Cant believe I just got this for free !!!

Post by **Orkney** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:16 pm

The owner had put it on freecycle almost 2 months ago and only got timewasters on the phone. Someone mentioned this last friday so got in touch and arranged to collect it today !
Just drove it the 8 or so miles over to the house no problems at all !

Beloved souped range rover can now be retired as the farm runabout - this thing may not be as refined but it has a 4 cyl toyota diesel lump rather than a somewhat thirsty v8 - best part is as its private roads and fields will be able to run it on used chip oil from a local hotel so nice and free

Just need to give it a once over with some cheap as chips army green paint so it blends in with the surroundings although out of principle dont want to pay for any. Hmm wonder if the gallon of green timber paint bought in error years ago might do the trick

Post by **alex_holden** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:33 pm

Very nice. Looks like someone's bolted a section of the Forth rail bridge to the roof though...

Post by **picky** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:34 pm

nice one! heard some good things about this freecycle thing.

Post by **Orkney** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:40 pm

Very nice. Looks like someone's bolted a section of the Forth rail bridge to the roof though...

Could try some of that car surfing

Quite a handy thing actually - even got the ladder up by the rear door.

Best thing is 6 or 7 years ago it had a brand new galv chassis - its really clean underneath, wish the rangerover had one, been in the sea and on the beach so much over the years thats where the rot is.

heard some good things about this freecycle thing

think its fine in a city, not so great in a remote underpopulated place.
Have heard there are less than scrupulous types that go collecting freecycle stuff to sell on ebay.
Not sure if that's right or wrong really, on one hand means unwanted things get another lease of life, on the other its against the spirit of the thing.

Post by **Judge** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:33 pm

Will we see it during our visit

Post by **Orkney** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:43 pm

not on the road but if you have time & your doing a tour of the sights then you'll be very close to here so always a cup of tea, tin of beer & bacon butties to be had - that and slobbered by two big dogs

Hopefully the rest of the brake parts for the trav should be here this week so it'll be ready to set forth as the welcoming committee

Post by **Judge** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 7:53 pm

Looking forward to it now

Post by **Orkney** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 8:02 pm

Think I'll have to start my own branch of the MMOC now the Dragon & I are members !

Post by **Judge** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 8:05 pm

Well the last time I was there, there seemed to be a goodly number of Minors, mainly splitscreens strangely enough.

Post by **Orkney** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 8:19 pm

They are about - quite a few classic and vintage of allsorts actually. Dont see them on the roads much though, unlike the scabby trav doing the daily post run

Its a hard environment even on a new car here.
Guess most come out for the shows though, chance for people to blow out the cobwebs and show them off.

Post by **Judge** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 8:23 pm

Orkney wrote: Its a hard environment even on a new car here.

Believe me I know, we have relations up there, and have been there in the middle of winter

Post by **Orkney** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 8:52 pm

been there in the middle of winter

Oh so any of the 360 days of the year the big yellow hot thing doesnt put in an appearance

Actually the weathers supposed to be improving in 2 weeks time so you might just catch the 2 days of summer !

Your relation doesnt happen to have a Trav ?

Post by **Judge** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:01 pm

Orkney wrote:Actually the weathers supposed to be improving in 2 weeks time so you might just catch the 2 days of summer !

What, you mean you've got a 100% increase this year

By the way, do you still have to walk at 45 degrees into the wind

Orkney wrote:Your relation doesnt happen to have a Trav ?

No, unfortunately they are not particularly interested in Morris Minors.

Post by **Orkney** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 9:47 pm

Not been too bad this year ( probably shouldn't tempt fate )

The saying goes...
One day the wind stopped in Orkney

And everyone fell over

Post by **rayofleamington** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 12:13 am

best part is as its private roads and fields will be able to run it on used chip oil from a local hotel so nice and free

It's also free and legal on public roads too!! I've printed out and read the new legislation just to make sure it was true.
Since 1st July 2007, anyone 'producing' up to 2500 litres of veg fuel / bio fuel per year does NOT have to pay tax, or even keep much in the way of records! The media couldn't be bothered to publicise it as they were bus doing pointless previews and reviews and re-reviews of the Bliar/Brown swap.
2500 litres covers most people who would use veg oil for private use (including thee).

I'm impressed with the roofrack - it's bigger than mine! the galv chassis is just crazy - who would give it away after doing all that work?? Wow!

As for the bad side of Freecycle - I know someone who makes spare cash by collecting anything of value from freecycle. He lives in Hereford and his g/f in London so he's on about 7 freecycle lists

I had a go at him about it, but I think he's a lost cause.

Post by **Orkney** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 8:54 am

Since 1st July 2007, anyone 'producing' up to 2500 litres of veg fuel / bio fuel per year does NOT have to pay tax, or even keep much in the way of records!

Yes knew about that, seems the tax office underestimated the amount of people who would legitimately make boi diesel and they got swamped with a great deal of costly paperwork to deal with.

The appealing part of using that landy is merely that some weeks i might put £10 or £20 of unleaded in the RR just using it as a luxury dumper around the place doing various projects. A saving is a saving so no bad thing

Now you mention it though it could be well worth getting it road legal for completely free motoring - shame its not tax exempt like the Mog.

Have thought long and hard about setting up a proper bio making system like Scrapheap Strawbridge has, even to the point of wondering if i could crop some ground to provide the majority of the ingredients. Wont happen for a couple of years until the house is finished, but no doubt will happen some day - would be great to use instead of heating oil (which costs an arm and a leg) and maybe then think about rebuilding a trav on something like a corsa diesel van running gear.
Tax free motoring would be a seriously satisfying feeling on a day to day basis!

Post by **rayofleamington** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 2:54 pm

Now you mention it though it could be well worth getting it road legal for completely free motoring - shame its not tax exempt like the Mog

ah well - now I don't feel quite as jealous! My 69 Station wagon was certainly not free, but IS Tax exempt and came with MOT.

A 'friend of a friend' is a farmer and gets paid to leave certain fields empty (part of their normal subsidy thing). Empty means "no agricultural product" - therefore on those fields he grows an "industrial" product - bio fuel. He uses that oil to run all his farm equipment. A waste prodict of the 'industrial' process to make the oil is the bio mass - which he uses as animal feed...
These farmers can be a canny bunch when it comes to rule dodging!

Post by **Orkney** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 12:56 pm

I know a lot of farmers who quite literally 'Milk' the subsidy system for every last penny. There have been some changes recently to the ways in which and for what the subsidies are claimed.
If you know the system you can do very well from it.
Personally have never and will never claim a penny, couple of reasons for this, firstly wouldn't dream of keeping livestock just for financial gain, see that as very ethically wrong. Secondly I'll be darned if anyone is going to have access to my finances (not that ive got any mind

) or have a say in how i manage land.

Wondered earlier what makes an agricultural vehicle such a thing in the DVLA's books as thats a tax exempt category, interestingly it says

Agricultural machines

The 'agricultural machine' tax class includes:

* an agricultural tractor - a tractor used on the public roads solely for the purposes relating to agriculture, horticulture, forestry or activities falling within cutting verges bordering public roads and cutting hedges or trees bordering public roads or bordering verges which border public roads
* an off road tractor - means a tractor which is not an agricultural tractor and which is designed and constructed primarily for use otherwise than on roads; and incapable by reason of its construction of exceeding a speed limit of 25 miles per hour on the level under its own power
* agricultural engine - a machine specially designed and or converted to perform an agricultural operation on the land (eg a combine harvester)
* light agricultural vehicle - means a vehicle which has a revenue weight not exceeding 1,000kg, is designed and constructed so as to seat only the driver, is designed and constructed primarily for use otherwise than on roads, and is used solely for the purposes relating to agriculture, horticulture or forestry
* agricultural lift and loading vehicles - vehicles that are designed for off road use; designed to lift and load; and used solely in agriculture, horticulture or forestry

So thinking of writing to them to clarify what i would have to do to the old landy to get it reclassified - as it genuinely will only be used for agricultural purposes think its worth a try to see if it can be done

Post by **paulhumphries** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 1:53 pm

Orkney wrote:I know a lot of farmers who quite literally 'Milk' the subsidy system for every last penny. There have been some changes recently to the ways in which and for what the subsidies are claimed.
If you know the system you can do very well from it.

The foot & mouth outbreak a few years ago highlighted how much abuse there is of the subsidy system.
If I remember rightly it was something like farmers claiming some sort of allowance for sheep when they were actually not theirs and were just getting "bed & breakfast". The legal owners put in the compenstion claim when they were slaughters and then that left the farmers providing the B&B (but also claiming some sort of subsidy) to explain where the sheep they were getting the allowance for had gone !
I believe there was a lot of procecutions and suspect it made the government review the system that you say has had recent changes.

Paul Humphries

Post by **Orkney** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 2:34 pm

The foot & mouth outbreak a few years ago highlighted how much abuse there is of the subsidy system.

Yes, know one person who kept something like 600 or more sheep just to get 30k PA in subsidy

they dont keep sheep since it changed.

There was actually another tale of someone who rented a massive amount of effectively useless peat hill, put sheep on and claimed per acre making an absolute fortune.

The really clever ones I'd heard were buying up cheap as chips land in countries that were just about to become EU members, so of course as soon as they were members that land got more in the first years subsidy even as set aside than it actually cost.

Someone else i know has a very nice income from useless land because a certain type of snail lives in the locality - gets more per acre per year than could ever make farming it !

Such is the beurocricy and loopholeiness of the Euro laws that some years ago came across a company who would buy land abroad for you using zero finance - instead funding the purchase from diversification and expansion grants - they then charged a commission on the value of the deal. Sounds quite Arfur Daley but was in fact 100% legal.