Tag: telehandler

Our water tanks arrived

Two weeks ago our water tanks arrived. But due to heavy winds, it was only possible to collect them last weekend.

The tanks are manufactured by Enduramaxx, but I actually ordered the tanks from JDP in Inverness, as it was cheaper to buy from them.

And then there were the transport cost … According to Enduramaxx or JDP, delivery cost to Whaligoe would be have been between 1’800 GBP and 1’900 GBP. Hmm, that is actually more than the price for the tanks!

Though JDP on their web site offered free delivery, there is a fine print on their web site (“Remote Areas”), stating that specific post codes seem to be exempt from it. When I suggested to them to pick up the tanks directly from their branch in Inverness (and thus saving me the delivery cost), they told me that I could certainly do that but the delivery fee would also apply. As it seems their branch in Inverness (post code starting with IV1, in the center of the city) is also considered a “Remote” or “Restricted” area.

But then funnily, Farm & Forestry in Ardersier (being 10 miles away from the JDP Inverness branch) was not considered a restricted area and could get delivered without paying a fantasy price.

A distance of 10 miles makes a difference of 1’300 GBP in delivery cost (source Google Maps)

The next interesting thing was the price of the water tank itself. The price quoted by the JDP main office was cheaper than the price of the Inverness branch – though both would buy the tank from Enduramaxx directly.

Anyway, after some weeks now the both tanks arrived. And I got 2 times the 6’000l version (instead of a 5’600l version that I originally wanted to buy).

And on Saturday, I went to Inverness to load one of the tanks on my trailer. Once again, the trailer proofed its purpose. After unmounting the high side walls we could drop the tank carefully on the trailer bed.

And as soon as we have the roof on the barn, we can start collecting rain water …

Tank loaded and secured with 2 orange and 2 blue ratchet straps
Tank safely arrived in Whaligoe with 3 orange and 2 blue ratchet straps
On the way to the plot
Unloading with the TeleHandler

ps – yes I had to stop on my way home a couple of times as the road surface and the resulting bouncing of the trailer was not helping at all to hold the tank in place …

Updates on the plot

It has been a while since I last wrote about what has been going on the plot. And actually, something has happened.

Still with Toyota, trailer and telehandler

Let me briefly explain where we currently stand and maybe I find time to to dive in to details in additional posts.

Even the cat likes the telehandler

So what happened?

  1. We got our Telehandler, the JCB 531-70; so we are now able to do some heavy lifting and more …
    Quick note: And yet with this delivery not everything went smoothly, as the brand new machine was not working completely as expected. But we now have a new local technician from Latheronwheel who is very kind and helpful.
  2. The digger finally got fixed. We now even have a quick-hitch, which seem to be not so “quick” (but that is a different story). We were even able to fix a loose track on the excavator. It is easy once you know …
  3. We also now have a 3.5t 13ft tipping-trailer with which we are able to bring more stuff to the plot (such as concrete, gravel – more on this later).
  4. We fixed more parts of our track to the plot (by adding stones to the ground and putting gravel on top of it). This is only a temporary fix, as the ground is still way to weak to hold the weight of the 7t Telehandler or a fully loaded trailer.
  5. We even now a diesel tank from which we can fuel our vehicles and machinery. And refilling it on the main road is as easy as lifting it with the forks of the Telehandler.
  6. Electricity is now much easier as we can run on a generator as long as we have not finished the turibine/battery set up. As the generator runs on diesel we can refill it from the same diesel tank as everything else.
  7. We discovered a quarry on our plot (which has not been used for probably more than 100 years. I have 2 raw short video sequences (no voice, just walking aroung) that are linked below to get a first impression. As you can see, we had to cut through a lot of gorse to actually get there. The only reason I found out that there is a quarry was, that I saw it on some older maps from the scottish national library archive. There is still some work to get done to easily access the quarry or to get some stones from it. But the good news is, that we now would not have to transport that much amount of stones from a different quarry further away.
  8. We actually started with our shed; i.e. we did the foundation by pouring concrete for 12 pads and nearly finished the floor insulation. That actually means that the wood *finally* arrived (more than 3 months). Next time I buy the wood somewhere else and not at the Sutherland woodyard in Wick (and yes, I would link a website if they had one).
  9. Planning permission for entrance from the A99 and the barn is still under consideration (*everything* in the Highlands justs takes looonger).
  10. I got myself a pocket calculator Construction Master Pro Trig from “Calculated Industries” to at as a babel fish between the “imperial” surrounding and my “metric” mind. Now I know that 2″ 7/8 are roughly 73mm – so good!
  11. We cut away even more gorse (and still have to wait until autumn to be able to burn it).
  12. I finally admitted to myself that I will have to do a monthly trip to Inverness to be able to buy the stuff I need (the cowboys riding to the city). And here the trailer really comes in handy!
    Side note: and it was actually in Inverness where I got the scaffolding poles for the turbine. No way for me to get them in Wick.
  13. We did some sheep shearing support – first step in becoming real crofters …
Sheep shearing
Shearing sheep

So why am I writing all this? Is everything solved? Far from that.

I am probably more of writing this to remind me that though it seems that nothing really proceeds as planned and barely no progress is visible, some things are still getting done. So there is actually progress (however small it is).

Shedland

Shed plan
Floor frame
Insulation

Quarry videos

Way from quarry to rabbit run 1/2
Way from quarry to rabbit run 2/2

We ordered a new vehicle

Yesterday was the day, when we finally ordered our all-purpose all-terrain vehicle. It is not exactly the “Car vNext” I wrote about some months ago, but hopefully will serve our needs well. It is a – drum roll – JCB 531-70 TeleHandler.

JCB 531-70, image used from jcb.com.
JCB 531-70

Why did we choose this and why that specific model?

Our plot is currently only accessible via an off-road vehicle and the non-existing road is sometimes in such a bad condition that I really have trouble to get there even with my Hilux (this certainly can also be attributed to my driving skills). While our Kawasaki Mule is fine to get back and forth, it lacks the ability to carry larger loads.

In addition, we wanted to lift things to a level of above 5m (as the barn will be that high). And I wanted to be able to move stuff around without needing to buy a Dumper.

Other factors we considered: larger manufacturer sold by a larger distributor “near by” with a technicican that can react in days not weeks.

So this is why I sticked to the JCB guys in Muir of Ord (despite my mixed feelings at the start).

Because of the lifting hight a normal tractor or wheel loader would not really be a good fit, I ended up with looking at tele handlers.

It is the non-agri version with the small engine, as I do not intend to tow larger loads. And the best of all, it is probably the only machine in that size, that is available this year.

I opted for the 5 year / 2000h warranty extension, as I will probably using it for not more than 400h/y. This means, I can keep it for 4 year and still sell it with one-year of warranty, if I feel like it.

In addition to the standard fork, I also ordered a 1m3 bucket, so I do not need to get a Dumper (we will see how this turns out). Plus I swapped the construction tyres to proper agri tyres.

A note regarding pricing: looking at used machines showed me, that even after a couple of years and thousands of hours, they still sell for roughly the half of a new one. And with the current inflation rates rising, I came to the conclusion that a new model will be actually cheaper. As weird as it may sound …

And now for some techie bits:

JCB 531-70 Lift Performance

Looking at the chart, lifting stones and a generator should not be a problem at all.

Delivery is scheduled for end of June. So until I keep happily waiting …