Careful buying anything from the US, quite often our customs and excise will want their pound of flesh and put a tarriff on it, more than you might hope, which the post office or other carrier will bill you for plus their handling fee.
Oddly enough my Mrs buys lots of stuff from China which never gets the same treatment, don’t ask me
The standard 5 metre height sticks as used by nearly every car transporter driver are on Ebay too @ £75.70 free postage, it works out at £90 odd on the FTA site with VAT and postage.
Belle trailers would probably sell them too, but no online shop that i can see, no idea of price.
I’ve got one, can’t remember the make but it has a logo of a car transporter on the bag.
I used it when I was moving forklift trucks with different mast heights.
they do have a spirit level in them and they are quite stable to use.
I would sell it as I’m on tankers now but the way things have been going I’m not selling any of my kit
Juddian:
Careful buying anything from the US, quite often our customs and excise will want their pound of flesh and put a tarriff on it, more than you might hope, which the post office or other carrier will bill you for plus their handling fee.
Oddly enough my Mrs buys lots of stuff from China which never gets the same treatment, don’t ask me
The standard 5 metre height sticks as used by nearly every car transporter driver are on Ebay too @ £75.70 free postage, it works out at £90 odd on the FTA site with VAT and postage.
Belle trailers would probably sell them too, but no online shop that i can see, no idea of price.
I’ve noticed, when buying things from china that they are often marked ‘sample’ - perhaps this makes them exempt?
Juddian:
Careful buying anything from the US, quite often our customs and excise will want their pound of flesh and put a tarriff on it, more than you might hope, which the post office or other carrier will bill you for plus their handling fee.
Oddly enough my Mrs buys lots of stuff from China which never gets the same treatment, don’t ask me
The standard 5 metre height sticks as used by nearly every car transporter driver are on Ebay too @ £75.70 free postage, it works out at £90 odd on the FTA site with VAT and postage.
Belle trailers would probably sell them too, but no online shop that i can see, no idea of price.
I’ve noticed, when buying things from china that they are often marked ‘sample’ - perhaps this makes them exempt?
Franglais:
Re being level/vertical: Isnt this a fail safe situation? If the stick is off vertical, the reading will be higher than true, so will not be dangerous. At worst youll think the load is higher than it really is. Not good, but not dangerous.
It can go either way depending on exactly how the stick is held. And bear in mind, if you’re sweeping the arm around the entire top of the container to find the high points of an uneven load of metal scrap, then you have to walk and move the stick along the ground, keeping it hovered above the tarmac but as close as possible, whilst also maintaining the level and orientation of the stick as you walk and as you encounter any high points that will cause pulling and twisting against your hold on the stick.
I personally think this method of using a simple hangman measuring stick to sweep an uneven load would be no more accurate in the round than what can be achieved with a fraction of the effort and visual guesswork.
Euro:
Screwfix do a laser “tape measure” for £20. With a pocket calculator and Pythagoras you can get height.
Must admit I considered the approach of using trig from the comfort of the cab, but you’d have to be able to see the peak of the uneven load from two adjacent sides (peaks occurring toward the middle of the container and which only modestly exceed the height of the container, may not be visible on two adjacent sides at any reasonable distance), the peak would have to be occluded by the container at not-too-close an angle (i.e. if the peak is near to the edge of the container and clearly exceeds the height of the container even at close range, so that it is only occluded at an angle close to 90 degrees, then it would have to be measured directly to avoid an excessive margin of error), and you’d have to take all observations on a completely level area (because you have no tools capable of correcting for uneven ground), and the top of the container itself would still have to measured and would have to be completely level around its perimeter relative to the ground (or be measured at all the points where it coincides with the lines of observation).
Again, in the round, it’s likely to be highly impractical and error prone. To cope with a full range of normal circumstances, you’d need a surveyor’s theodolite, tape, and rods (and a surveyor’s discipline in using them).
Shandy123:
I’ve noticed, when buying things from china that they are often marked ‘sample’ - perhaps this makes them exempt?
I used to dispatch small spare parts all over the world marked “Sample of no commercial value”. Customers would phone or fax an urgent order, I would go to the stores, draw the part, pack it in a Jiffy bag and send it off by air-mail. I kept a record and added the cost to their next proper shipment.
I could buy a ladder and a tape measure for less than £70 or have one fitted to the truck. If the bin is 10’ High, you only have to measure the bit from the top of the bin [emoji23]
Wheel Nut:
I could buy a ladder and a tape measure for less than £70 or have one fitted to the truck. If the bin is 10’ High, you only have to measure the bit from the top of the bin [emoji23]
