Lawn mowing

[smittims]

I think the waste (in 'saving the planet' terms ) must be appalling. I knew someone whose ten-year old Nissan was run into from behind while they were in standing traffic. The bodywork looked but bent to my untrained eye: a job for a panel-beater., or perhaps replace that part. Instead they wrote off the vehicle and paid the book-price, regardless of the thousands paid in premia over the years. No wonder I gave up car ownership, but then , living a short walk from a railway station with 172 direct destinations daily, I'm lucky.

[Dave2002]

I think the waste (in 'saving the planet' terms ) must be appalling. I knew someone whose ten-year old Nissan was run into from behind while they were in standing traffic. The bodywork looked but bent to my untrained eye: a job for a panel-beater., or perhaps replace that part. Instead they wrote off the vehicle and paid the book-price, regardless of the thousands paid in premia over the years. No wonder I gave up car ownership, but then , living a short walk from a railway station with 172 direct destinations daily, I'm lucky.

My previous car was a Toyota Prius, which I liked. Some lowlife people stole the catalytic filter. The cost of the replacement part was around £1.5k as I recall, so as far as the insurance company was concerned the car was a write off being around 10-11 years old - despite the fact that it was at the time still in good condition. It took me quite a lot of persuading to get them to agree to refund the cost of the part - as I had had to have a replacement done very quickly in order to have a viable vehicle at all.

The "algorithms" that insurance companies use to make judgements like this are not based on common sense.

Sadly though, the car eventually died during the lockdown period - possibly as the extended off the road period ruined the battery - and then it was uneconomic for me to replace it..

[Dave2002]

I think that often with modern day cars, faults are located in mechanical or other modules its not possible to repair. Or economic - in view of the hourly rate and overheads in play.

Many modern day cars have electronic modules which perhaps just have to be replaced if they fail. However, some garages will not diagnose problems well. One car I was involved with had a problem, and the main dealer wanted an arm and a leg just to connect a computer to it - before even trying to do anything with it. In the end we found a small garage with a guy who amazingly seemed to know what he was doing - the garage proprieter didn't have a clue - but was very happy to let his man do the work. After a few hours we left the car with him overnight, and the following day he had it all fixed - something simple like a failed sensor, so the more obvious faults which were easy to fix got overlooked - probably a blocked filter and fouled plugs. The diagnostic tools were giving a wrong impression.

Great work by the technician - who was one of those foreign language speaking people some of whom have had their lives needlessly made more difficult by Brexit. He pulled up all the diagnostics and manual pages in either Romanian or Hungarian IIRC.
Really good service.

He had it all fixed and the charge was under £100 as I recall.

[smittims]

You did well there. Nowadays cars are too complex for the little man down a lane, with a set of spanners and a jack, who could fix any car.

[Serial_Apologist]

You did well there. Nowadays cars are too complex for the little man down a lane, with a set of spanners and a jack, who could fix any car.

I wouldn't buy a car any more, for all the reasons already given. Mind you, even ordinary muscle-powered bicycles are becoming more and more inaccessible to amateur repairs these days, needing this newfangled spanner or that Allen-type key... and try just repairing a puncture without dislocating a shoulder or sustaining a heart attack - and all that before even attempting to ride it over our unmown lawn!

[Dave2002]

You did well there. Nowadays cars are too complex for the little man down a lane, with a set of spanners and a jack, who could fix any car.

The joke is that if he'd not bothered with diagnostics and computers, and just did what seemed obvious right at the start, he'd have got it fixed quicker! Took a lot of effort, manual readings, and computer work to discover the underlying faults and rectify them - with the side effect of detecting a faulty sensor!

[oddoneout]

My previous car was a Toyota Prius, which I liked. Some lowlife people stole the catalytic filter. The cost of the replacement part was around £1.5k as I recall, so as far as the insurance company was concerned the car was a write off being around 10-11 years old - despite the fact that it was at the time still in good condition. It took me quite a lot of persuading to get them to agree to refund the cost of the part - as I had had to have a replacement done very quickly in order to have a viable vehicle at all.

The "algorithms" that insurance companies use to make judgements like this are not based on common sense.

Sadly though, the car eventually died during the lockdown period - possibly as the extended off the road period ruined the battery - and then it was uneconomic for me to replace it..

This doesn't make for reassuring reading. https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...ut-sales-first

[Dave2002]

Finally got my robot agent working on the lawn again. It's taken a few days debugging it - making sure the wires are in place etc., and doing an initial trim so that the robot can move around without being slowed up too much. I did wonder about all the wild life, both creatures and other plants, which I displaced in the process. The lawn is still not going to win prizes - but It is starting to look more "conventionally tidy" now - I just don't know whether that is really something I should have done.

In terms of effort it was quite a faff getting it working again, but assuming it continues to function it should now run until I turn it off again around the end of October or November. Saves me work, and having to pay a gardener, though in fact having a gardener hasn't always helped as the one we have seems to have a knack of cutting through the wires, or tripping up over them and pulling them out. I don't think it's deliberate - just a nuisance. The robot will also work in quite severe rain once it's set up.

[gradus]

I think some robot models no longer need boundary wires presumably using GPS. Our self-driven Honda is at the repairers so I'm having to push a motor mower, which is hard work in our garden with fiddly odd shaped areas of grass.

[Dave2002]

I think some robot models no longer need boundary wires presumably using GPS. Our self-driven Honda is at the repairers so I'm having to push a motor mower, which is hard work in our garden with fiddly odd shaped areas of grass.

Some simply use optical methods so they need a clear border all the way round. Boundary wires are still mostly the way to go.

[Dave2002]

Looking back at messages from previous years it looks as though for us we can take the mower in now. The max temperature each day now seems to be in the range 10-12 degrees C, and my understanding is that there's not a lot of point in mowing if the temperature goes below 10 degrees C. Unless there's a very late heat wave, which seems unlikely, the average temperature during each day now must surely be below 10 degrees.

Now waiting for all the leaves to drop off the oak trees - which doesn't seem to have happened in earnest yet.

[Serial_Apologist]

Looking back at messages from previous years it looks as though for us we can take the mower in now. The max temperature each day now seems to be in the range 10-12 degrees C, and my understanding is that there's not a lot of point in mowing if the temperature goes below 10 degrees C. Unless there's a very late heat wave, which seems unlikely, the average temperature during each day now must surely be below 10 degrees.

Now waiting for all the leaves to drop off the oak trees - which doesn't seem to have happened in earnest yet.

That's because you're in Scotland, Dave.

[Dave2002]

That's because you're in Scotland, Dave.

Don't I know it! B freezing again today - though at least the sun is shining, and the air is reasonably clean, and there's hardly any road traffic. Not sure why the leaves haven't started dropping in earnest yet - does seem a bit later this year, though maybe I'm imagining that.

[Serial_Apologist]

Don't I know it! B freezing again today - though at least the sun is shining, and the air is reasonably clean, and there's hardly any road traffic. Not sure why the leaves haven't started dropping in earnest yet - does seem a bit later this year, though maybe I'm imagining that.

A lot have fallen around these parts if judged by the amount now on the ground, but not if going by the unaltered appearance of most trees! The temperature on my thermometer fell to 2C last night, but a neighhbour has told me she saw frost on cars earlier on. A thickening film of medium height cloud (altostratus) has spread across the entire sky now, blurring the sun to an orange blob - probably the edge of a cloud sheet spreading westwards from a weak frontal system dropping southwards down the North Sea in appearance like a plumb line. Tomorrow will be the last fine day for most (apart from the already wet far SW) before a succession of occluded frontal systems associated with low pressures queuing up to the west sweep up from the SW bringing temperatures back to normal, but also an awful lot of rain for the foreseeable future. Yesterday's woodland walk could well be my last for a considerable time.

[gradus]

Frost here last night so I'm hoping our grass will give up its frantic and highly successful efforts to grow.