>>>>>>>>Goodness. We'd better ship some trailers over asap.
>>>>>>>> I had no idea hitching things onto the back of your vehicle or using what we like to call roof bars was unknown over there.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>But the problem with a trailer is that you need a vehicle capable of towing it - which usually brings you back to square one.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>C'mon, I towed 200 bricks in a little trailer, and the capable engine was a 1,2 liter Škoda.
>>>>>
>>>>>And the capable brakes were ? :-}
>>>>>
>>>>>>Which actually brings another question - a typical small car is rated four persons, which is cca 320kg, plus 100kg luggage.
>>>>>> So how come I've seen many of these trucks rated at only 350kg of payload? Huh? Shouldn't they carry at least two tons, given the amount of hardware invested in them?
>>>>>
>>>>>I've got a 1.2 car and happen to have the registration document to hand. FWIW, max carrying capacity is 330kg. On the towing front it gives 800kg for braked trailers; 450kg for un-braked. 4WD's have their uses but here in the UK (as I suspect in the US) 90%+ of owners don't really need them. The only time we see one of the 'over-the-top' 4WDs around here it will be someone from the city visiting the countryside to try out their new green wellies.....
>>>>>
>>>>>>>The most useful machine for me here is actually a quad-bike (sometimes with a small trailer) - gets to places where any normal 4WD can't even get close.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I'm planning to get a trike, or a trailer for the bike. We'll see.
>>>>>You mean of the pedalled variety ? Good luck with the 200 bricks :-}
>>>>
>>>>I was living in East Finchley last year. A bit of left arty area. Quite a few electric cars G Whizzes and Priuses. Now I've moved to Cockfosters and I am surrounded by 4WD vehicles (always black for some reason). I particularly like the range Rovers with huge allow wheels and those thin profile tyres. Very useful on a track I'm sure
>>>
>>>:-}
>>>I used to have a RangeRover - but an old, very early model. All plastics seats - I could (and regularly did) hose down the interior with a pressure washer. Not likely to see anyone doing that with the current crop :-}
>>>Anyway - off to the pub in my current 4WD in a few minutes (I know what constitutes an 'essential journey'). We've only managed to use the regular car a couple of times in the last three weeks because of snow - but I think you presently have a lot more of that than us ?
>>
>>4 or 5 inches.
>
>4-5 miles to the North or West and it's about the same. Right here there's barely an inch - very odd.
>
>>The main problem was it fell very fast yesterday.
>>
>>I am a little tired of the apocalyptic headlines. Though I wonder if it show how our systems are so "just in time" that any disruption is a real problem.
>
>The Met Office seems a little paranoid these days - scared s******s of underestimating the severity of incoming weather. And yet councils always manage to appear caught off-guard :-{

This morning a woman on Radio 4 repeatedly described Heathrow as "like a war zone" because few people couldn't get their planes and had to sleep on the floor. I'll check the news to see which areas you can't walk through because of landmines and where all the dead and maimed are being put as well.
I'd be interested in how Iraq or Afghanistan would be described by these people. Presumably they are like an airport departure lounge during frosty weather.