@robertajobb That Kranzle is a lovely thing and I know what you mean about the proper flexi hose. I have a 15m reel I was using with the Karcher which is the same but now that thing is leaking all over the shop and all the connectors are for Karcher.. as is my snow foam lance etc. so I’m a bit conflicted in that I think I could potentially fix the hose/reel and should stick with Karcher to keep costs down but I don’t want to give them any more money.. Thank you for the advice re. pressure and flow, everyday is a school day and all that!

@MoreCashThanDash Yep, I definitely have pressure washer envy!

Thank you for the replies everyone. I’ve ordered a copy of the “The book you wish your parents had read” so will go from there. I also have a couple of long drives coming up for work so will dip into the podcast recommendations too. Thanks for the funny posts/laughs too! Interesting you should mention astrophysics as this is what I studied at uni and I can confirm it was less complicated than trying to fathom what is going on inside the head of our 5 year old.

Cheers

Thanks @johndoh, good points about underlying root causes. I think at the moment I just want to understand how their minds work, grow, respond to different interventions, how I can adapt my behaviour to help be more effective, etc. etc. and I know a lot of this will all be available online but if it’s in a book in one consolidated place there’s a higher chance of me reading it.

Thanks @MoreCashThanDash I’ll have a look.

Shallow pockets. I have some nice New Balance joggers but the pockets are approximately half a iPhone deep. So every time I sit down the contents of my pockets redistribute themselves all over the floor/sofa/car/etc. FFS would it have cost that much more to make them a bit deeper or god forbid put a zip on them. I now have a non negotiable requirement on any new joggers or shorts to have zip pockets.

Lazy non-blue badge holders parking in disabled bays AND parking shockingly. It’s the combination that creates the disproportionate crossness.. some fat **** earlier landed his Range Rover (obviously) at a good 30 degrees to the lines while his missus went into the shop, engine running throughout. If you’re going to be a **** fair enough but at least attempt to park in a proper fashion, the bay is big enough FFS!

Thank you @ditch_jockey and @steezysix. The Arcteryx and OR caps both looked great but due to stock/delivery timing I ended up getting a cheapo off Amazon as I needed it for the Great North Run yesterday. I can confirm that “Top-Ex” (short for TOP choice for XXXL adventures ?) caps are indeed MASSIVE! I didn’t even need the biggest one they did which was a first for me! Not the most flattering of headwear mind.. but it did its job on a very wet half marathon.
Thanks again for the recommendations. Will probs treat myself to a nice cap when I’m not in a rush.

Aye, definitely the stupidly loud pops and bangs bellends. First one I’d pull over would be the monumental tit round the corner in his stupid little Toyota coupe thing, I’ve heard quieter race cars. He must go out in it ten times a day n al. Prick

I have a 62-3cm heed and both my FF helmets are Troy Lee Designs, biggest one they do – XL/XXL I think they call it. However, most manufacturers make different size helmets and it’s just as much about shape as size. I have a TLD shaped heed for FF and Giro for normal lids. HTH

Haha came here to post the Bill Burr clips but beaten to it twice! I watched Live at Red Rocks show that the top clip is from today, absolutely quality.

The cable going from the consumer unit to our 7kW charge point is muckle, maybe 20mm diameter armoured stuff so based purely on this I’d say not. It’s probably a similar run of ~6m but along the side of the house not in a void.

Aye McLaren made a few blunders there mind. Not double stacking for starters and dropping Piasrti 5 spots down the order then asking Norris about tyre choice rather than (with all the data and boffins) telling him it’s a medium.

I was screaming at the commentators at the end to STFU until he crossed the line. Still a lap and a bit left and they’re cracking on like it’s all done and dusted! FFS lads.

Nail biting stuff those last 10 or so laps. Don’t think I watched anything but the timing screen! Over the moon for Lewis. Brilliant stuff.

Just seen another angle and it looks like he moves right into him, Kubica ****ed up there like.

TV coverage showed Kubica picking through cars, one on the left and the BMW on the right, staggered, and it looked canny tight.. then it was another minute or so before the coverage caught up and I realised it was more than a bit tight!

My wife has just walked into the living room, looked at the telly and asked “how long has this got left?” 🤣

Bonnet bras. What’s the point? To keep the front end of your motor nice and shiny for the next person while you drive round with a massive ugly piece of plastic stuck to the front of your car?! Madness. Even though it’s none of my business they do make me disproportionately cross whenever I drive past a car with one!

Thank you everyone for taking the time to respond to my OP, there’s a ton of really helpful stuff in here. Been mad busy with work/kids recently hence only getting a chance to respond properly now.

Seems like I misunderstood the 85% thing as being on the tow limit rather than the vehicle weight, however, coincidentally the vehicle weight (1850kg) is close to the tow limit of 2000kg.

Good points about getting the OEM 13 pin electrics when I get my bar in the short-term for bike rack use. I hadn’t even thought about stuff like shift points, throttle response, stability control, etc. etc. I wonder how the car knows when I’ve hitched just a bike rack vs caravan?

I had considered the level of faff generally but not the specific point about balancing comfort of van in use vs dragging it about the place! Kids are 5 and 1 so we would get plenty of use out of it before they go off and do their own thing but I was thinking single axle 4 berth TBH. How do people find the faff of camping vs caravanning? Is it a million miles apart? I love camping and weirdly enjoy the planning/organisation/graft side of things when I’m away (although there is nowt worse than packing up in the rain!). Another consideration for me is any van would have to be kept at a storage unit as the driveway, although big enough for 3 cars is not suitable for a van.. this would obviously mean additional costs + more faffage..

Some great tips on loading, driving, nose weights, license requirements, etc. too and I had a good laugh at some of the comments re. forcing a nice car to tow a caravan and silence rules when reversing with the family in car!

Thanks!

I’m predicting a Verstappen/Merc smash off the start. Can’t make me mind up which one.

Presumably if the child went off their drive and quickly hit a parked car it was at least half on the path? That’s how 99% of cars around here park anyways! Drives me absolutely **** potty 🤣. Hoy bin day into the shitmix and I might as well push the pram down the middle of the main road we live on! Can you tell it’s bin day and I’ve been for a walk today..?

Aye, that would have me spitting at the inside of my windscreen as well @10.

I had similar at the supermarket years ago late at night. Hundreds of empty spots and this prick waits for his missus and daughter to walk out the front of the shop then proceeds to drive up to it blocking the single lane out of the car park while they load their weekly shop and I get a front row seat. **** me, absolute tosspot of the highest order. Think I started a thread on here about it actually. I was **** ing bouncing 🤣

I’ve been through exactly the same thought process today @ernie and decided to bin it. I was only scratching the surface of what it could do and never raced so it’s gone.

Absolutely tremendous stuff that
👏

I’m shouting very bad words at the telly about Crofty!

We had quotes between £3-5k in the NE of England in 2014 for our 3 bed semi so aye, sounds about right.

We were paying £67 for either 250mb or 350mb before I got it down. Haven’t noticed any difference for our use since downgrading.

That is a shocker indeed! I had to fight tooth and nail to get my virgin fibre broadband (no telly or phone bundle) down to £30, and had to downgrade to 100mb to get it too. They know that they’re the only true fibre in my street though so assume that factors in. If I don’t get virgin its 10mb (at best) phone line job or 4G, so I’m stuck with them.

Whatever you do, do not get the LVT click stuff.. I’ve just dealt with the environmental disaster of disposing of 60sqm of the utter shit that had only been down just over 2 years. I reckon over half of the joins had failed in the high traffic areas leading to it coming apart, corners snapping, lifting, etc. We’ve had to dismantle half the kitchen to get the new flooring down. Never ever again.

Those plastic bait boxes on the side of the new defender. Don’t know why but every time I drive past one with them I end up spitting at the inside of my windscreen swearing!

Sounds like every estate does have one. Great approach @Ambrose!

Ahh the diesel black smoke thing, someone in an old Leon did this to me recently while out on my road bike. As he sped off down the country lane a big part of me wanted him to wrap it round a tree!

The Model 3 coupled with Tesla infrastructure is pretty unbeatable IMO for long distance driving. I drove my M3P nearly 500 miles from Newcastle to St Ives and only had to stop twice for 20 mins a piece, there was a third stop but that was for me not the car!

We’ve had a Merc EQA350 4matic since December and it’s shocking on the juice.. hovering around 2-2.2 m/kwh mark. We had a model 3 and an ID3 prior to this and the difference is staggering. It’s not a dealbreaker for us though as we have an ICE estate car for longer journeys/holidays/etc. and we only got the Merc as they were on a great deal thru sal sacrifice. I also cant believe these SUV EVs don’t seem to have a ‘frunk’ like you get on a Tesla, proper lazy design.. if Tesla can manage to fit one in the front of a wedge shaped model 3 then I see no reason why other manufacturers can’t with these big cars. The amount of hardware under the bonnet of the Merc is ridiculous.. I have no idea what most of it is!

The EQA is currently the smallest EV Merc make until the A class hatch comes out (think it’s next year) and whilst it’s not massive (footprint not much more than the ID) it looks big because of the shape. Makes me laugh as the local scratch and shine charge £2 more for the EQA than my 5 tourer despite the BMW being a MUCH bigger car 🤣.

Switched the race off after 10 laps and tidied the garage..

Thank you OP, this thread prompted me to revisit this little beaut:

I had the Yakima ones on my Model 3 for a couple of years. At the time that was the only other option and as you say the Tesla ones are silly money so an easy decision. Mind the Yakima ones were about £300 from memory!

They were really solid but needed chopping down as the overhangs were ridiculous. It always annoyed me that I didn’t have a factory finish on the cut edges. They’re also not fixed mounting points so installing is not the work of a moment.. once they’re on they’re on!

They’re pretty quiet but weirdly even quieter with a carrier on them!

They’re sat in my garage for sale but assume the Y is wider than a 3?

[petrieboy]

My experience with LVT is almost identical to petrieboy albeit a little earlier in the lifecycle of failure. Never again with the LVT!

We had an extension done just over two years ago and had over 50 sqm of the stuff put in an open kitchen/living/dining area and into the adjoining hallway. All of the joints in the high traffic areas are failing and the tabs that click it together have snapped in multiple places. In other places it is delaminating at the joints and some bits have actually snapped off showing the white underneath on a grey floor! The whole area was ply’d on top of boards to get it nice and flat and it was installed per the manufacturers instructions.

I’m currently in discussions with the flooring place where we bought it (who no longer sell click LVT.. says it all) and they have contacted the manufacturer who are sending an independent assessor to my house to look at it. The whole situation is a mess because we’re going to have to dismantle half the kitchen to replace the flooring on top of the usual skirting coming off etc. It’s going to cost thousands to put right and per the above a load of LVT is going to end up in landfill.

One consideration in a bathroom is how will you achieve the floating bit? Will it not be siliconed where it meets bath panels, tiles, etc. round the edge?

EDIT: Ignore last bit, just read about the skirting.

Thank you very much indeed for all of the replies and sharing your own experience, there’s a ton of valuable stuff in here for us. My wife says thank you to “your little bike friends” as she calls you lot..

He definitely needs the sleep during the day because if he doesn’t get it he’s mega grumpy so don’t think he’s ready to ditch em altogether, he also falls asleep relatively easily/quickly on us but agree on creating a rod for our own back with this. He is on a very loose 2 naps/day routine at the moment.

We’ll try some of the tips and tricks on this thread, I think the pram/walk one has legs. He doesn’t ever fall asleep in the car, just poos in there seems to be his thing.

Also just realised I posted this in the bike forum.. think I could do with a nap mesel!

Thanks again

We had this scenario with our washer a while back on a full load (old curtains I used as dust sheets) down to the little bit of smoke as I opened the door. I was convinced it was the motor or a belt or something mechanical.

I booked a repair person to come out and told my wife not to use it as I was worried about fire risk.. you know what happened next.. she used it 2-3 times while I was at work.. and it was fine. I think something had got stuck in the door/seal on the spin cycle and got rather hot!

Anyway, IANA washing machine repair man so can’t accept any responsibility for continued use of the washer by you or anyone else in your house!

E – Maccys double quarter pounder meal on way back from Alnwick Gardens light show with the kids followed by Aldi beef dripping chips in hoos with smoked salmon that needed eating.

D – Prosecco, Peroni gran reserva, Moretti and 2 x espresso martinis.

L – Beautiful South and old episodes of Grand Designs.

Nou it’s bed. Happy New Year all!

People manoeuvring their car and going lock to lock while completely stationary. I can’t watch/listen to it and have to walk away. Even worse on gravelly surfaces.. horrific!

My 2017 5 tourer has just had the comrpessor unit replaced that runs the air suspension at the back. Apparently the newer stuff is not as robust as the older stuff. Cost just shy of £1,100 at the local indie who said he’d done 3 that week, my 5 series, an X5 and an e-class. All exactly the same issue.