Grumpy old buggers thread

[Saitch]

A bloke doing some slashing here took out a white 4" Sewer vent pipe standing 1 metre high over the soakage trench. He did it again the following year as well.


It's time Tractors came with good rear facing Cameras to make up for the arthritic shoulders & necks of some tractor drivers..

That's not funny, Des. I'm finding that 90° of arc is a lot further than it was 10 years ago.
I blame climate change, hetero males and C19!

[4bee]

Do you mean Franner or Franger. A bit of a difficult job for a franger.

[4bee]

I think everyone could change a tyre.

I remember doing it on a few occasions , and in my early driving years carried tyre levers.

Don't have any now and actually haven't seen any being used anywhere , except out on the stations where it's still a part of life.

and in my early driving years carried tyre levers.

Today you'd only carry them for self Protection.


I believe the damage to tyres these days is caused by things different to what were the causes in days of yore due to the use of different materials & Packaging.


The worst place IMHO, to pick up a puncture back then, was within about a metre out from the gutter where nails glass & misc stuff gathered after falling from Truck Trays especially when they were used in an industry where Hoop Iron band was used. Not only would you get the bits of metal banding but also the nails that affixed the banding to the wooden crate or Pallet.

Nowadays the use of plastic banding & plastic clips etc must have reduced this occurrence & cause.


In the years I owned a D1 I had just one puncture. (I can't even recall the cause now.) Sure, tyre construction was different but imho there was a noticeable difference/reduction on road crap that came from trucks of all sorts.

Even the old treadly was susceptible especially if you noticed the crap a bit late.

[scarry]

Today you'd only carry them for self Protection.


I believe the damage to tyres these days is caused by things different to what were the causes in days of yore due to the use of different materials & Packaging.


The worst place IMHO, to pick up a puncture back then, was within about a metre out from the gutter where nails glass & misc stuff gathered after falling from Truck Trays especially when they were used in an industry where Hoop Iron band was used. Not only would you get the bits of metal banding but also the nails that affixed the banding to the wooden crate or Pallet.

Nowadays the use of plastic banding & plastic clips etc must have reduced this occurrence & cause.


In the years I owned a D1 I had just one puncture. (I can't even recall the cause now.) Sure, tyre construction was different but imho there was a noticeable difference/reduction on road crap that came from trucks of all sorts.

Even the old treadly was susceptible especially if you noticed the crap a bit late.

Today,on the road, most are Teck screws,roofing screws,what ever people call them, that fall off the back of utes

And the occasional screwdriver....

[JDNSW]

Today you'd only carry them for self Protection.


I believe the damage to tyres these days is caused by things different to what were the causes in days of yore due to the use of different materials & Packaging.


The worst place IMHO, to pick up a puncture back then, was within about a metre out from the gutter where nails glass & misc stuff gathered after falling from Truck Trays especially when they were used in an industry where Hoop Iron band was used. Not only would you get the bits of metal banding but also the nails that affixed the banding to the wooden crate or Pallet.

Nowadays the use of plastic banding & plastic clips etc must have reduced this occurrence & cause.


In the years I owned a D1 I had just one puncture. (I can't even recall the cause now.) Sure, tyre construction was different but imho there was a noticeable difference/reduction on road crap that came from trucks of all sorts.

Even the old treadly was susceptible especially if you noticed the crap a bit late.

What I remember from my early days is horseshoe nails - while horses were rare on roads, many roads were unsealed, and every time the road was graded you would get a fresh lot of horseshoe nails up to a century or more old brought to the surface.

On the other hand, I made my first long distance trip sort of round the eastern half of Australia in my Series 2 in 1964. The only tyre issue was that we picked up a packing case nail when we camped off the side of the Barkly Hwy halfway between TC and Camooweal. And, I might add, repaired it on the spot, using the vulcanising patches i carried for the tube.

[rick130]

Today,on the road, most are Teck screws,roofing screws,what ever people call them, that fall off the back of utes

And the occasional screwdriver....

I think every puncture I've had in the last fifteen years was a tekie.

[Bigbjorn]

What I remember from my early days is horseshoe nails - while horses were rare on roads, many roads were unsealed, and every time the road was graded you would get a fresh lot of horseshoe nails up to a century or more old brought to the surface.

On the other hand, I made my first long distance trip sort of round the eastern half of Australia in my Series 2 in 1964. The only tyre issue was that we picked up a packing case nail when we camped off the side of the Barkly Hwy halfway between TC and Camooweal. And, I might add, repaired it on the spot, using the vulcanising patches i carried for the tube.

Fully agree. When I was a youth in Winton there was not a sealed road for hundreds of miles. Every time a road (track?) was graded or chewed up in wet weather nearly a century's worth of horseshoe nails would come up to the surface. Sharp rocks on the tracks did not help, chewing out sidewalls. When I was an apprentice at Wall and Co. and went in to work in the morning if there was no old job awaiting completion or a new one on the blackboard we starting changing tyres and repairing punctures. Any mail truck drivers that went on the longer runs like the Diamantina stations made sure they carried every spare wheel, tyre carcase, and tube they could fit on. All carried tyre levers and vulcanising patches. This was late 1950's and tyres and roads have improved a little since then.

[JDNSW]

I think every puncture I've had in the last fifteen years was a tekie.

I think every one I have had was a faulty tube. Actually, that is not quite right, thinking back I have had at least two staked tyres, one with a bone, the other with a bit of wood.

[ChookD2]

Oops! Another tree down whilst using the the new flail, tractor attachment.
The good woman not to impressed when I phoned her and asked her to throw a star picket, sledgie and old stocking into the buggy and head over to the relevant area
In my defence, the little Poinc had a buttress type root protruding out of the ground about 18" out from the trunk. This root was hidden by 6" high grass.
The first tree to succumb to my ineptness was a Qld Tree Waratah, which Helen had been nurturing for 7-8 years. That one fared worse, as I completely 'Flailed' it. My, but it's an efficient piece of machinery.
Attachment 161832

A flail!! What are you doing? Mowing or clearing a minefield?

Mine_Flail.jpg

[DieselDan]

The first outback trip I did was in an old 2 door Rangie. Went to the Flinders and back to Sydney via Wilcannia/White Cliffs and then up to Fraser. Did about 9000km all up and had no tyre issues at all.
Then, back in Sydney and on a day trip to the Hunter Valley, I got three at once....!!! Think I drove over a load of glass.
I'd purchased NRMA top level of roadside assist for the trip, but never needed it, so now was the time to use it.
After a lot of phone calls and questions, they refused to come and help me, saying I was ineligible for that level of cover (temp citizen on sponsored visa at the time), so the gits left me stranded.
Fortunately I still had my tyre pliers in the car, so spent the next day fixing tyres in a motel car park!

I wasn't too old at the time, but I was certainly very grumpy!