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[w3526602]

Hi,

This Technowimp is still struggling with schoolboy math.

Google says that diesel costs £1.16 per litre in Milton Keynes, so a £50 brimming will be roughly 43 litres, which crude calculations convert to 9.5 gallons.

As the odometer suggested I'd covered 333 miles on 9.5 gallons, that calculates at 35mpg.

Hmmm! Probably best if I wait until the next brimming, and do my calculations using mileage figures that are certain to be correct (according to the odometer), and fuel volume as shown on the pump. As the needle has just dropped off "FULL", that's likely to be a few weeks away.

I'm very happy with the Freelander, although there are some instant niggles with the basic design. Starting from cold is instant.

FAO Gibbo. Yes, I'd like to take up your offer of you running a knowing eye over my truck ... which doesn't seem to comply with what the owner's manual says. I can bring some firewood (not a lot), if you want it. I'm reluctant to leave Barbara for very long. If she falls, she stays fallen until the ambulance arrives. I must investigate one of those "panic button" thingies.

602

[Peter Holden]

Yes John
You must put all your brain power into coming up with things that are going to make Barbara safe in include her quality of life including as  amtter of urgency the panic button.  Start with Age Concern for advice and work out from there.  My mum had one for years but fortunately she never needed it but it gave her a great deal of confidence.

The freelander works, does its job and musing about modifications is taking up too much brain power.

Peter

[Manxcat]

https://www.milweb.net/webvert/a5075/99665


Looks like W602 has been combining one of his earliest cars and his RAF service. 

[w3526602]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your concern.

Yes, I'd thought about a panic button, just hadn't got round to it. I'm seldom more than a few minutes away from home. I will follow it up.

Barbara cannot get her wheel chair into the apparently wheel-chair friendly shower. Nor can she stand un-aided, and has to clutch whatever is securely nailed in place to move horizontally. She is still unable to exit either exit door. The  council say we are not entitled to a Disability Facilities Grant, as we have savings in excess of their NOT generous cut-off limit. Our MP is nailed down in Westminster.  Suggestions?  I'm prepared to "go for broke" ... but in which direction?

Hi Manx -cat,

Egad! A BSA Tricycle (1934ish) with an  8HP 4-cylinder water cooled engine driving the front wheels, was my first "car".  I drove it during the aftermath of Suez, when us learners were allowed to drive unaccompanied. Finding petrol coupons was the difficult bit. I paid £15, plus another £8 for insurance. The previous owner had rolled it, so the front mudguards and pointed tail had be replaced with "token" mudguards cut from old motorcycle mudguards.

I could reckon on being stopped virtually every day, but allowed to proceed when I produced my documents. One policeman told me to "get this abortion off the road" None took any action against me.

Every action has a reaction ... firing that bren-gun would have slowed the car down ... 400 one ounce bullets per minute (I think). I once had a row with the Range Sergeant, while firing a bren. I was firing one round at a time, even though it was set to automatic. "Pull the ****** trigger" he commanded ... so I emptied the magazine in one burst ... which didn't make him happy either. No pleasing some people.

602

[Wittsend]

If Barbara can't get out of the house - that's a fire risk!

It's a severe H&S issue - what do the Fire Brigade have to say about it ?

These red tape pen pushers are going to look good when "Wheelchair bound old lady dies in fire because she couldn't get out of the door." Great headline for the papers 

We got my mum an alarm system which included a neck locket. If she fell or was in trouble it would set the alarm off.
Works through the phone. The alarm is monitored 24/7. If it goes off - they ring any number(s) you specify.
The system works - we got several calls for help and were able to get to her in time.
As I recall the service costs a few £s a month. Well worth it for peace of mind - even if you are at home for most of the time.

I have a similar thing built into my Apple watch. If I fall it automatically calls 999 after 30 seconds and or my nominated phone number. Sometimes it's too sensitive, but I can cancel false positives.



 

[w3526602]

Hi,

Update!

Yesterday, I dropped in on the garage that is replacing the Freelander's clutch, and removing the "knocking exhaust" noise from inside the transmission. I found it standing there with a huge hole where the engine and gearbox should be., so it seems they are getting on with the job.

Barbara told me that the garage had quoted £1,500 to replace the clutch and remove the knock. I assume the garage had phoned while I was elsewhere, doing my daily "Grand Dad" chores, and she had given them the "go-ahead".    Presumably, I didn't need to know.

So it looks like I will be returning to the "World of AWD" sometime soon. Two more questions ....

One for Gibbo ...  "where should I go, in MK, to buy a complete set of "street" tyres.

Snow has never stopped me, (not even in 1932 4x2 Austin 7, Thetford to Croydon and return, every weekend). But the Freelander's tyres are approaching their "sell by" date.

(I managed to drive from Croydon to Eastbourne, and back every night, in a 1959 Singer Gazelle convertible, in December 1967, when the headlines had declared that the South Coast was cut off by snow. The Sister in charge of the Maternity Ward gave me dispensation to visit, outside of normal visiting times).

On the other hand, I've grown accustomed to having decent rubber between me and the tarmac.

Does anybody here have any knowledge/experience of hoisting a disabled passenger into a Freelander?

602

[w3526602]

Hi,

Latest!

Some weeks ago, Social Services provided an aluminium checker-plate ramp, to enable Barbara to get out of the front door. Actually, they provided two ... the first one was too short, giving a steep departure angle (actually, it would probably have been to steep an approach angle too, if that's the right terminology, but she never got that far). The rear anti-tip  (2"dia?) grounded, lifting the driving wheels of the ramp.  The 1700mm ramp was taken back, and replaced with a 2100mm ramp, which gave an incline of 1 in 7. (I think 1 in 12 is the legal maximum). Frankly, I did not feel secure walking on it ... two gammy knees and no hand rails.

It had a flip over "bridge", to get over the door-frame up-stand, which Barbara would never have been able to "flip" while sitting in her chariot. She demonstrated that her buggy could get in and out ... and has not used it since.

Fast forward ...  Our builder has raised our "dry" brick surfaced drive, in front of the front door, to give a more gentle slope, leaving only about one inch upstand for Barbara to get her buggy over. That slope extends half-way across the drive, which means that any car heading for the garage, will tip to it's left as it passes the front door, but I can live with that. (it's too small for a working garage, so it will become a "man cave".

In Milton Keynes, paths and drives are required to be permeable (leak!). Most everybody in MK uses the same colour house bricks, laid on sand, with no mortar.

I reckon I can cobble a couple of wedges to get the buggy's swivel wheels over that obstacle ... the driving wheels are capable of burning a hole in the carpet if they hit an obstruction.  The buggy has only about two inches break-over clearance. I believe you can buy "off-road" invalid buggies in Australia. Try a Google. (They also have off-road caravans in Oz).

Our builder has also laid an 8ft (2.4m) wide drive, also in brick, across 30ft (9m?) of the width of the plot, (9m?) from the edge of the original drive, under the bedroom windows, up to the pavement on the Northern boundary, co-incidentally involving the wheelchair friendly dropped kerb on the street corner. I have used that dropped kerb to get a car onto the plot, but doing so "feels" unnatural. I'll probably save that for special occasions.

Our builder (Irish ... with a degree) "guestimated" £2,000 to do all of the above, but I won't hold him to it. He frequently does little jobs in passing, unasked, and FOC.

I have lots of photos, in my camera, but have forgotten (long time since I did it) how to transfer them to my W10 lap-top. There doesn't seem to be a slot, in either my W7 nor W10 laptops, for my wide "chip". I'll ask my daughter.

602

[w3526602]

Looks like W602 has been combining one of his earliest cars and his RAF service.

Hi Manxcat,

True! I've owned both 3 and 4 wheel BSA, and once (only once) fired a bren. I also once fired a sten (a somewhat inaccurate weapon, unless you want to kill both the enemy and a flock of passing pidgeons with the same burst).

I once read a story about a Spitfire and an ME109, both standing on their wingtips, circling tighter and tighter, until the Me pilot got a fix on the Spitfire, and gave it a short "burst". The recoil slowed the Me, which promptly fell out of the sky.

I wondered if that BSA used the Bren as a means of reversing? Probably not. The BSA had a reverse gear, although as it weighed (from memory) 4 pounds under 8cwt, it counted as a motor cycle, so it was not required to have reverse.

Also from memory, the Morgan three-wheeler (also a motorcycle) had two forward gears (engaged by dog clutches) and no reverse. Rumour had it that the V-twin engine would fire "every other lamp-post".  To change up from second gear into top, required closing the throttle (lever on steering wheel), dip the clutch, go into neutral,  lift the clutch, count to 65 (slowly), dip the clutch ...........

602