For those interested in old cars.

[MrWolf]

Citroen light 15.

[MrWolf]

3 minutes ago, jcredfer said:

 

Whilst this and the other similar comments above do have claim to reduce the effects of damage due to the increased need to provide food for the population, there are few political attempts to address the real cause of the problem, food shortage.  The longer the world leaders ignore the population figures, the more difficult it will be to obtain a  humane solution...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimates_of_historical_world_population#/media/File:Population_curve.svg 

 

Julian

 

 

That is something that I have also read up on and I have my own thoughts on how a large portion of the planet just keep on breeding in an unsustainable manner. 

But I am going to keep quiet on the matter lest we stray into politics and get accused of everything from drunk and disorderly through to genocide.

Interesting read though!

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, MrWolf said:

 

That is something that I have also read up on and I have my own thoughts on how a large portion of the planet just keep on breeding in an unsustainable manner. 

But I am going to keep quiet on the matter lest we stray into politics and get accused of everything from drunk and disorderly through to genocide.

Interesting read though!

It is well worth reading the late Prof Hans Rosling's works on the subject.  He argues very clearly that it has little to do with high birth rates and a great deal to do with rapidly falling death rates.  That and the fact that based on a Western diet, we have less than half the half the food required to feed the world; on a largely vegetarian diet, we could feed the world about three times over.

 

Unfortunately I love meat.....

[MrWolf]

Hm, I tend to remind myself that a chap who was teetotal, anti smoking vegetarian and an animal lover who wanted everyone to be healthy, have free education,  created not for profit utilities and pushed green issues was also responsible for 55 million deaths...

[45568]

4 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Citroen light 15.

Whenever I see one of these I imagine wearing a long black leather coat, black Homburg, and saying, "Ve vill ask zer questions".

Cheers from Oz,

Peter C.

 

PS Dave Davies of the Kinks used to own one of these.

[PatB]

4 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Not a tractor, definitely not electric and spotted last summer. Jensen 541R.

In view of the nature of the Austin powerplant, are you quite sure?

[MrWolf]

8 minutes ago, 45568 said:

Whenever I see one of these I imagine wearing a long black leather coat, black Homburg, and saying, "Ve vill ask zer questions".

Cheers from Oz,

Peter C.

 

PS Dave Davies of the Kinks used to own one of these.

 

Oddly enough, the chap in the background carrying the bucket is wearing a Kriegsmarine uniform...

[MrWolf]

4 minutes ago, PatB said:

In view of the nature of the Austin powerplant, are you quite sure?

 

Nail an ambulance body to it and it will take you right across war torn North Africa just to get a cold pint of Carlsberg.  

The trouble with the expensive and fragile engines fitted to other sports cars is that they are expensive and fragile. 

[Joseph_Pestell]

11 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Citroen light 15.

 

As they were known in the UK. Correctly an 11BL.

 

In my view, the best of the Traction Avant. The Big 15 is a tad clumsy whereas the 11BL is a joy to drive. Like any car of its era, it requires a bit too much maintenance to be a practical "daily driver" but in terms of behaviour on the road, I would not hesitate to have one for daily use.

[PhilJ W]

21 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

As they were known in the UK. Correctly an 11BL.

 

In my view, the best of the Traction Avant. The Big 15 is a tad clumsy whereas the 11BL is a joy to drive. Like any car of its era, it requires a bit too much maintenance to be a practical "daily driver" but in terms of behaviour on the road, I would not hesitate to have one for daily use.

My dad was trained as a mechanic in the army though he never took up the trade in civvy street. He told me that to fit a new head gasket to a light 15 it was necessary to dismantle the gear change linkage as it ran on top of the engine.

[Joseph_Pestell]

1 minute ago, PhilJ W said:

My dad was trained as a mechanic in the army though he never took up the trade in civvy street. He told me that to fit a new head gasket to a light 15 it was necessary to dismantle the gear change linkage as it ran on top of the engine.

 

That would not surprise me as the gearbox is in front of the engine and the gearstick is dashboard-mounted. But I don't think that it would be difficult to do (and refit afterwards).

[PhilJ W]

The BSA cars had a similar arrangement.

[boxbrownie]

13 hours ago, gr.king said:

Is this the right time to mention allegedly impaired water absorption and retention by the land, with increased run-off contributing to flooding, owing to subsoil repeatedly compacted by heavy machines?

Oddly enough these big machines have a lighter footprint per square inch than smaller machines with thinner/smaller tyres.....that’s the whole point of such massive looking tyres.....as farmers the very last thing they want is ruined land, you would be very surprised how much a good agronomist costs for a bi-yearly consultation.

 

 

[MrWolf]

At least you can get at the engine on a Light Fifteen. The old Renault Four FWD had a similar setup with the gear lever going over the top of the engine and sticking out of the dashboard. It worked rather well though.

[jwealleans]

13 hours ago, gr.king said:

Is this the right time to mention allegedly impaired water absorption and retention by the land, with increased run-off contributing to flooding, owing to subsoil repeatedly compacted by heavy machines?

 

We're getting a bit OT, but as they're all GPS directed these days, they seem to travel on exactly the same path every year so the compaction takes place along two parallel lines at regular intervals across the land and the rest is unaffected.  It's no fun bouncing in and out of them and trying to keep everything in the grab.

 

That field has no issues with water retention, even on that day (August last year) there was a bog at one end.

 

 

[PhilJ W]

2 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

Oddly enough these big machines have a lighter footprint per square inch than smaller machines with thinner/smaller tyres.....that’s the whole point of such massive looking tyres.....as farmers the very last thing they want is ruined land, you would be very surprised how much a good agronomist costs for a bi-yearly consultation.

 

 

Also they keep to a specific track in each field as witnessed by the 'tramlines' guided by GPS.

[MrWolf]

BSA Scout, front drive, spotted at a vintage motorcycle meet last summer.

[boxbrownie]

12 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I know that there has been a hell of a lot of work done by farmers over the last few decades (that seems conveniently overlooked by some people) towards protecting biodiversity, replanting hedgerows, seeding headlands etc. I don't know what is supposed to be happening with the setaside scheme post EU. There has been a fair bit of talk about the pesticides issue and EU hypocrisy, but just as much about encouraging natural pest predators too.

I also heard something recently about the abolition of red diesel, don't know if there's any truth in it? 

It'll be a while before Musk et al provide you all with solar powered John Deeres 

There are already E Tractors.......we have been looking carefully at development over the past few years.

https://www.futurefarming.com/Machinery/Articles/2020/3/John-Deere-We-believe-in-electric-tractors-100-552869E/

[PhilJ W]

3 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

BSA Scout, front drive, spotted at a vintage motorcycle meet last summer.

Nice place to put a petrol tank, right above the exhaust manifold.

Edited November 3, 2020 by PhilJ W

[MrWolf]

Re electric tractors. I was taking the mick.

Edited November 3, 2020 by MrWolf

[boxbrownie]

3 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Also they keep to a specific track in each field as witnessed by the 'tramlines' guided by GPS.

They don’t have to, the GPS tracking can be tweaked depending upon ground conditions or if the driver is awake or not 

[boxbrownie]

15 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Re electric tractors. I was taking the mick.

Why though?  Seriously they are an important environmental improvement compared with 25 gph.......and will be cheaper to run especially as most big farms nowadays have their own wind/solar power supplies, we recently had another 50kw panel array for a new cold store.

[jwealleans]

28 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

There are already E Tractors

 

All the farmers I talk to round here are very dismissive - are they making any progress with them?

 

 

[steve1]

9 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Hm, I tend to remind myself that a chap who was teetotal, anti smoking vegetarian and an animal lover who wanted everyone to be healthy, have free education,  created not for profit utilities and pushed green issues was also responsible for 55 million deaths...

 

This an old car thread, nothing to do with food and population numbers.

 

steve

[boxbrownie]

12 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Why? Because I can't see the average hill farmer round here ever affording one or the infrastructure needed to operate one. He will no doubt then be taxed to death as a polluter and barrier to green progress, even if his livestock are doing less damage to the land.

Horses for courses.......livestock damage the air we breath not the ground we walk on