Now, for years, the thought of doing a bit extra would have made me ill, working for many of the big boys who would take it as an insult against their ex graduate middle management if a driver could come up with a better way of doing things. But these days I work for a small company who do things the traditional way, so doing that bit extra comes kinda natural. And it seems to pay off although the things I end up doing seem stranger and stranger. 
For the last 5 weeks I have been back in my old motor after being teased with my new one for a week. I’m saying new one, it’s only new to us, and it is, Ronny only buys them after they have grafted for 10 years for someone else, so he thinks a 9 year old one still has the plastic on the seats. 
since then Dennis the Mechanic has been busy doing allsorts to it, new deck with extra set of twistlocks, full service, complete re-spray including chassis cab and crane, full cab valet, the job lot.
The last fault to be cleared is the load sensing pressure micro thingy. He fitted the new one when it arrived on Saturday, or he tried. The thing is that you have to load the crane with it’s maximum load at a certain reach. In the yard at the bottom of ours is a place that hires out access equipment. So I set too and borrowed a couple of their concrete blocks. They measured about 3’sq. so we guessed they weighed about a ton a piece.
We chained them and attached them to the hook whilst looking at the plate on the arm that says it will lift 2,080kgs @ 12.5 meters. 
We gave up in the end as somehow the micro pressure thingy kept locking out with only 3 of the 4 sticks extended.
As I’m collecting local to me on Monday I brought the truck (old one) loaded with the two blocks to weigh them. Trading standards @ Morley was shut due to redevelopment work so in the end I nipped up to Marshall’s @ Brookfoot. Although it was closed, we could see the readout. Seems we might have underestimated a tad.I I’m not saying by how much but this might give a clue 
Still the old Foden looks well now it painted up, just short of the sign writing, which has now been done. It’s gone from this
To this
.
.