What big boys toys do you nowfind absolutly essential?
Let me start off
Ride on mower, used to manage in uk with and electric jobby
Chain Saw. For the logs
Petrol Strimmer No lead to the bottom of the garden
Generator set… lots of power cuts and it has got to be big enough to run the Freezers (which come under big girls toys)
Just bought a Rotavator, 212cc 6.5HP had to try it tonight without even getting changed!! Works a treat. Ca s'arrose :D
Something small would do James. I've a fair amount of terrassment to do to build a double garage and an arbri voiture and gates plus sorting out the parking. Plus there are loads of large rocks I need to tidy up and repair several restanques. I'd say there about a months work in it, using the machine on and off, but hiring one for that period seems to be prohibitive as does getting it delivered and removed repeatedly.
As with most things they seem to be much cheaper on ebay in the UK than on www.leboncoin.fr
What size are you looking for?
I had a pal that was a Snap-on franchisee. Nice van, nice tools. V. expensive.
Great, three years of use for less that a weeks rental. Where's a good place to look for one. Are there secondhand plant dealers? Any reputable ones?
I would concur with James; if you have a lot of work for one then it is better to buy a decent SH one and flog it at the end of the job. I bought a 4 tonne Case/Kubota for £6,700, used it a lot for 3 years and sold it for £6,200. I had to replace a few of the bits: a drive motor to one of the tracks, and recondition a leaky central distribution valve but I did all the work myself and got good deals on parts, so not too scary. One essential thing would be to take someone who knows what's what with diggers with you when you go - apparent wear can be deceptive and can cost. Also, it may be worth mentioning that a 4 tonner will lift a dumpy bag of one tonne, no problem, and park it elsewhere, whereas a smaller machine will likely fall over at full stretch, but anything bigger than 4 tonner is a pain to find a trailer for.
Note the natty jib I knocked up to clip on in place of a bucket. Saved heaps on crane hire.
I sold mine after about three years and 1000 hours of work, for 500 euros less than I paid for it. I did replace the tracks whilst I had it, they were 800 quid for the pair from the UK. So it would be worth buying one is you have lots of work for it.
I always had problems finding mechanics who would work on it, partly why I sold it eventually. I had a Komatsu pc28, a very useful size for general construction use.
Just sold a Najad 332 but kept my chain saw. Still have a SL 320 I bought in 2001 and a 1970 rally prepared 1293 mini, neither of which get driven very much. Very tempted by a Ducati Multistrada or maybe a Morgan Plus 4. No sign whatsoever of growing up anytime soon
How much can you get a mini digger for James and would one loose a lot selling it a year or so later?
Thanks, John, I'll start my research and bribes to my wife.
Oh and there lies a tale two brothers worked in the workshop they bought everything that had the name Snap On infact the guy on the van used to come around every week because he knew he would get a sale, as we were all field service the tools were on the vans but they were not insured the insurance refused to cover so every night i told the lads dont forget take your tools in the house or your garage low and behold one night one brothers van got stolen found the next day stripped and his tools missing he didnt bother to take them out , tools not covered, the company did compensate but not Snap On prices i dread to think how much he spent with Snap on
Solar powered ear defenders.
WHAT??? Can't hear you!!
I have the same pink Snap-On ratchet screwdriver Kent, good choice!
My mother was an auto mechanic.
hydraulic duster -touché
With the possible exception of my pink "Snap-On" ratchetting screwdriver which was pink when I bought it 30 years ago - and you don't get better quality than "Snap-On".
There must be some girly mechanics out there...
Mine's a petrol powered mop.
haha, fair play, Kent!!, but I find pinking them yourself is great, but when you BUY the pinked up ones, they are never as good quality, they're like kids' ones.
Back in the 70s, the kids where I used to live would ‘borrow’ my tools and I’d only find them when I hit them with the lawn mower; all rusty and useless. So I thought, “What colour would stand out best against the grass?” And, of course, magenta is the opposite of green, so everything got attacked with an aerosol in a jolly shade of bougainvillea. Sometime later, whilst working on-site, blokes would take the mick out of the pink tools and avoid of them - but they never borrowed them and NEVER NICKED THEM. So I’ve been pinkifying my tools ever since and, I have to say, the colour pink doesn’t threaten my masculinity in the least - and I think it’s just funny and silly when blokes cringe at it; it’s their problem.