope with the injector removed; again as others have said, do nothing without evidence.

The whole lane was pot holed and the tarmac was breaking up, avoiding said pot holes would have involved veering into another lane.

Edit: sorry the driving Gods of stw would have seen the pot holed area of road a mile away and therefore planned a different route to avoid it

I don’t want the insurance to see it as an incident.

The cost of the part was £20 my time was about 1 hour of labour so at an average price £50.

The claim total would be £70, I know it’s not much but it would be nice to have in my pocket as it was very much down to the road being in very bad condition.

Can someone explain:

I get on a bus with people sat about a meter away windows open and I’m there for 20 minutes, must wear a mask, sanitize hands and be afraid.. I then get of said bus and walk into a pub packed full of people with limited ventilation and strangers hugging, kissing and shouting close at each other for hours on end, this is fine, no mask required and no reason to be afraid

On my way home from work (York to North Leeds) last night along the road from Collingham to Harewood tree down blocking the road had to turn back

First off when we say ‘service’ we mean re gas, nothing to service in an air con system beyond that.

I’m anal as with my car, I’d do it every 3-4 years, what’s the worst that could happen, the gas slowly escapes over time that’s it, the compressor oil stays in the compressor and system.

I’m just a minion so can’t change the team, relocation isn’t a option at the moment due to cost. Pay is negotiated by region, it’s common in my line if work

I’m as working class as they come and I started this thread and now subsequently have reported the incident.

Tossers are tossers, their background makes no difference

In fact I also drive a company van fully logoed up

Reported on twitter to them with a screenshot of the video in an open public reply

Well I can’t find anything on the Harrogate council website to report it.

Nothing on the AO website to report it either..

I don’t have twitter, but happy to email the video for someone else to put up

It came from the passenger window.

I don’t get why it was so difficult for them to discard their rubbish when they arrived back at the depot, I would assume that they also did it at that location for the fact that it was the middle of nowhere and they perhaps thought nobody was watching. It demonstrates a level of disrespect to their surroundings and other people, I would not like to have these individuals in my house fitting a washing machine.

I have messaged AO in instagram as it’s easier to send them a video that way for now

The it’s your rubbish, your responsibility argument, is a bit of a slippery slope, maybe not have domestic bin collection either by the same logic..

The above needs an important addition ‘your rubbish your responsibility to use facilities provided to dispose of it.’

As for me littering at railway stations I have solved the problem by just not buying anything there now, no bin, no business

@alric not all 2.0 psa engines have this system fitted, a pug specialist should tell you if you do just based on your vin

I’ll hold my hand up here to say that I actively leave litter on the floor at railway stations as there are no bins and the ones on the trains are very often full.

Also regarding fast food, greasey packaging and leaking cups from the ice melting I can’t exactly put that in my pocket, unless I have a plastic bag pre prepared with me, which I don’t as if I was about about planning I wouldn’t be eating fast food.

There is often an attitude that it’s your fault, you bought some fast food, so it’s your problem on what to do with the rubbish from it, so people respond with ‘No don’t make it my problem, I’ll make it yours’.

In the case of railway stations they are all too happy to have shops take my money, but won’t use that money to provide the service of a bin.

I didn’t get why all my local bins in the street were taped up yet I still had to pay the same amount of council tax, hang on you aren’t doing your job, yet I still have to pay.

It’s all the same attitude, everyone is happy to take your money, but you can’t ask for a service.

Actually provide bins/toilets in popular areas, then and only then quadruple the fines as the people littering are consciously being knobs. But not before.

The current attitude is ‘how dare you come to the countryside, it’s covid 19 not a holiday, enjoying yourselves, bastards, we’ll put a stop to that, no bins, no toilets, no car parks **** you, don’t come here, you’re not welcome’ so people respond with ‘**** you too’

The DPF additive will be Eolys fluid also known as PAT fluid, I’ve come across it on Fords/Volvo with the 1.6 version of the same engine.

Eolys/PAT fluid is not Adblue.

Your car does not have SCR and Adblue

Adblue has nothing to do with any DPF ever, it is part of the SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) system, which is always after the DPF in the exhaust.

The SCR system mixes Adblue with the exhaust gases to neutralise oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) which occur in a diesel engine due to high heat and pressure.

The DPF filters out particulates (fine soot; as diesel as a fuel is quite impure so creates soot) hence the name (Diesel Particulate Filter), it does this by having ceramic material with very fine holes in which the particulates become trapped, you cannot clean the DPF yourself, it can only be done by a specialist using I believe (don’t quote on this bit) high pressure air flow and ultrasound vibration to dislodge the particulates.

However when a DPF is full you can burn down particulates, this is what a DPF re generation does, but there gets a point when it can’t be burned down any more and you need a new DPF, think like the ash in a BBQ when eventually you have to empty it out.

Short drives don’t get the DPF hot enough to ‘burn down’ the particulates, even long drives can vary in effectiveness.

This is where the Eolys/PAT fluid comes in, it’s part of the re-generation, it is injected in to bind to the particulates and help them burn, therefore allowing the temperature during ‘normal’ driving to be enough to burn the particulates.

It is a small reservoir and (again may be different as I know Ford/Volvo but) the car needs to be plugged in and told that the reservoir has been refilled as it is very accurately metered in only when required and also the car needs to be ‘told’ it’s no longer empty as it won’t inject it otherwise.

There is a differential pressure sensor on the DPF which should ‘sense’ a blocked DPF but it may be faulty.

Sorry for the essay but thought I clear things up as even some mechanics get confused with this stuff and wouldn’t want someone leading you up the garden path.

Oil in the air intake hoses post turbo is normal.

Check your engine oil level.
I’d take off the air intake on the turbo and check if the compressor wheel spins also check for any radial play (if there is so much play that the blades catch on the housing or if there is any axial play it’s mullered).

Be advised that the turbo (I believe if it’s the same as the 2.0D PSA engine in my Volvo) a variable geometry type so the vanes inside the turbo may have become stuck causing smoke/low power (can be sorted with oven cleaner as they get stuck/carboned up).

Getting it plugged in to check the reading on the DPF differential pressure sensor will give you an idea as to what is going on with the DPF, you may get away with topping up the fluid, resetting the counter and forcing a re-gen otherwise new DPF time.

How could you enforce it, it’s not as though the police are going to board a train just to take away some chicken nuggets from a ten year old.

‘Down on the ground, hand over the nuggets and nobody gets hurt, easy now, easy’

I use a pair of Aqua Sphere Kaimans they were a better fit for me as my face was a little too narrow for the Kayenne, I have had them for about 6 months, pool swimming, open water, the sea in Cornwall; don’t leak and comfortable, don’t fog up either. The strap is easy to adjust too.