igor

Some years ago I bought this tractor to use on my small holding.

Used to always run second hand 6 ply light truck steel belts (155R12) on my Austin 1300 and my EN Civic back in the '90s. Hard as fuck compound and age hardened too so lasted well but spun up easily so probably not a real good idea safety wise but for the price I thought they were okay at the time.

Many of our back roads are unsealed, some are 1.5 lanes wide at best, and the country boys often take their half out of the middle. I don't think tyre choice would make much difference in those circumstances.

Do you think the general level of risk on lightly travelled sealed roads with a lower than optimum level of maintanence is actually greater than that caused on high traffic count motorways by the increased levels of rubber and oil deposits?

We don't have motorways round here. On many of our local roads the average daily traffic count is four sheep and a tractor.

Your diesel is a turbo? One of the work utes a few years ago was bad for that. Turbo would come in halfway through a corner resulting in sudden sideways action if the driver was not paying enough attention to snatch it back.

New 205/65/15s on my coon are Chinese made Hifly brand. My wof guy had them in stock for $102.61 + gst each. Had 215/65/15 Hiflys on the back and mis-matched 205/65/15s on the front previously. Those were on it when I got it two years ago. Ask me again in two years and I'll tell you if the new Hiflys are any good.

Wife's Laser has 2 Supercats and 2 something else cheaper but she just drives it and doesn't care. Pretty sure it had Supercats on when we got it. I have no complaints about them.

One of my earliest car related memories is riding in my grandfathers Mk3 Zodiac. I loved that car. So good to see an old Zed still looking sweet and being used. Keep up the good work.

Got 4 205/65/15s on my coon last month for cheap. Will check what they are and come back.

That thing almost looks like it's been raised. It's too high even for me and I don't do lowered cars.

Old tyres, really hard, more smoke faster eh?

Farm scales would seem to be the way to go here. Like a guy I met a couple of years ago who went to weigh in for rugby and found that the scales at the club only went to 150kg. He went 157kg on the farm scales. His brother is a big chap too. With those two in the front row their scrum does not go backwards.

Welcome aboard Mitch. Have you come across the Aussie built Sigmas from that era? I had an '82 as a cheap rental on the Gold Coast in the Spring of '98. It had moderately high ks on the clock and the automatic was a bit dodgy but the 2.6 litre engine still gave it more than enough stoke for what we were using it for. 

Also we always take the rear seats out of the lease cars at work to get around the fringe benefit tax. I believe this practice is quite wide spread.

A few years ago my wof guy failed my Falcon cos one of the door cards had not been refitted after replacing a door. Reckoned it had non complying dangerous interior projections. No more than the old sliding window Minis had I would have thought.

I must admit to being one of those who pretty much ignored most of the Jap stuff for many years but there are a few old Jappas that I do like. Mostly the medium to large sedans. Don't mind this thing at all.

Is it possible to run the cable inside the sill to bypass the crossmember? By the looks of your pic you might just get away with it.

Mine's with AA. I pay about your monthly premium for a year for third party only on an EA coon wags but I'm 49 and I get a huge discount and a no claims bonus for life for having been a member since I got my licence in 1983. Third party, fire and theft was near enough to the same as fully comprehensive. Might be worth comparing the two. Hit them up for a reduced rate once you turn 25. It worked for a guy I work with. Good luck.

I've been buying my batteries from The Warehouse.

Looking good sheepers.

An old geezer I knew in the '80s once gave me some mechanical advice he had got from an old Arab in West Africa. The geezer worked for Shell and their trucks were all the time breaking down in the tropical conditions. Insert joke about British vehicles. There was an old Arab trader in those parts also. He had a fleet of half rooted old trucks that never seemed to break down much so my mate asked the Arab for some advice with regard to the persistent problems they were having. The Arab's advice was bread for water leaks, soap for petrol leaks, and monkey skin for fuel pump diaphrams.

Is it too new to get one from the wreckers?

Depends if it's a permanent solution or a get you home stopgap measure.

Probably. Or a bad connection somewhere else. If none of them work that would rule out a dodgy bulb so I would start with the earth. Are the bulb holders earthed to the steel bumper or is it a plastic bumper with an earth wire going somewhere else?

I love how we can rip the piss out of each other mercilessly and generally joke around but if anyone has a technical problem, automotive or not, someone will post the solution. Or even several solutions, sensible and practical, amusingly unworkable, or both.