News
navvies
Licence changes for trailers and new petrol formula - how do they affect us? Council decision favours Uttoxeter Canal, and Adrian gets an award! Trailers
1:
As you may have heard, the rules regarding trailer towing are changing. Until now, if you passed your driving test after 1 January 1997 you were restricted in what you could tow 2: unless you took an additional test. This additional test is now being scrapped and so the vast majority of people who have passed their driving test in a car will be able to tow 3500Kg. It is important to note that NOTHING has changed with the WRG driver authorisation scheme, so you will still need the 3: appropriate categories on your DA card for both the trailer and towing vehicle before towing trailers for WRG and/or other societies who use our DA scheme.
E10 Petrol E numbers? In petrol? What, are they adding artificial colour and flavour to fuel now? Err, no. As you may have seen, recently the standard unleaded petrol coming from fuel pumps has been changed to include 10% ethanol - hence the name E10. This has been done to reduce the carbon footprint of fuel but it does have some consequences. Cars sold since 2011 have components that will tolerate ethanol, but older vehicles and plant like mowers, strimmers, pumps etc still rely on rubber pipes and gaskets and in some cases soldered copper floats, all of which are attacked and degraded by ethanol. In addition, ethanol is a solvent that is excellent at removing all that old crud that was firmly stuck in your fuel system and then depositing it in the fuel filter - or worse, in the jets of the carburettor. Lastly it is hygroscopic, which means it absorbs water which then adds to the corrosion effect and also means it degrades more quickly when stored. All in all it is not an ideal fuel for use in the sort of kit we use on site. So what should you do for running petrol powered plant? Well you have three options:
page 36
Just use E10 petrol. For the odd tank of fuel where someone filled a can with the wrong stuff this isn’t a problem; most of the issues are long term effects anyway. Switch to ‘super unleaded’. For now, super unleaded remains at up to 5% ethanol (as standard unleaded was) and typically only contains 2%-3%. You may need to tweak the mixture when you first switch over to compensate for the higher octane. Switch to an alkylate type fuel. Probably the most well known brand is Aspen though there are others are available and they come as either 4 stroke or pre-mixed 2 stroke (i.e. you do not need to add 2 stroke oil); again, when you first switch over you may need to tweak the mixture settings. These fuels have a number of benefits, the two main ones being that they are very stable and so can be stored without degrading and even left in equipment for months without any problems (no more having to run the saw out of petrol at the end of the day), and also the emissions from the equipment are less harmful to the user. So why isn’t everyone using it? Well it is considerably more expensive than petrol but particularly for kit that is less frequently used it may be your best option.
Froghall threat rejected The application to build houses across the route of the former Uttoxeter Canal at Froghall, which would have prevented future reopening of the canal by any practicable route, has been unanimously rejected by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council’s planning committee. As described in more detail in previous issues of Navvies, there are actually two pieces of land concerned: one area which is earmarked for housing in local masterplanning documents, and a smaller
