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Which is why you need an old mechanical diesel and a steel beam welded in instead of the bumper. Will run on vegetable oil and has never heard of 'pedestrian safety systems'
Yes! They will struggle to start in cold weather, because vegetable oil is more viscous when cold, but fuel heaters are common and can be DIY'ed reasonably easily if needed. The oil has to be filtered so it doesn't jam up the injectors and pump. Adding a bit of engine oil to the fuel makes the injectors and pump last longer, but they can be run on straight veg oil for a long time. Bosch mechanical pumps are among the best ones for this.
Veg oil is often referred to as SVO (straight vegetable oil) to distinguish it from recycled oil (like the fuel made from used deepfrying oil.)
Newer diesel engines with "common rail injection" technology will not run well on anything that is not plain diesel.
Diesel doesn't work with carburetors due to being that much more viscous. Injector systems have been used for self ignition fuels since it was discovered.
Old mechanical diesels like a 12 valve Cummins will run on stale gas mixed with oil, basically straight oil, hydraulic oil, diesel. basically any oil based product without any grit floating in it.
I disagree, I got a 2022 car in the same make and model as my previous 2012 and it is worlds of difference more comfortable and easy to drive. Maybe not as viable in a zombie apocalypse but I’ll take my chances
Nope! Old engines will run on veg oil about as well as on diesel, even a bit better as it burns cleaner.
New engines with electronic injections will hate it, though. Those will probably die quickly, yes.
Depends on what exact model your engine is, some, yes, others, no.
Also how are you going to get your hands on a lot of vegetable oil? That stuff too has shelflife and it's a lot of work to make new oil just because you want to drive a diesel car instead of an EV with solarpannels on your roof.
It will take some work to grow the plants, extract the oil and filter it, but it is achievable, probably not immediately, but in the "near future" in case of an apocalypse, compared to petroluem extraction. Existing stockpiles of diesel can be used in the meantime.
A lot of heavy equipment runs on old-style mechanical diesel engines, which can be eassily modified to run veg oil well.
There are no (commonly avaialble) heavy machinery that runs on battery power yet, so diesel or some replacement is necessary to take advantage of these.
I'd still not be intentionally running over zombies. Any impact is damage to the car, even slight, and that shit is gonna add up. Plus bits of zombie getting wrapped around the axels, plus zombie blood everywhere (depending on which transmission vector your universe uses).
This entire thread is based on the illogical premise that hitting zombies with your only transportation and protection is a *good* idea.
True. I suppose the idea of being able to ram through the undead to escape or get somewhere else would be more plausible than just "attacking" the zombies.
The whole thing's fantasy, anyway, as you said.
setting aside the fact that it's pure fantasy:
The roads during a zombie apocalypse would be barely navigable (parked/wrecked cars), and even if you somewhat cleared them the paths you'd be able to take would be very narrow.
If you're driving down the road and a zombie is standing in the only route you can drive, your options are to hit it or to get out of the car and kill it.
Getting out of the car may not be a viable option (if you're being followed), and it opens up the possibility of an unseen zombie grabbing you. A vehicle that can just hit the zombie and keep on truckin would be invaluable... though really, an electric dirt bike is the world's best zombie apocalypse vehicle. Silent, fits in much narrower paths without needing to stop and clear the way, offroads easily, not too difficult to recharge with solar panels.
As far as land vehicles go, a snowplow is probably the best civilian vehicle for running over zombies. However, you would need to use other heavy equipment to clear the road of wrecked vehicles to maintain drivability. And if you are doing that much maintenance on the roads you may as well invest in zombie traps to lure them away and to their death.
Depending on the exact nature of the apocalypse i would definitely be trying to get onto an island in a big river, and then use canoes for my primary mode of transportation. (Primary assumptions being zombies can't swim or walk across the bottom, only humans can be zombified, and to turn you must be bitten, slow walkers, z-virus killed by boiling/distilling.) Ultimately canoes are very efficient and decently quick for an unfueled water vehicle.
I suppose a secondary assumption is that survivors in certain areas would generally be willing to work together to build a community and maintain infrastructure like farms and roadways. A DayZ shoot on sight mindset would make the apocalypse worse for everyone, and require stealth from humans as well as zombies.
Not to mention given the scarcity of any fuel whatsoever once supplies run dry the true peak vehicle for any sort of post-apocalypse is a bicycle
Doesn't need fuel, easy to maintain and repair, if it breaks you can carry it to somewhere safe, and it's silent so you don't attract unnecessary attention
And if you are in a position to instead be a water based survivor, then the canoe is the bicycle of the water.
The main advantages of this are the added safety of being on the water so you can't be ambushed, and canoes having a lot more cargo capacity than the typical bike.
Depending on the exact rules of the apocalypse it might be best to live on an island somewhat close to shore, but far enough out that zombies won't be trying to reach you. And then make planned trips to the mainland via canoe as necessary. And if people aren't crazy you could probably get a decent society going in this relative safe spot using canoes as the primary means of transportation.
petrol with carburetor or ng will serve too. first one can go on full ethanol with small modification, and the ng probably easier to make than diesel. Compression can be solved in some degree.
Everything will do in this case. even those that prevent from hitting bodies can be used for something. ev are good mobile powerbank.
True. Diesel's main advantage is that it can be stored effectively forever if it's kept in a sealed container, compared to gasoline.
Edit: for oher people, ng is natural gas, which is mostly methane, which can easily be produced agriculturally
Though if they had the know how and materials they might instead convert that vegetable oil into biodiesel.
Though I’m amazed that diesel engines are so flexible with fuels.
Biodiesel is required by modern engines, older diesels will be perfectly happy with plain veg oil.
The diesel engine (named after a guy called Rudolf Diesel, he invented it) was originally designed for agricultural use, where farmers could make vegetable oil (or palm oil, or peanut oil) to run their own engines, instead of having to buy fuel.
Heh. Referring to one of the 'of the Dead' movies. They ended up on a airport shuttle style bus, covered with corrugated iron and metal mesh, and had left slots at the windows for the people in the back to hack at zombies with chainsaws.
modern cars would be more useful as shelters. Contrary to popular belief car windows are hard as fuck to break plus if you read a few mechanic books you could jerry rig the airbags from the car to work like a make shift distraction device so if zombies got too close you could use detonate the airbag like 40 feet away and the noise would draw the zombies away from you.
That is if you know how. I doubt most people know how to do that. I don’t think many people know how to highjack cars. But then again you would need the key to get into the car in the first place so it rules itself out anyway. So we’re back to them being useless
pop the hood and disconnect the battery id hope more people would know that
Edit: Depending on where you are it might actually be fairly easy to find the keys. say suburban you might be lucky to find keys in a house, dealerships have keys in them, if the person died in their car you can expect to find the keys on or around the body. on the interstate you might already have a car so thats no worry.
then again if youre in a suburban area getting into the attic is the best, if you are in a city the rafters in a commercial building is fairly safe if you get on top of a sturdy air duct or somewhere out of the reach of a person.
also mom and pop shops or thrift stores
, also cars inside car dealerships. plus not many people would consider that dealerships have probably a months supply of snacks and water bottles
same with airports if you cna figure out how to get into 747 youd have a decent multi levels of security in the terminals that would be easy to block off.
When all of the ev panels in my town are "shared" by only maybe a couple of hundred survivors, there might still be a lot of electricity available per capita.
Though, road trips will be harder :)
If they are designed for standalone operation.
Most inverters (regardless of whether they have a battery or not) require stable frequency on the AC side, they lock to it with a PLL and they just inject power. For technological, regulatory, and safety reasons.
Edit: see the reply, there are solutions where a battery + UPS guarantees power during outages *on the house circuit*. They are not "grid-forming" in the sense that they cannot feed back to the grid or support your neighborhood unless the grid is up.
That’s interesting! So I assume you have a breaker that isolates you from the grid in case of outage?
Does it power the entire house or just a continuity plug like an UPS?
Was it approved by firefighters and home insurance?
Does it reconnect to the grid when the outage is over? That would be very advanced.
Sorry for the many questions, I was working on the technological aspects of these devices and just a few years ago we found a lot of resistance (pun intended)
Not the person you asked but I also have a system that is isolated from the grid in the same way. I was given two options.
First solar panels that connected to the grid and sold power to the utility company but shuts down if the grid/power fails. I didn’t like that because for me the primary motivation was to have emergency power.
The second option was to have an isolated system that could not sell power to the grid, but would work when the grid was down. The second option to be fully functional also “needed a battery” to store my excess power instead of it being wasted.
There are several boxes installed on the outside of my home near the breaker. The panels run to what I believe is an inverter first, then into an emergency shut off, then into a secondary meter. Similarly the battery runs to a “backup gateway” to an emergency shut off and then into the same meter as the panels. The meter runs back into the “backup gateway, presumably through the breakers in it. The backup gateway has two larger conduits running to the primary panel and the other a box labeled “batter essential loads”.
Yes it automatically detects if the grid goes down and switches to battery panel only. The primary drawback is that the system isn’t large enough to run all circuits, although that was a monetary limitation rather than a technological one. My system will not power my hot water heater stove dryer or AC unit. Hence the “battery essential loads” panel.
The utility had to approve the plans. The insurance company didn’t care. I didn’t ask any firefighters but presumably thats what all the emergency shut offs are for.
Thanks a lot for all the info!
From what I understand you basically have an UPS (the battery, it connects you your home circuit, it keep the voltage up if there is an outage, in milliseconds). This is "standard" and it gives you continuity. In theory it has nothing to do with the panels, you could get one without panels at all.
Then you have panels with their separate inverted, and they lock to the voltage that they detect, regardless of whether it comes from the grid or is produced by the UPS. It needs to be a good inverter that can ride through the chaos that happens when the grid fails and the UPS has to take over, but I assume they can do that.
You are probably right regarding the firefighters thing. The main concern back then is that when they cut off a house or a neighborhood they like to be sure that nothing is "hot". Both for emergency interventions but also when grid repair crew have to fix something: usually they just open a breaker and they don't want the same wire to be still hot because a house UPS has started. It may well be that your breaker between the house and the grid opens to prevent that.
That's where electrical engineers come into play. It's definitely doable to isolate and divide bigger grids into smaller ones. Keeping an entire city up would be too much of a hassle, but smaller villages or single building complexes are mostly one or two cuts and a roll of isolation tape away from becoming their own self-sufficient islands with enough expansion capacity for additional solar panels and electric vehicle batteries for storage.
Then always have a plow on? Would take more fuel to always carry it around so would be best to just clear out the most used routes and ditch the plow. The plow would be good for zombies though
It would be more efficient and safer to use helicopters and boats. Roads will not be maintained so driving on them, even if cleared, would not be safe.
Solar panels for EVs. Gasoline cars can run on Ethanol (moonshine, can distill it yourself with simple equipment). Diesel cars can run on vegetable oil or old used motor oil.
You can also make diesel from old tires
Actually, you can make most if not all petroleum products from old tires. The process is called pyrolisis, and you can get usable petrol out of them too, some russian guys did it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0hPBCmYmNE
Oh yes, done "properly" it is a nightmare of cost and complexity. However, with some basic knowledge of the process, one could easily fabricate something like that shown in the video linked, and with more advacned knowledge, a more capable version of the setup.
Not caring about emission regulations does make it easier.
>Not caring about emission regulations does make it easier.
That's the big thing. ICE vehicles are more robust than people think when they aren't trying to be environmentally acceptable. If you have access to an older vehicle that doesn't have nosy electronic fuel control (carbureted is the easiest way to make sure of that), then you can run on a wider range of dirtier fuels.
It won't be as efficient at making power, and it'll likely cause extra maintenance issues, but those are still better problems to have than not having a functioning vehicle.
Yep. I'm lucky enough to have the last pre-emmsions diesel engine in my project car - a fully mechanical 2.1 turbodiesel - it will never suffer from a clogged egr or am ash filled dpf, and will burn a lot of fuels if needed. It's a 1992 Citroen XM.
You could edit the ECU on modern cars to remove a bunch of the emissions stuff, but a) you need a specialist and b) it'll probably still run bad on "different" fuel.
Bicycles are probably the best vehicle for a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Can be fixed with hand tools, small enough to fit in areas that cars would be blocked from going through and no need for fuel.
Depends on where you are. If you are nearby a solar or wind farm then you are set for energy for the next several years if you don’t maintain them. Solar panels without dust cover can theoretically run for centuries.
Also it’s really not all that hard to create to biodiesel. You have about a year before fuel becomes a significant commodity and most of it starts to go bad. However anyone who was a prepped and waiting for this to happen, you can keep Gasoline stable for up to three years instead of the original 1. On top of this there are many older cars that you can literally dump high percentage alcohol into. If you were lucky enough to be near a solar farm there is no reason you can’t rip up a charging port for an electric car and suddenly you don’t have to worry about vehicles. As much as people like to put shit on electricity as long as you can figure out how to charge it you are sweet. Most people think the power grid would completely shut down in a matter of hours if people stopped working, in reality it’s only the coal and oil plants that would go down within the first few hours.
After hitting a few of these zombies, the radiator in your ICE car will be broken and your engine will overheat.
Why not just drive around them and get away?
Haven't a gazillion zombie movies taught you yet that it's pointless to try and kill them?
You just have to go somewhere remote and safe, like a previously uninhabited island..
And you don't need a car once there!
You know those bars that police cars have on the front? The ones designed to ram other cars out of the way without damaging the police car? Those still exist when zombies happen, and last I checked zombies were softer than cars.
Ironically, those can cause more damage in a collision since it's mounted to the frame only. You're completely skipping over the crumplezone. And idk about newer cars, but some older cars have the airbag sensor/trigger in the front, and could stop an airbag from properly going off at the correct time. Also if it's just a few zombies it's probly easier to just drive around them, and if it's a lot of zombies go the other way or you'll probly just get bogged down on a pile of bodies regardless
When it’s time to run over zombies, remember to use demolition derby tactics and do it mostly in reverse. Hitting them head on may disable your vehicle.
Just make sure you do it in an open area. Rip my survivor who hit a light pole stoping the car, and I couldn’t get out of the horde before they overpowered the car.
Even some older cars.
Some cars have impact switches on the fuel pump. If the car is running and hits something hard enough, the fuel pump will stop and the switch has to be reset before the car will start again. It's so a car's fuel pump isn't spraying fuel all over an accident and causing a fire, but it also has kept someone from running away after hitting my car.
That shower thought reminds me of that Borat scene:
> Car Dealership owner: Well that would be a Corvette. Or a Hummer.
>
> Car Dealership owner: Women love the Hummers.
>
> Borat: If this car drive into a group of gypsies, will there be any damage to the car?
>
> Car Dealership owner: It depends on how hard you hit them and all that.
>
> Borat: *Hard*
>
> Car Dealership owner: You might-if somebody rolls on the windshield, they could crack your windshield.
>
> Borat: How fast do I need to go to guarantee I kill them?
>
> Car Dealership owner: Uh-let me tell you something with this vehicle here probably doing 35-45 miles per hour will do it.
>
> Borat: Great!
Running over zombies, even at low speeds, would do some pretty significant damage to your car. And cars are valuable in a zombie apocalypse.
I'd still want a car without an autostop feature, but don't run over zombies unless you absolutely have to.
most are useless anyway. Once you run over more than a couple its easy to get hung up. If you could push em out of the way like with a snow plow itd be fine but they get under your tires and youre screwed.
Zombies would just be piles of body parts
Gravity doesn’t magically stop working
No blood flow=no working muscles
No working muscles=no ability to counteract the force of gravity
The undead could not move. They could not make noises without working lungs. And them damn sure couldn’t bite people or chase them
So our cars would be just fine
There are enough other variants of "zombiism" by now - the most "realistic" are more like rabies. No eating brains, just high aggression levels and blocking of any socializing behavior etc.
Codyceps fungus for humans
You’re just talking classic resurrected from a grave zombies. Newer variants include mostly functioning bodies infected by a virus or fungi. Those still have circulation, muscles etc.
Yeah but they are safer. So you can just listen to the radio for a few days while he bugs eat all the tendons, making them immobile so the bugs can finish the zombies.
Whole thing blows over after a few weeks and you have a “i survived the apocalypse” number sticker.
I don't think collision avoidance systems on most cars even detect people, let alone stop for them. Even if they do, the features can be disabled manually or just by covering/breaking the sensors
I specifically asked when buying a Leaf if it would stop if I was about to hit someone, and was told yes. I then asked if I could turn that feature off… best look I’ve ever seen from a sales person :)
My car's ancient machine spirit is rebellious.
The lane sensing thing occasionally turns itself on without being told to, jerking me around on the crappy roads here, and the backup camera works everywhere except my driveway.
The idea of a zombie apocalypse doesn't worry me, but malfunctioning modern cars do.
Would that still apply if there was an advanced motor vehicle that was solar powered? It would remove the need to stop for gas that could leave you vulnerable to attacks. It’s also the sun and it’s always available within a given time period for free.
Nah. My car is 2018. Besides 4WD and cruise control I purposely made sure not to get any bells and whistles. I wanted something with minimal electronics and something easy to work on and that would live forever if I took care of it. All I need is some off road gear and a cattle guard and it’ll be fine.
Oh man do I now want a zombie movie that just focuses on how modern tech would kill us in a zombie apocalypse. Alexa alerting zombies. Automatic door letting zombies in.
We have kangaroos and wallabies where I live. It doesn't take a big one or much speed to wreck your radiator..... With this in mind not hitting zombies is in your best interest.
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Which is why you need an old mechanical diesel and a steel beam welded in instead of the bumper. Will run on vegetable oil and has never heard of 'pedestrian safety systems'
Can they really run on vegetable oil?
Yes! They will struggle to start in cold weather, because vegetable oil is more viscous when cold, but fuel heaters are common and can be DIY'ed reasonably easily if needed. The oil has to be filtered so it doesn't jam up the injectors and pump. Adding a bit of engine oil to the fuel makes the injectors and pump last longer, but they can be run on straight veg oil for a long time. Bosch mechanical pumps are among the best ones for this. Veg oil is often referred to as SVO (straight vegetable oil) to distinguish it from recycled oil (like the fuel made from used deepfrying oil.) Newer diesel engines with "common rail injection" technology will not run well on anything that is not plain diesel.
Add stale gasoline or paint thinner or turpentine or alcohol or whatever tf to thin it out some more
Kerosene is a viable addition to veggie- oil. Older diesels would be worth their weight in gold.
OF COURSE new diesels don't run well on veg oil. They aren't taking any chances.
ECU restraints. They know.
If you use one with a carb, it will work even better.
Diesel doesn't work with carburetors due to being that much more viscous. Injector systems have been used for self ignition fuels since it was discovered.
Yeah, my statement is incorrect.
So that's what they mean by carb loading...
You can run on fry oil as long as it's filtered and you don't mind the smell
French fries! Who's hungry? Oh, right. The famine. Sorry.
The Fairlane is hungry too
Old mechanical diesels like a 12 valve Cummins will run on stale gas mixed with oil, basically straight oil, hydraulic oil, diesel. basically any oil based product without any grit floating in it.
Oh definitely, I wish we had more of the American old diesel engines in Europe
You can run engines on a surprising amount of things. Projectfarm on youtube did a video where he ran his lawnmower on bacon grease.
Gasification engines are neat
I run normally on about 5% bacon grease, but I only run to the bathroom on 15%+ bacon grease.
Current (civilian) technology is going backwards, not forwards. People are paying more and more for less and less actual progress.
The wonders of marketing.
I disagree, I got a 2022 car in the same make and model as my previous 2012 and it is worlds of difference more comfortable and easy to drive. Maybe not as viable in a zombie apocalypse but I’ll take my chances
Yes but your engine is not going to like it and will most likely stall rather soon.
Nope! Old engines will run on veg oil about as well as on diesel, even a bit better as it burns cleaner. New engines with electronic injections will hate it, though. Those will probably die quickly, yes.
Depends on what exact model your engine is, some, yes, others, no. Also how are you going to get your hands on a lot of vegetable oil? That stuff too has shelflife and it's a lot of work to make new oil just because you want to drive a diesel car instead of an EV with solarpannels on your roof.
It will take some work to grow the plants, extract the oil and filter it, but it is achievable, probably not immediately, but in the "near future" in case of an apocalypse, compared to petroluem extraction. Existing stockpiles of diesel can be used in the meantime. A lot of heavy equipment runs on old-style mechanical diesel engines, which can be eassily modified to run veg oil well. There are no (commonly avaialble) heavy machinery that runs on battery power yet, so diesel or some replacement is necessary to take advantage of these.
An EV with solar panels on its roof isn’t going to get you anywhere fast lol
Diesels will run on bacon fat, demon diarrhea, and filtered tar if you let them.
I'd still not be intentionally running over zombies. Any impact is damage to the car, even slight, and that shit is gonna add up. Plus bits of zombie getting wrapped around the axels, plus zombie blood everywhere (depending on which transmission vector your universe uses). This entire thread is based on the illogical premise that hitting zombies with your only transportation and protection is a *good* idea.
True. I suppose the idea of being able to ram through the undead to escape or get somewhere else would be more plausible than just "attacking" the zombies. The whole thing's fantasy, anyway, as you said.
setting aside the fact that it's pure fantasy: The roads during a zombie apocalypse would be barely navigable (parked/wrecked cars), and even if you somewhat cleared them the paths you'd be able to take would be very narrow. If you're driving down the road and a zombie is standing in the only route you can drive, your options are to hit it or to get out of the car and kill it. Getting out of the car may not be a viable option (if you're being followed), and it opens up the possibility of an unseen zombie grabbing you. A vehicle that can just hit the zombie and keep on truckin would be invaluable... though really, an electric dirt bike is the world's best zombie apocalypse vehicle. Silent, fits in much narrower paths without needing to stop and clear the way, offroads easily, not too difficult to recharge with solar panels.
As far as land vehicles go, a snowplow is probably the best civilian vehicle for running over zombies. However, you would need to use other heavy equipment to clear the road of wrecked vehicles to maintain drivability. And if you are doing that much maintenance on the roads you may as well invest in zombie traps to lure them away and to their death. Depending on the exact nature of the apocalypse i would definitely be trying to get onto an island in a big river, and then use canoes for my primary mode of transportation. (Primary assumptions being zombies can't swim or walk across the bottom, only humans can be zombified, and to turn you must be bitten, slow walkers, z-virus killed by boiling/distilling.) Ultimately canoes are very efficient and decently quick for an unfueled water vehicle. I suppose a secondary assumption is that survivors in certain areas would generally be willing to work together to build a community and maintain infrastructure like farms and roadways. A DayZ shoot on sight mindset would make the apocalypse worse for everyone, and require stealth from humans as well as zombies.
Did you just summarize the reasoning behind Day's Gone?
Not to mention given the scarcity of any fuel whatsoever once supplies run dry the true peak vehicle for any sort of post-apocalypse is a bicycle Doesn't need fuel, easy to maintain and repair, if it breaks you can carry it to somewhere safe, and it's silent so you don't attract unnecessary attention
And if you are in a position to instead be a water based survivor, then the canoe is the bicycle of the water. The main advantages of this are the added safety of being on the water so you can't be ambushed, and canoes having a lot more cargo capacity than the typical bike. Depending on the exact rules of the apocalypse it might be best to live on an island somewhat close to shore, but far enough out that zombies won't be trying to reach you. And then make planned trips to the mainland via canoe as necessary. And if people aren't crazy you could probably get a decent society going in this relative safe spot using canoes as the primary means of transportation.
Anyone ever had an accident with a 50lb. deer? It messes your car/truck up! A 300lb. zombie would total most vehicles.
That's why you get a monster truck instead!
Project zomboid players know this
petrol with carburetor or ng will serve too. first one can go on full ethanol with small modification, and the ng probably easier to make than diesel. Compression can be solved in some degree. Everything will do in this case. even those that prevent from hitting bodies can be used for something. ev are good mobile powerbank.
True. Diesel's main advantage is that it can be stored effectively forever if it's kept in a sealed container, compared to gasoline. Edit: for oher people, ng is natural gas, which is mostly methane, which can easily be produced agriculturally
Propane also lasts forever with no shelf life.
Only problem is if the cannisters rust and leak out, but if they're sitting somewhere dry they'll be fine for decades, maybe even centuries.
Can I ride with you in the apocalypse?
Sure! Bring snacks
Sweet. I have my uses too, like, I can mimic a giraffe's mating call for one thing.
Perfect for hunting in the Savannah!
They are snacks. C'mon, we are really hungry!
Though if they had the know how and materials they might instead convert that vegetable oil into biodiesel. Though I’m amazed that diesel engines are so flexible with fuels.
Biodiesel is required by modern engines, older diesels will be perfectly happy with plain veg oil. The diesel engine (named after a guy called Rudolf Diesel, he invented it) was originally designed for agricultural use, where farmers could make vegetable oil (or palm oil, or peanut oil) to run their own engines, instead of having to buy fuel.
Oh that’s an interesting bit of history. Thanks.
Or get a V-plow and cast away any walking cadavers.
What a fitting username lmao. A good plow would work well too, yeah!
I also feel like farm equipment is overlooked in zombie apocalypse movies. A repurposed combine would rip and tear.
I think a snow plow like we have here in Canada would be ideal. Its designed to drive through heavy ass snow and just fling it to the side.
And chainsaws sticking out the sides.
Scythes more like lmao
Heh. Referring to one of the 'of the Dead' movies. They ended up on a airport shuttle style bus, covered with corrugated iron and metal mesh, and had left slots at the windows for the people in the back to hack at zombies with chainsaws.
*Steel beam with barbwire and sticking out a cars width on both sides.
modern cars would be more useful as shelters. Contrary to popular belief car windows are hard as fuck to break plus if you read a few mechanic books you could jerry rig the airbags from the car to work like a make shift distraction device so if zombies got too close you could use detonate the airbag like 40 feet away and the noise would draw the zombies away from you.
Bad thing about this idea is the car alarm once they surround you while you sleep. It’s a deathtrap.
You can absolutely disable the alarm
That is if you know how. I doubt most people know how to do that. I don’t think many people know how to highjack cars. But then again you would need the key to get into the car in the first place so it rules itself out anyway. So we’re back to them being useless
pop the hood and disconnect the battery id hope more people would know that Edit: Depending on where you are it might actually be fairly easy to find the keys. say suburban you might be lucky to find keys in a house, dealerships have keys in them, if the person died in their car you can expect to find the keys on or around the body. on the interstate you might already have a car so thats no worry. then again if youre in a suburban area getting into the attic is the best, if you are in a city the rafters in a commercial building is fairly safe if you get on top of a sturdy air duct or somewhere out of the reach of a person. also mom and pop shops or thrift stores , also cars inside car dealerships. plus not many people would consider that dealerships have probably a months supply of snacks and water bottles same with airports if you cna figure out how to get into 747 youd have a decent multi levels of security in the terminals that would be easy to block off.
Solid observation on the dealership food/water supply. But if you are at the airport at any point you are probably just going to die.
And the sound/temperature insulation in them (compared to older cars) means they can hold heat inside quite well, good for colder areas.
In other areas I'm just cooking the meat for the zombies
Electricity will be scarce and Gas will go bad. Cars are useless anyways.
When all of the ev panels in my town are "shared" by only maybe a couple of hundred survivors, there might still be a lot of electricity available per capita. Though, road trips will be harder :)
Wont those also shut down automatically if the electricity network stops working?
No way those panels are “grid forming”. They are useless if not connected to a functioning grid.
Pretty much any system with a battery will be fine.
If they are designed for standalone operation. Most inverters (regardless of whether they have a battery or not) require stable frequency on the AC side, they lock to it with a PLL and they just inject power. For technological, regulatory, and safety reasons. Edit: see the reply, there are solutions where a battery + UPS guarantees power during outages *on the house circuit*. They are not "grid-forming" in the sense that they cannot feed back to the grid or support your neighborhood unless the grid is up.
For mine it was a \~200€ addition to make it work grid independent, turning on automatically in case of a power outage
That’s interesting! So I assume you have a breaker that isolates you from the grid in case of outage? Does it power the entire house or just a continuity plug like an UPS? Was it approved by firefighters and home insurance? Does it reconnect to the grid when the outage is over? That would be very advanced. Sorry for the many questions, I was working on the technological aspects of these devices and just a few years ago we found a lot of resistance (pun intended)
Not the person you asked but I also have a system that is isolated from the grid in the same way. I was given two options. First solar panels that connected to the grid and sold power to the utility company but shuts down if the grid/power fails. I didn’t like that because for me the primary motivation was to have emergency power. The second option was to have an isolated system that could not sell power to the grid, but would work when the grid was down. The second option to be fully functional also “needed a battery” to store my excess power instead of it being wasted. There are several boxes installed on the outside of my home near the breaker. The panels run to what I believe is an inverter first, then into an emergency shut off, then into a secondary meter. Similarly the battery runs to a “backup gateway” to an emergency shut off and then into the same meter as the panels. The meter runs back into the “backup gateway, presumably through the breakers in it. The backup gateway has two larger conduits running to the primary panel and the other a box labeled “batter essential loads”. Yes it automatically detects if the grid goes down and switches to battery panel only. The primary drawback is that the system isn’t large enough to run all circuits, although that was a monetary limitation rather than a technological one. My system will not power my hot water heater stove dryer or AC unit. Hence the “battery essential loads” panel. The utility had to approve the plans. The insurance company didn’t care. I didn’t ask any firefighters but presumably thats what all the emergency shut offs are for.
Thanks a lot for all the info! From what I understand you basically have an UPS (the battery, it connects you your home circuit, it keep the voltage up if there is an outage, in milliseconds). This is "standard" and it gives you continuity. In theory it has nothing to do with the panels, you could get one without panels at all. Then you have panels with their separate inverted, and they lock to the voltage that they detect, regardless of whether it comes from the grid or is produced by the UPS. It needs to be a good inverter that can ride through the chaos that happens when the grid fails and the UPS has to take over, but I assume they can do that. You are probably right regarding the firefighters thing. The main concern back then is that when they cut off a house or a neighborhood they like to be sure that nothing is "hot". Both for emergency interventions but also when grid repair crew have to fix something: usually they just open a breaker and they don't want the same wire to be still hot because a house UPS has started. It may well be that your breaker between the house and the grid opens to prevent that.
Most systems with a battery have being able to function during a grid outage as a big feature, so I’d say they would be fine.
Most battery equipped systems will run in case of a power outage. That's one of the main reasons to have one.
That's where electrical engineers come into play. It's definitely doable to isolate and divide bigger grids into smaller ones. Keeping an entire city up would be too much of a hassle, but smaller villages or single building complexes are mostly one or two cuts and a roll of isolation tape away from becoming their own self-sufficient islands with enough expansion capacity for additional solar panels and electric vehicle batteries for storage.
And roads will hardly be usable anyway.
Agreed. It's gonna be filled with dead cars, so you probably won't get very far on the road
Just clear the way between major survivors' settlements with a truck with a plow
But isn't the problem already mostly solved if there are major settlements with lots of survivors?
Then always have a plow on? Would take more fuel to always carry it around so would be best to just clear out the most used routes and ditch the plow. The plow would be good for zombies though
It would be more efficient and safer to use helicopters and boats. Roads will not be maintained so driving on them, even if cleared, would not be safe.
Solar panels for EVs. Gasoline cars can run on Ethanol (moonshine, can distill it yourself with simple equipment). Diesel cars can run on vegetable oil or old used motor oil.
You can also make diesel from old tires Actually, you can make most if not all petroleum products from old tires. The process is called pyrolisis, and you can get usable petrol out of them too, some russian guys did it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0hPBCmYmNE
You can not imagine how costly and complicated and energy hungry is pyrolising tyres.
Oh yes, done "properly" it is a nightmare of cost and complexity. However, with some basic knowledge of the process, one could easily fabricate something like that shown in the video linked, and with more advacned knowledge, a more capable version of the setup. Not caring about emission regulations does make it easier.
>Not caring about emission regulations does make it easier. That's the big thing. ICE vehicles are more robust than people think when they aren't trying to be environmentally acceptable. If you have access to an older vehicle that doesn't have nosy electronic fuel control (carbureted is the easiest way to make sure of that), then you can run on a wider range of dirtier fuels. It won't be as efficient at making power, and it'll likely cause extra maintenance issues, but those are still better problems to have than not having a functioning vehicle.
Yep. I'm lucky enough to have the last pre-emmsions diesel engine in my project car - a fully mechanical 2.1 turbodiesel - it will never suffer from a clogged egr or am ash filled dpf, and will burn a lot of fuels if needed. It's a 1992 Citroen XM. You could edit the ECU on modern cars to remove a bunch of the emissions stuff, but a) you need a specialist and b) it'll probably still run bad on "different" fuel.
Unless your car is rated for E85 fuel, you won't be running it on pure ethanol for very long.
Bicycles are probably the best vehicle for a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Can be fixed with hand tools, small enough to fit in areas that cars would be blocked from going through and no need for fuel.
I can imagine the influential people potentially having motorcycles if there is oil nearby.
Don’t know, at least with electric cars you could recharge them with solar panels.
That would take *ages*. How many solar panels would you need to get a few dozen kilowatt so that you could charge at a reasonable speed?
How often are you driving to nothing in an apocalypse? Trips would be limited to necessities, not fun road trips.
But at least it would be something. and it would only take 4 to 8 400 watt panels.
Diesel doesn’t, not really
Solar power has entered the chat
Wood gas
Depends on where you are. If you are nearby a solar or wind farm then you are set for energy for the next several years if you don’t maintain them. Solar panels without dust cover can theoretically run for centuries. Also it’s really not all that hard to create to biodiesel. You have about a year before fuel becomes a significant commodity and most of it starts to go bad. However anyone who was a prepped and waiting for this to happen, you can keep Gasoline stable for up to three years instead of the original 1. On top of this there are many older cars that you can literally dump high percentage alcohol into. If you were lucky enough to be near a solar farm there is no reason you can’t rip up a charging port for an electric car and suddenly you don’t have to worry about vehicles. As much as people like to put shit on electricity as long as you can figure out how to charge it you are sweet. Most people think the power grid would completely shut down in a matter of hours if people stopped working, in reality it’s only the coal and oil plants that would go down within the first few hours.
After hitting a few of these zombies, the radiator in your ICE car will be broken and your engine will overheat. Why not just drive around them and get away? Haven't a gazillion zombie movies taught you yet that it's pointless to try and kill them? You just have to go somewhere remote and safe, like a previously uninhabited island.. And you don't need a car once there!
Australia has you covered. Look up Bullbars. Even has mesh to block the intestines from entering the grille.
You know those bars that police cars have on the front? The ones designed to ram other cars out of the way without damaging the police car? Those still exist when zombies happen, and last I checked zombies were softer than cars.
The question is, are police cars designed to allow intestines stuffed in their air intakes? - my submission to r/BrandNewSentence
And if not, why not?
Sounds like a question for r/AskLEO lmao
Ironically, those can cause more damage in a collision since it's mounted to the frame only. You're completely skipping over the crumplezone. And idk about newer cars, but some older cars have the airbag sensor/trigger in the front, and could stop an airbag from properly going off at the correct time. Also if it's just a few zombies it's probly easier to just drive around them, and if it's a lot of zombies go the other way or you'll probly just get bogged down on a pile of bodies regardless
I mean do you really need airbags when the roads are free of other drivers
May need them if a zombie turns into a meat crayon that slips you into something harder. But you're probly right lmao
Also you can just cover the radar/camera in modern cars. They don't work when covered with snow for example.
When it’s time to run over zombies, remember to use demolition derby tactics and do it mostly in reverse. Hitting them head on may disable your vehicle.
S+A/D is a genuine strategy in project zomboid lol
I thought the strategy was to find another survivor and start screaming and letting off shotgun rounds.
Just make sure you do it in an open area. Rip my survivor who hit a light pole stoping the car, and I couldn’t get out of the horde before they overpowered the car.
Most main roads and freeways would most likely be so congested with abandoned vehicles they’d be useless anyway.
This substantially affects my future plans.
Decided not to become a zombie because of it or resolved to become one?
Even some older cars. Some cars have impact switches on the fuel pump. If the car is running and hits something hard enough, the fuel pump will stop and the switch has to be reset before the car will start again. It's so a car's fuel pump isn't spraying fuel all over an accident and causing a fire, but it also has kept someone from running away after hitting my car.
I don’t know about your car but mine has a button to turn off collision assist.
not if you buy a Tesla...
Why?
maybe AEB that can be disabled by sticking tapes to the cameras?
No it's a joke on how their AEB is shit.
Came to say this….
Now this is a shower thought
Hitting multiple heavy objects, like a human body, would quickly break your car.
Gotta get a land yacht from the 70s with a pointy hood ornament instead!
Cars are notoriously bad at hitting people and still working
That shower thought reminds me of that Borat scene: > Car Dealership owner: Well that would be a Corvette. Or a Hummer. > > Car Dealership owner: Women love the Hummers. > > Borat: If this car drive into a group of gypsies, will there be any damage to the car? > > Car Dealership owner: It depends on how hard you hit them and all that. > > Borat: *Hard* > > Car Dealership owner: You might-if somebody rolls on the windshield, they could crack your windshield. > > Borat: How fast do I need to go to guarantee I kill them? > > Car Dealership owner: Uh-let me tell you something with this vehicle here probably doing 35-45 miles per hour will do it. > > Borat: Great!
Just wait till people look up the maximum shelf life for stabilized gasoline or diesel
Running over zombies, even at low speeds, would do some pretty significant damage to your car. And cars are valuable in a zombie apocalypse. I'd still want a car without an autostop feature, but don't run over zombies unless you absolutely have to.
*Killdozer entered the chat*
I mean you can just turn that off.
No you need a combine or a tractor with a silage blade on the front. Clear out all of Atlanta in The Walking Dead easy peasey
Most? It's exceedingly rare for a car to automatically stop for a person. I think only like 3-4 models do that.
most are useless anyway. Once you run over more than a couple its easy to get hung up. If you could push em out of the way like with a snow plow itd be fine but they get under your tires and youre screwed.
Wroooong. Just buy a subscription to activate zombie hitting feature duh
Crumble zones means the car would be smashed and undriveable after like one or two good hits. A big ass old truck is what you need.
The cybertruck was made to run over people with its faulty crumpling, tesla playing 4d chess
May be why Musk is trying to leave the planet. Cybertruck is plan B.
Crumple zones, not crumble zones.
I didn't realize that getting from point A to point B significantly faster than on foot was useless. Thanks for clarifying.
I mean not that many modern cars outside of teslas have that kind of stuff
Oof the cult is strong with this one
Dude basically all new cars after 2020 have auto braking and other feutures like that
Zombies would just be piles of body parts Gravity doesn’t magically stop working No blood flow=no working muscles No working muscles=no ability to counteract the force of gravity The undead could not move. They could not make noises without working lungs. And them damn sure couldn’t bite people or chase them So our cars would be just fine
There are enough other variants of "zombiism" by now - the most "realistic" are more like rabies. No eating brains, just high aggression levels and blocking of any socializing behavior etc. Codyceps fungus for humans
28 days later did it well imo
You’re just talking classic resurrected from a grave zombies. Newer variants include mostly functioning bodies infected by a virus or fungi. Those still have circulation, muscles etc.
Also...zombies are imaginary. So there's that as well.
Then what am I buying these neon green anti-zombie hatchets for?
[удалено]
They are just gonna be scrap for other car that is useful, extra here and there for people to modify their current car. Or extra engine and protection
Yeah but they are safer. So you can just listen to the radio for a few days while he bugs eat all the tendons, making them immobile so the bugs can finish the zombies. Whole thing blows over after a few weeks and you have a “i survived the apocalypse” number sticker.
I don't think collision avoidance systems on most cars even detect people, let alone stop for them. Even if they do, the features can be disabled manually or just by covering/breaking the sensors
I would just ride my flying unicorn then.
Seriously, have you ever seen one of these things work well? Plus you can turn off all these things like lane assist and all those poxy assists!
Which would make them bad as a weapon in a zombie apocalypse, but still viable transportation. Besides, you can always cover the sensors with tape
You can still drive away from them...
That’s why I’ve been requesting Zombie Mode to be at an option.
I specifically asked when buying a Leaf if it would stop if I was about to hit someone, and was told yes. I then asked if I could turn that feature off… best look I’ve ever seen from a sales person :)
One of the only legit shower thoughts I've came across on this board. Nice one.
Meanwhile, Teslas: IT'S MY TIME TO SHINE
The bambi killer on my truck would get me past a few of them i'm sure.
Isn't kidnapping just suprise adoption
usually it's a setting to turn off emergency braking
An excavator though.. hit the zombies in the head!
Cars run out of gas, bicycles don't.
My car's ancient machine spirit is rebellious. The lane sensing thing occasionally turns itself on without being told to, jerking me around on the crappy roads here, and the backup camera works everywhere except my driveway. The idea of a zombie apocalypse doesn't worry me, but malfunctioning modern cars do.
Just turn the sensors off or remove them. The car will still run, you’ll just get annoying dash lights or audio indicators, which you can also remove.
Not if they're operating in their normal, non-functional manner.
Not if you turn on the Tesla self driving mode.
They won't even turn wtf you talking about llloll
Would that still apply if there was an advanced motor vehicle that was solar powered? It would remove the need to stop for gas that could leave you vulnerable to attacks. It’s also the sun and it’s always available within a given time period for free.
You don't want to be running over zombies in a zombie apocalypse anyway. Your car won't last long contrary to popular belief.
Imagine getting whiplash in the apocalypse because your car stopped unexpectedly when you try to run someone over.
Anything gas powered would be quite useless after a year and a half.
looks like we’ll need a zombie apocalypse edition of cars with extra toughness. #
Nah. My car is 2018. Besides 4WD and cruise control I purposely made sure not to get any bells and whistles. I wanted something with minimal electronics and something easy to work on and that would live forever if I took care of it. All I need is some off road gear and a cattle guard and it’ll be fine.
Cybertrucks really were ahead of their time.
*My KZJ78 Landcruiser enters the chat*
In a zombie or any apocalypse I would off myself. It’s not worth trying lmao
That's not true. Automatic emergency breaking will not engage if the driver is depressing the accelerator pedal.
Oh man do I now want a zombie movie that just focuses on how modern tech would kill us in a zombie apocalypse. Alexa alerting zombies. Automatic door letting zombies in.
Every zombie apocalypse also.has to ignore that bikes exist.
People underestimate how much damage constantly hitting zombies would do to your car, even with spikes and armor. Might be for the best.
you can turn off that feature
We have kangaroos and wallabies where I live. It doesn't take a big one or much speed to wreck your radiator..... With this in mind not hitting zombies is in your best interest.
And that's why you should build a killdozer
It's what they portray in most zombie apocalypse movies and TV shows.