Chancer Posted February 10, 2011 Author Share Posted February 10, 2011 Hilarious [:)][:)][:)]When I had just qualified as a draughtsman I worked in the jig & tool drawing office, dont get many of them these days, we all mysteriously went down with mouth ulcers, I was workig late on a private job, a house extension when I caught the new cleaner who we called Dettol Doris because she replaced Dettol Dickie, giving all our teamugs a complementary wipe over with her one does it all chiffon.Discussing it with a my herpes infected workmates the next day I was charged with the task of spying on her that night, she did her cleaning in the same order Dave [:-))]I have some news for you regarding CT non roulant, I will find the thread you started and post it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I'd love to see these people's water bills, Dave. My 2010 annual water bill was 88€ - I guess that might be some people's idea of a fortune but it's not mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Ah, thank you for your post, David. It would explain why madame la voisine in my old house looked dirtier than a scarecrow and smelt worse than my dog's bedding![:'(] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted February 11, 2011 Author Share Posted February 11, 2011 [quote user="cooperlola"]I'd love to see these people's water bills, Dave. My 2010 annual water bill was 88€ - I guess that might be some people's idea of a fortune but it's not mine.[/quote]Mine neither given that the last time I paid for water in the UK it was water and sewage rates and well over £300 in 2003.My water bill here including tout à l'egout and all the mixing of concrete, renders plastering etc and as Dave has said all the cleaning of tools and buckets which my neighbours too tut tut about, comes to the princely sum of €50 - €60 per year. its around 16m3 per year at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I always found that my english guests, friends and family wasted water when they stayed with us in France. We used to use between 100 and 140 cubic meters of water a year in France. No meter at the moment, must get one. Odd things we were told in France, well lotsm but here are a couple and ofcourse they were not to be argued with and they were: that the paratonnerre on the eglise would protect the whole village from lightening strikes. That it was healthier to sun bathe in the mid day sun than in the evening sun as the rays from the evening sun could cause skin cancer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted February 11, 2011 Author Share Posted February 11, 2011 Hey Idun the TV stations have only just caught on that the mid-day sun is actually at 14.00 C.E.T. so finally they now say avoid the sun between the hours of 12.00 and 16.00, it took them long enough.I think it all goes back to being conditioned to believe whatever they are told without question, my ex was a good example, probably the most intelligent and highly qualified woman I have ever had the fortune to meet but is totally obedient and questions nothing (she made an exception for me!), it has certainly propelled her to great heights in L'education Nationale but she still drives any car in 3rd gear in town, 4th gear for 90 and 110kph limits and only uses 5th on autoroutes because that is what her uncle told her, every car she has owned has been scrapped due to gearbox failure.She refuses to turn off her engine even if she has sat in a traffic jam for one hour because her mother, a lovely lady but a farmers wife, had told her that starting an engine uses more fuel than running it for one hour, it may have had some element of truth with their old powered tractors that had to be started on petrol and switched over to TVO (like paraffin) when fully warmed up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 [:D] Very funny, you two.However, there are some pretty wild and wooly old wives' tales knocking about the UK too. I've heard the one about not turning off the engine goodness knows how many times, and I know lots of people of both sexes and both nationalities who don't know what 5th gear is for. I despair at what might happen if they ever get a 6-speed.[:-))] I don't suppose they have a clue what the rev' counter even does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 My MIL would not change tv channel unless the sound was off first, told to do that on their first tv and it applied thereafter to all tv's.I never understood why France was an hour ahead of the UK as the GMT line goes straight through France. So yes we always 'knew' that the midday sun was at 14h in summer in France.I have to admit that I find it easier to stay at 50kph in third, strangely a few of us had this conversation in France and me and a bloke said that was what we did and everyone else said that it was 'IMPOSSIBLE' to drive at 50kph. That was just after it was introduced all over the place and hopefully they will have adapted to the slower speeds and better use of the gears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just john Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 [quote user="Chancer"] only uses 5th on autoroutes because that is what her uncle told her, every car she has owned has been scrapped due to gearbox failure. [/quote]Talking to the local g/box repair company recently and they commented that they rebuild a lot of boxes where premature use of 5th (and especially 6th) at low speeds has wrecked the bearings and consequently the rest of it . . . [Www] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted February 12, 2011 Author Share Posted February 12, 2011 Then they are talking out of their .......................................But as the thread had drifted to believing anything that one is told [Www]Gearbox bearings are loaded in any intermediate gear that transfers the drive through the laygear cluster, either the layshaft bearings or the input shaft bearings will the first to fail, Intermediate gears are rated to be used intermittantly, the progresion from a standstill or climbing steep hills.On 4 and 5 speed gearboxes 4th gear is the direct drive top where the mainshaft is effectively locked solid and taking the load on its own bearings at either end that are sized for continual running, the laygear cluster is turning in mesh but not transferring any power, the 5th gear can be viewed as an overdrive acting after the direct drive 4th "top gear".On a 6 speed box the 5th gear is usually the direct drive gear but not always, seqential shift and motorcycle gearboxes being the exception. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just john Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 The detail was that whilst the later diesel engines have the torque, the load on the gearbox bearings at town speeds in top creates premature wear (specifically on the 6 speed Renault Trafic box that I was enquiring about). What would they know[8-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted February 12, 2011 Author Share Posted February 12, 2011 I very much doubt that a 6 speed traffic could run in 6th at 30mph or even 50kph, my diesel will maintain 50kph in 5th with my foot off the accelerator pedal.What would they know? Well I would have to judge that myself by seeing and speaking with them, there are still some knowledgeable mechanics but they are getting rarer and rarer, many of them do come out with some complete rubbish and they dont need to have gone through the French education system to have done so.I was probably designing and also repairing vehicle transmission systems before they were born, the hands on trade is not something you would choose to be doing at my age if you had the nounce. That said things have moved on, new generation transmissions whilst much stronger and heavier than those of my epoque still occasionally have an achilles heel, sounds like the Trafic has. whether its caused by low speed running in 6th gear I shall keep an open mind on.P.S. You could ask them to explain why they consider the load on the transmission to be higher at urban speed? The laws of physics is against them. Perhaps its a cooling or lubrication problem?I was once pit crew at the Nurburgring 24 hour race, we shared our garage with the works BMW team, there was an accident on the first lap and they all had to follow the safety car for a few laps whilst the debris was cleared and medics did their thing, its a very long fast circuit and the M3 came in for a gearbox change within the first hour, the oil cooler was dropped into a tray of ice and the steam filled the whole garage, the trick race gearbox and specifically the aerodynamic oil cooling system could not cope with the continual slow speed running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just john Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 To an extent, I have to agree with you, though this guy was very specific, most places don't touch transmission repairs, and their 'fitters' send it out to 'specialists', quite a few boxes are also deemed not fit to repair and end up with some 'exchange' unit of unknown parentage, certainly my experience is that the new stuff is built down to a price. Warranty on a Trafic is 60K with a common g/box failing at 70K, though they are aware of many g/boxes doing double the mileage, again same company said the biggest problem is the nut behind the wheel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parsnips Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 [quote user="idun"]My MIL would not change tv channel unless the sound was off first, told to do that on their first tv and it applied thereafter to all tv's.I never understood why France was an hour ahead of the UK as the GMT line goes straight through France. So yes we always 'knew' that the midday sun was at 14h in summer in France.I have to admit that I find it easier to stay at 50kph in third, strangely a few of us had this conversation in France and me and a bloke said that was what we did and everyone else said that it was 'IMPOSSIBLE' to drive at 50kph. That was just after it was introduced all over the place and hopefully they will have adapted to the slower speeds and better use of the gears.[/quote]Hi, The reason for the hour difference UK/France (I have been told) is that the germans imposed it during the war,to avoid problems synchronising activities with Germany.Presumably in 1945 the french were already anticipating the creation of the EU, and decided not to change back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted February 12, 2011 Author Share Posted February 12, 2011 Dont all mainland European countries use Central European Time? France just happens to be on the extreme left.Editted, pun unintended [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachapapa Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Not Portugal...same as UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Araucaria Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 [quote user="parsnips"]Hi, The reason for the hour difference UK/France (I have been told) is that the germans imposed it during the war,to avoid problems synchronising activities with Germany.Presumably in 1945 the french were already anticipating the creation of the EU, and decided not to change back. [/quote]I'm fairly sure this is at least partly right: Sartre's "Iron in the Soul" is set in the three or four weeks after the fall of Paris (June 1940), and the soldiers interned at Baccarat comment that the Germans have just imposed their time on France, making it an hour later. One internee refuses to change his watch from French time. Sartre was himself captured (he was a military meteorologist) and interned in Nancy, not far from Baccarat, and this passage presumably refelects his personal experience. I don't know whether unoccupied France adopted German time then, or not until November 1942, and I also have no idea what happened after the liberation. Though I'd be surprised if they didn't change back then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted February 12, 2011 Author Share Posted February 12, 2011 Well nothing changes, I have yet to have a French guset in the UK that would change their watch to local time, I think its something to do with not unwittingly eating one minute after 12.00.I often wonder how they get on when they cross the atlantic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickP Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 [quote user="Chancer"]Well nothing changes, I have yet to have a French guset in the UK that would change their watch to local time, I think its something to do with not unwittingly eating one minute after 12.00.I often wonder how they get on when they cross the atlantic.[/quote]That's amazing, I didn't know that underwear had clocks [:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted February 12, 2011 Author Share Posted February 12, 2011 [:D][:D][:D]Very drole!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 In line with the topic title I received an email from my employer on Friday telling me that had to do a 50 minute online training course before being allowed to travel back offshore next week.What is this vital course - only a safety induction for the specific installation I have been working on for the past 17 years !!!For the record these are normally done onboard for new arrivals and basically consist of a guided tour highlighting the location of safety equipment and the procedures to be followed in case of an emergency. I suspect that they will still be too as despite any prior online training there can never be any substitute for being there and getting it 1st hand in real time.To compound the nonsense the course requires specific software to be installed and I have replied saying that I will not be told to install software on my own personal PC by anyone and therefore I cannot and will not be completing it, never mind that it would be in my own time too.Wednesday should prove interesting [blink] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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