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[Wittsend]

John, I see you are after a trailer to take stuff to the tip.

There are 2 Community Recycling Centres close to you.
1) Bleak Hall, MK6 1NE - 3.7 miles (10 mins)
2) New Bradwell, MK13 0AH - 4.0 miles (9 mins)

At all the MK centres need you to book a slot online (free) and you can tip most stuff for free.

I just think a trailer is overkill - what with all the faffing around hitching up, checking the tyres, brakes and lights. Then manoeuvring round the recycling site and lifting out your rubbish. That's all assuming you have a tow hook and light socket on your car, extra expense if you don't 


I use a couple of old builders gravel bags or similar from eBay:-

auction: #403840797500
or
auction: #134267454746

... and similar can be found in the middle of Lidl or Aldi.

I just fold the rear seats down and I can slide 3 or 4 bags into the back over a trap to keep things clean.

If you fill the bags too full they are a handful on your own (at whatever age), with a helper it's a doddle.
They may not be anyone at the tip to help unload.
With bags in the back - given the distance you are away from the centres you could make several trips in a day - subject to booking slots

Sorry, I just don't see your need for a trailer.

[w3526602]

Hi Alan,

Arguably, I don't NEED a trailer, I WANT a trailer ... which can turn to NEED at very short notice.

I would be reluctant to carry an engine in the back of my Freelander. Some years ago I wanted to carry two "planters" (chiselled out of solid rock. Blue Pennant?) from South Wales to my daughters house in Milton Keynes, plus my engine-lifting jib crane. I also found a trailer was an excellent wheelbarrow .... Richards delivery driver craned my new chassis onto my little box trailer, which I then wheeled into my garage.

I have also collected a LWB tub, inverted then straddling the trailer, and again, a LWB Safari roof panel strapped onto the 4ft box .... but I needed to extend the trailer draw-bar for that."

My builder has finished his latest job, filling a 2 yard skip, which included a 6ft x 4ft raised flower bed, 12" high, surrounded by 12" x 4" x 3" rock-face concrete blocks, which departed in last week's skip. I'm down to lawn level, and now want to dig down another 12" to 18", for a garden pond, with the spoil taken to the Tip, in rubble sacks, or maybe buckets. I'll be working solo, and hobbling very slowly, and I don't want to be paying for a skip while I'm resting. I'm hoping that the local tip will welcome me with open arm when I arrive with 150 to 200 kg of top soil.

OT. Can anybody here suggest a good magazine that specialises in garden ponds.

Whatever, a trailer lying in the garden will always be useful one day. My double, ancient horse box trailer was always in demand .... horses, donkeys for the Donkey Sanctuary, pigs to the abattoir, goats to the Billy, pianos, collect motor bikes from the local Nick, for the local teenagers, antiques to the Sunday market.

My Series One WAS insured for haulage, and I did have a SO Animals Movements Book.

602

PS The local plod was very surprised to see that my Suzuki 4x4 Quad-bike had a tax disc ... said he'd never seen that before. The Quad was able to pull a trailer loaded with buckets of newly mixed cement, up a steep hill, to my fields, where I was bullding a goat house.

[w3526602]

Hi Alan,

And then my Disco failed it PRE-MOT at the local Land Rover specialist ... about £1500 for work and parts. A new tailgate lock alone is £300. The present lock keeps the rear door closed, but the window stays open.

If I spend £2,000 to get it sorted, I will then have a car worth that may be worth £2,000. Without an MOT, it would (once) have been worth £2,000 as Scrappage. Probably easier just to weigh this one in, and spend £2,000 buying another.

As I've already told you, Barbara has surrendered her driving licence. She has already spent several months confined to bed, and nobody can tell her that she will ever get out of bed again.

The insurances for both cars expired at the same time. We asked LV to take her name off my Freelander Insurance, and to retain her as the Policy Holder on her Hyundai Insurance, but with me as the only Named Driver, but using her NCD. We both have/had FULL NCD, and both have/had clean licenses. The combined premiums rose by over £200 to about £900.

In the early days of DVLC, an irate letter was received from the owner of a car, complaining that we had given her car to her chauffeur. I assumed that the lady did not drive, and therefore her chauffeur had to be both the Registered Keeper and the person insured to drive her car. I did not see the outcome of that case, but I'm guessing she/we are not the only victims of such an anomaly. Barbara wishes to keep her name alone, on the V5.

I don't know if Freelanders have any value as "off-roaders".

Suggestions on a postcard, please.

It would not surprise me to learn that Barbara's iX20 has similar performance to a Mini Cooper S

602

[Wittsend]

Sorry ... we did suggest that you sell on your Freelander some months ago 

... Trading in what you have and purchase a wheelchair friendly vehicle.

[diffwhine]

I've certainly said multiple times that you should get rid of that Freelander. Without an MOT, its only got scrap value. At the moment you can't give them away. I would stronly recommend send it to the great Land Rover garage in teh sky and put this one to bed finally. Don't waste your time or money trying to resurrect it. I've scrapped 7 in the last three months... All - late 2003 -2005 models...

[w3526602]

Hi Diffwhine,

The garage who did the pre-MOT has offered £20 as scrap. I think it has a full tank of diesel. Whatever, I'll get it home again, then start looking for alternatives to both the LR and Barbara's Hyundia ... the Hyundai is too brisk (and valuable?) for hacking about with bags of sand. I don't regard £20 as the bottom line, but I am steeling myself to call in a scrappie.

Does the TD4 engine in the Freelander fit onto a Series gearbox ... or anything.

At the moment, I have the garage's Freelander XS TD4, sitting in my drive (but no key), presumably so he can drive himself home. It looks a lot bigger than mine.

Anyway, it's up for grabs, but I'd like more than £20.

Suggestions?

602

[w3526602]

Hi,

PS to the above .... what is my position if payment for the pre-MOT is demanded before they let me take my car.

Can I demand that they take it back to the TEST GARAGE and perform a full MOT, which is what I asked for ... which presumably will entitle me to drive it home, and somebody/anybody else drive it to where-ever it will fixed .... or permanently broken up?

Did I read somewhere that insurance is not required to take a car for permanent destruction? I know reading that surprised me at the time. I think I also  read that an uninsured vehicle must be trailered/carried to where it will be broken up, which seems more likely.

602

[martinthefirst]

What are the reasons for MOT failure? if you give us the reg number we can check online

https://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/

[2286]

Trailers are great if you have the space to store, away from naughty folks who spirit them away.

You never seem to have the exact one you need unless you have customised it to the task.

Flat bed with ramps and removable dropsides, cage sides and a hiab on the drawbar, that is the swiss army knife but its big heavy and not allowed in the tip!

[Wittsend]

^^^ The chap, 602 is 80+ with dodgy knees ^^^

Does the rear window failure constitute an MoT fail

You will have to pay for your pre-MoT check.

You don't need a trailer.

I have a very nice, tidy Ford Fiesta - leather seats etc.
I use a load bay tarp laid out.
Can carry quite large loads split up into man handleable bags.
I've taken all sorts of things to the tip - as we are moving house.

My car remains neat and tidy after tip trips.

You are within 5 miles of 2 council tips and with their booking system you should be able to get rid of stuff just as quickly as if you had a trailer.
It's so much more easier and convenient just to roll up with the stuff in the back of the car. No faffing, or reversing with a trailer trying to fit into a slot.

[2286]

Are we talking freelander s1 with the window that drops to allow the door to open.

Without exact wording mot require all door must open and close securely and lock and unlock. 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mot-inspection-manual-for-private-passenger-and-light-commercial-vehicles/6-body-structure-and-attachments#section-6-2-3

[Smokey 11a]

IIRC Ref MOT, door's have to shut and be secure, locks don't come into it along with windows, you can have an MOT without windows. I have in the past taken a Land Rover to the MOT test center and passed a full MOT with only the minimum of necessary equipment fitted.

[w3526602]

Hi Everybody,

The Freelander was delivered home, no charge. But it was a PRE-MOT, so no failure slip. Barabra took the telephone report, but can only remember the tail gate latch at £300 for the part alone, rusty brake pipes, and she thinks a rusty exhaust.

The garage estimated £1200 to get it through the MOT, but what's it going to be worth then? 

Is it about time I started acting my age?

With Barbara hors de combat (and her pension bigger than mine) and I suspect her car being close to Cooper S performance (boot on a roundabout and listen to the front wheels spin, without losing directional stability) I can't justify demanding we trade everything against a new DACIA, even if the dealer had one to sell.

A new WAV is a smidgen beyond our budget, unless we borrow. And anyway, Barbara cannot get out of bed into either a regular wheel-chair, nor her frantic, tyre-burning, power chair. How long before there will not be fuel for current WAVS?

I have thoughts of invoking Trading Standards on the military charity adverts that claim to help ex-servicemen and their families.

602