Lieutenant Scott wrote:
On Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:45:59 +0100, Davey wrote:

On Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:44:06 +0100
"Lieutenant Scott" wrote:

On Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:27:02 +0100, newshound
wrote:

On 30/04/2012 19:58, Lieutenant Scott wrote:
On Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:44:47 +0100, Lieutenant Scott
wrote:

I was going to burn down some tree stumps aided by some petrol to
get it going. Having a bottle of white spirit to hand I thought
I'd use that instead of going to the garage to get petrol. It
won't light!!!!

This is the exact product, and it says flammable on the side. But
it bloody well isn't.


http://www.bartoline.co.uk/products_...vent%20Ra nge




Sorted.

I bought a jerry can of petrol and tried burning them, but they
kept going out. So I took the easy option.

To my neighbour's horror, I reversed the car into the back garden,
tied the tree stumps to the towbar, and yanked them out of the
ground. She was particularly concerned that my car (or flying tree
stump) was aiming directly for her kitchen window. She took the
dog for a walk while I did it :-)

Glad it's sorted. Can't have been much of a tree stump in that case,
though (unless it was very rotten below ground). When it's the
other way round, a small tree can stop a surprisingly fast or heavy
vehicle.

It's a 1.9 turbo diesel, and I took a good run at it. Snapped a tow
rope and a chain before getting all 10 out. Automatic gearbox helps
too.


Remind me not to buy a car from you.

You seem to be under the mistaken idea that a car can't pull something
that hard. Think how tough a towbar and attachments has to be to pull a
caravan safely.

Not all that strong, as you're pulling a rolling load at either moderate
acceleration or at a steady speed. Back of envelope says a maximum of
half a ton total, summing the horizontal and vertical components.

A steady pull of that magnitude is fine. Pulling out a tree stump is a
shock load which is well in excess of what the towbar and its fixings
are designed to take. I'll try it with a Land Rover with a good chassis,
but I'll use a kinetic energy recovery rope to do it. The clue here is
that you managed to snap a towrope and a chain, which says that the peak
loads were way above the design limits of the car and towbar. Luckily, I
live somewhere your car will never be sold.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.