Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

Frugalsod wrote: »

I did find this today and thought that some here might be prepping for these events.

http://gearmoose.com/the-10-best-apocalypse-survival-vehicles/

But would any of them still run, after an EMP attack?

nuatha

maryb wrote: »

Been busy today so only just logged on - sorry not to have replied before. That's really helpful, thank you so much

Pleased to have been of service.
If you need more information, feel free to ask.

Frugalsod

2tonsils wrote: »

all very well, those vehicles, but my little 50 cc scooter and 800cc car will go a lot further when the petrol is in short supply...after that, I am fit enough to walk....or run.....

I agree with you. Personally I am looking at a utility pedal bicycle as being far more practical. Fuel could be next to impossible to get or so expensive that you would not want to use it. Cracking oil to make petrol is incredibly energy intensive so if there were power cuts petrol supplies could be curtailed very rapidly. It could mean rationing of fuel significantly in order to keep the lights on.

Frugalsod

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

But would any of them still run, after an EMP attack?

Not unless you kept them in a garage that was quipped with a Faraday cage. Also if you avoided the first EMP strike there could be subsequent strikes so could wipe them out afterwards. We could end up becoming trapped by the technology.

lovefullshelves

James Howard Kunstler - World made by hand. Great book if you want an idea of what it will be like without oil:)
I can't begin to plan for working a smallholding without oil. I can't afford heavy horses, and although we have severely cut down our diesel use by 1/3 we still use it.
When I was younger I would have never thought that councils would turn off street lamps and not fix the roads through lack of money. So its now easy to imagaine the roads without oil. they'll soon break up, get overgrown and be pretty useless. Like the back roads round here. Grass in the centre, dips and cracks and potholes. Even with a bicycle you have to think about replacement tyres, which will perish eventually.
I'm in no doubt that we are in the long descent or long emergency, call it what you like. Without cheap plentiful oil there will not be any real 'growth' for the economy. The sooner the government gets its head around peak oil and steady state economies, rather than perpetual growth the better. But I suppose no one wants to be the first to shout 'we're sinking'. Not exactly a vote winner.

GreyQueen

Morning all.

lovesfullshelves, yes. Here's something I said to my Mum a few days ago, after I was zig-zagging around the holes in the country roads in their car; When you can break a car's axle in a 'pothole' on an A grade road, you know you're not living in a first world country any more.

Wasn't their car, thank goodness, but I do think we are visibly sliding from an affluent country into a shabby and secondrate one. Given the amount of taxation collected, and the amount of fuel duty levied, we should have some of the best roads in the world. And yet a Japanese car manufacturer has apparently had to build a replica British road test track, so that their vehicles can be engineered to meet the unique challenges of our roads.:o

Poor roads in a rich country are a clear example of misallocation of funds, IMO.

I've been noticing a few interesting things out on two wheels recently. There have long been cycle trailers around, for cargo and child or dog passengers, but I am seeing some specialist cargo bikes, such as the one with an extremely long frame which was cradling a cargo area just behind the seat. The cargo area was formed of the same tubular steel as the frame, floored by a bit of plywood but otherwise open to the elements. As the whole thing was almost 2/3rds as long again as a regular bike, I'm not sure about its maneourevability in traffic, but that was a first sighting of that particular type of bike-beast this week.

I used to have a h.m simple ply-wood box type cargo trailer but had to sell it about 15 years ago as nowhere to keep it (still have nowhere to keep one) and it was good for some things, but you do have to watch cornering at speed. And you couldn't carry an 80 litre bag of compost in it...............:rotfl:

Bikes would run past the end of the oil era, but they would eventually fall afoul of the lack of rubber for tyres and tubes. One could slow down this process by moving to solid tyres, I think, but we would be looking at the end of cycling about 20-odd years past the end of oil. Perhaps 30 years maximum. My present bike tyres are 17 years old and slightly perished around the walls, but the only reason they have lasted this long and not worn out was that the bike was stored un-used for all that time before being passed into my keeping 12 months ago.

Re horses as working animals, the biggest breeds would have always been expensive to run, such as your Shires etc, but a lot of farm horses were smaller and lighter breeds such as cobs. Post oil, even a sturdy native pony would be an asset to a household who could keep one, as a pack animal or to pull a small cart. A cart which was too small to carry passengers but could carry cargo with the pony being led, would be a lot better than carrying stuff on your back.

Hand barrows and hand carts, panniers for horses and packs for people would all make a comeback if they had to. As would waterborne transport. The river in my (pretty far inland) small city was navigable by relatively small seagoing ships, although it's not economically viable now, as lorries can bring things up from the ports. My hometown is much further inland and used to be the highest navigable point (for barges) on its separate river system, but alterations to the river below the town in the past 60 years, such as weirs, have meant that's no longer possible. But that could be undone, if the will was there, I should think.

It's a sobering thought that when you see friends' and colleagues' babes-in-arms, that by the time these infants reach middle or old age, our world will be very different from what we have known.

Drives me bat-!!!!! crazy that no one I meet IRL seems to want to think about the implications, and to start to transition towards a lower-energy future.

2tonsils

My scooter would run as it has a kick start for the motor. It is only electronic start only vehicles that would be useless after and EMP.

2tonsils

My scooter would run as long as I can get fuel, as it has a kickstart that is independent of the electronic starter.

2tonsils

sorry, my computer has hiccups LOL....... I think it is the signal on the wifi which is on the twitch again. Hope you all avoid the storms they are forecasting for you on our news and on the net...I see that Sky news and the others are really playing it down again. Trust your instincts and stay safe folks!

jk0

Have you ever been to Holland GQ?

I'm not sure if they are still there now, but when I was a child the cargo bikes amazed me:

They had a large timber box where the front wheel should be, and the actual front wheel was in front of the box, maybe four to five feet in front of where you'd expect. There was a crank on the bottom of the forks, connecting to a rod under the box, to another crank on the front wheel.

I think they were used for delivering groceries.

Edit: I found this picture of a modern one: http://dutchcargobike.com.au/babboe-city/babboe-124-081010-2/