In case of EMP

[Cubey]

@nelstomlinson

Had the same problem back in the 90s in a 1972 Dodge Polara my dad willed to me. I was up in the top of Yosemite backpacking alone. When I got back to the car the electromagnetic clutch was squaking badly and finall seized. A ranger called the gas station in the valley and a big boy driving a heavy duty rig drove up and cut my alternator belt so I could drive. Genius...not. But it let me drive with no juice going to the battery.
I had to drive down the mountains, through Fresno, and another 20 miles to Kerman where I lived stopping along the way at gas stations to put some juice in the battery. Almost made it home on one candle power in the headlights (it was now dark). Almost got hit at an intersection in the middle of nowhere when a car almost didn't see me coming and I couldn't stop or the engine would die. Made it next to a canal and house with a tall chain linked fence around the property. I yelled to the home to see if I could use their phone. They didn't even come out but called my buddy who came and towed me back in (or brought me a battery, I don't remember which).

This taught me to have an extra battery on board and to have extra battery operated lights. I have LOTS of those red triangular LED lights from Harbor Freight that I use for red rear lights. They have solid white light, solid red, and flashing red positions. I tape them on the back of whatever I'm driving. As for front driving lights you'll have to use some off road lights that you can run on your extra battery.

Nice that we have cell phones to call for help now (if you're somewhere you can get a signal!)

Being a full timer RVer, even when in the tiny truck camper (my avatar pic) I carried a tiny Yamaha 500W 4 cycle generator. It's built in battery charger saved has me several times. First time, when the alternator went out. Then a year and a half later when the batteries got too weak.

I could have gotten tows both times, I had cell reception and I have roadside assistance, but I prefer to save that for a real emergency. I still carry it in the 27ft Class C (hitch cargo box that I had on the truck) despite the big 4000W generator the RV has, since it can charge the house batteries through the RV converter and run my laptop, plus run the LED light bar I use when I have 120V power... and it uses a fraction of the gas.

I carry an old portable, handheld style CB radio that has a 12V power jack, so no internal batteries needed, but I've never had to use it in over 2 years I've been on the road. I'm probably overly prepared, but oh well.

 

[saburai]

Being a full timer RVer, even when in the tiny truck camper (my avatar pic) I carried a tiny Yamaha 500W 4 cycle generator. It's built in battery charger saved has me several times. First time, when the alternator went out. Then a year and a half later when the batteries got too weak.

I could have gotten tows both times, I had cell reception and I have roadside assistance, but I prefer to save that for a real emergency. I still carry it in the 27ft Class C (hitch cargo box that I had on the truck) despite the big 4000W generator the RV has, since it can charge the house batteries through the RV converter and run my laptop, plus run the LED light bar I use when I have 120V power... and it uses a fraction of the gas.

I carry an old portable, handheld style CB radio that has a 12V power jack, so no internal batteries needed, but I've never had to use it in over 2 years I've been on the road. I'm probably overly prepared, but oh well.

We're fulltimers as well, 99.9% of the time off grid. Boondocking as they say. 30ft TT. Redundancy is key. 980w of panels on the roof divided into two separate 30amp charge controllers feeding the batteries. Honda eu2000 for back up and any off site power needs. How long have you been fulltiming? About five years for us.

 

[Cactus Bob]

Asked to remove post , post removed under protest

 

[tonyj54]

One of the MAIN reasons that I bought my truck to begin with was precisely because I wanted a truck for our family that will get us through the coming collapse, whatever form it may take.

 

[Jimbanjer]

I love this thread!!!

 

[saburai]

Content removed at the req of Bob
Thanks for sharing your good stuff!

 

[Cactus Bob]

Thanks for sharing your good stuff!
Any idea of the ouput of the EMP generation that was used for the tests? I'm assuming that it wasn't a Carrington event level of EMP...

This i cannot answer. nor do i know much about EMP's. or types of them. all i know this was the type of testing equipment used in aircraft development for 1997.

My fields are HVAC&R repair currently, Auto repair 1979-1996 and Electronics in the 1970's..
so i know a little but not all that much. so don't expect much.

 

[saburai]

This i cannot answer. nor do i know much about EMP's. or types of them. all i know this was the type of testing equipment used in aircraft development for 1997.

My fields are HVAC&R repair currently, Auto repair 1979-1996 and Electronics in the 1970's..
so i know a little but not all that much. so don't expect much.

Thanks for your candor and honesty. I'd like to "EMP proof" / prep my "94 F250 idit 4x4 e4od equipped truck. I'd love a ZF5, but for now, I'm dealing with a left hip that may or may not be very functional in the future. I'd like to build a small Faraday cage or enclosure to hold a small solar charging system, a few AA powered led flashlights, 2-3 ham WT's, a couple of Dakota Alert units, a pair of tablets preloaded with information, a bunch of Enloop AA batteries and a charger. The problem is finding reliable, documented information...

 

[Selahdoor]

I think one point I was trying to make, was mostly missed.

Regardless of what kind of effect an EMP might have on our truck... It is going to affect a lot of things. When it does, there is going to be mass panic. And there is going to be an awful lot of people who will be killing, stealing and destroying. Some for survival. Some just because they want to.

Even if we only deal with the lesser of these, those who are trying to survive... They are likely in that position because they are clueless. Meaning not only were they clueless about preparing, they were clueless about anything except how to drive past the coffee kiosk on the way to and from work.

Give them so much as a flat tire, and they are lost.Give them an EMP event, and they are killer desperate.

Many of those people do at least understand some bits of information. It takes fuel in their vehicles, (the ones that have survived.), to make them run. They also need batteries. Especially if their vehicle can be made to run, but the alternator is shot.

Plus batteries can be used for lights and other things.

They will be stealing at least what they understand they are going to need. Fuel and batteries. (Water and food, of course, but this is not about the other points of survival.)


Once they have swept through, what will be left? The vehicles sitting around will have been siphoned of fuel right away. Possibly all batteries are gone, if they are not completely dead.

What I was saying was that in that situation, if you have a way to manually control the fuel shutoff, and if you have a manual transmission and a hill, or someone to push... You can get one of our trucks started and running. (Once running, yes, it could charge up a dead battery, if our alternator wasn't affected.)

And not only that, but all those rats that stole everything, almost certainly did not drain the engine oil and transmission fluid from all those vehicles. And we can use that as fuel.

I like where the thread has gone. But I personally wasn't trying to make it all-encompassing. I was just saying that it is kind of neat that we could get some transportation going, if we really needed to. Even after the rats have swept through and taken everything they consider valuable. Even if we didn't even have a battery...

 

[saburai]

I didn't miss the point Selah. That's a given...

 

[Selahdoor]

I didn't miss the point Selah. That's a given...

 

[genscripter]

You know, as I have been working on my "new" truck, and learning so much about these beautiful diesels...

It occurred to me one day that these old diesels, non powerstroke, without turbo... Would make ideal candidates for having running vehicles even if there were no batteries, or electronics.

A manual transmission would give you the capability of starting without a starter/battery.

You could use an old fashioned choke cable... Run that out to the IP. Drill a very small hole in the top of the IP. Remove the fuel solenoid. Run the choke cable in, and make it operate the fuel shutoff manually.

Worse case scenario, as well... Everyone else has already siphoned all the fuel from all the rest of those other vehicles sitting around... You can go around and drain the oil and trans fluid and use those as fuel...



Do something to warm the oil up. (Build a fire under the engine? I laugh, but it's been done...)

Pull the choke lever/button to open the fuel shutoff.

Put 'er in gear, and let it roll downhill.


I know it's probably not as simple as that, but it's an idea.

Anyone else have ideas on how to make these a very simple apocalypse-proof vehicle?

That's all well and good for about 250 miles. Then you are out of diesel fuel and just have a 3-ton paper weight. I've been running on my stockpile of filtered WVO for a decade now.

 

[Selahdoor]

That's all well and good for about 250 miles. Then you are out of diesel fuel and just have a 3-ton paper weight. I've been running on my stockpile of filtered WVO for a decade now.

You don't know how to drain the engine and transmission of all those abandoned vehicles on the road???

 

[Cactus Bob]

That's all well and good for about 250 miles. Then you are out of diesel fuel and just have a 3-ton paper weight. I've been running on my stockpile of filtered WVO for a decade now.

you have not had problems with old WVO? I sure have. I was doing the WVO thing from 1998 to 2015 . I would age the WVO for a year then filter and then store. I found the oldest filtered oil would loose power when used. the older the oil the less power i got from it . oil 1-1.5 years(after filtering) old had no loss then it went down hill and at the 3 year mark it had a noticeable lack of power.
this is how i figured this out. We have a long hill on the 202 freeway. using my 84 Volvo (55HP engine) i can tell how much power i have by raising and holding speed of 70 at the bottom and flooring it at the start of the hill, the speed at the top is how well the fuel is doing.
With pump diesel at the top i was going 57MPH (still in 5th gear)
with newer WVO at the top is was going 50MPH (still in 5th gear)
with 3 year old WVO at the top i was going 35 MPH and had shifted all the way down to 2nd and winding out the engine to maintain that speed.

you have had no problems with your 10 year old WVO ?


Below is a link or a copy and paste of my filtering system........what do you think better or worse than what you are using? always looking for input, always looking to improve.

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[Cubey]

We're fulltimers as well, 99.9% of the time off grid. Boondocking as they say. 30ft TT. Redundancy is key. 980w of panels on the roof divided into two separate 30amp charge controllers feeding the batteries. Honda eu2000 for back up and any off site power needs. How long have you been fulltiming? About five years for us.

2.5 years so far. I have a single 100W solar panel which is generally all I need for my tiny 12v compressor fridge, cell phone, water pump, LED lights, etc. Another 1 or 2 would be nice but hardly needed. I run one of the generators on extremely cloudy/rainy days if the batteries start getting close to 50%.